This documentary intertwines the story of Reynard the Fox, the symbol of political ruthlessness adapted by Goethe from a medieval fable, and the life of Adolf Hitler. As Reynard, through guile and demagogy, uses every psychological ruse and gimmick to persuade the other animals of his righteousness and his right to be their leader, so Hitler is shown from his beginnings as a cunning conspirator and tremendously effective orator playing on the bitterness and passions of the defeated German people. Paralleling the newsreel shots of Hilter's early rise to power are the surrealistic drawings Doré made for Dante's Inferno and Kaulbach's 19th-century illustrations for Goethe's Reynard the Fox . Hitler's accession to the German chancellorship under von Hindenburg, his maneuverings vis-à-vis Communism both as an enemy and an ally, and his almost unparalleled indulgence in savagery toward helpless victims are given an ironic counterpoint in the story of Reynard's dealings with the animal community. Hitler's destructive and self-destructive cataclysmic career is seen through World War II and the Götterdämmerung of his death in a Berlin bunker, and an estimate of his impact on modern civilization is symbolically represented.