13 Minutes (2017) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The bomb detonated 13 minutes after Hitler left the Bierkeller. Hitler departed earlier than planned because of a scheduled meeting, missing the explosion by just minutes. This narrow timing difference turned what could have been a world-changing event into a failed attempt.

• hitler
• bomb
• 13 minutes
• assassination
• missed opportunity

Through flashbacks, the film reveals Elser's growing hatred of the Nazi regime after witnessing their oppression in his hometown. He became convinced that removing Hitler was the only way to save Germany from tyranny and prevent the escalating war that would cause further suffering.

• motivation
• resistance
• nazism
• tyranny
• patriotism

After the bomb exploded at the Bierkeller, Elser fled toward the Swiss border, hoping to escape to neutral Switzerland. Border guards apprehended him just minutes after the explosion, finding his behavior suspicious enough to detain him.

• capture
• swiss border
• escape
• arrest

Elser refused to implicate anyone because he feared the Nazis would execute Else Härlen and his family members if they believed he had collaborators. By maintaining that he acted alone, he protected those he loved from further harm, even as he endured brutal torture and drug experiments.

• torture
• interrogation
• Else Härlen
• sacrifice
• loyalty

The German security services discovered incriminating evidence during their investigation, including parts of the bomb mechanism and materials Elser had stolen to build it. They also found his detailed knowledge of the bombing, which led them to suspect a larger conspiracy rather than a solo attacker.

• evidence
• investigation
• bomb
• detonators
• dynamite

Else Härlen, Elser's married lover, was brought in by the Gestapo to pressure him into confessing. When she was brought before him during interrogation, Elser's concern for her safety intensified, leading him to firmly insist to Arthur Nebe and Heinrich Müller that he acted alone.

• Else Härlen
• arrest
• questioning
• gestapo

Elser constructed two clockwork devices to trigger the bomb, ensuring it would detonate during Hitler's speech. He used stolen detonators and dynamite, carefully planting the explosive inside a column of the Munich Bierkeller where Hitler was scheduled to speak.

• bomb
• clockwork
• mechanism
• detonator
• dynamite

Arthur Nebe, the police chief who conducted Elser's interrogation, was later executed by the Nazis for his involvement in the failed July 1944 assassination plot against Hitler. Elser learned of Nebe's fate shortly before his own execution at Dachau.

• Arthur Nebe
• execution
• July plot
• consequences

Elser was executed at Dachau concentration camp just days before the camp was liberated by American forces in April 1945, and shortly before the end of World War II. He spent five years in concentration camps before his execution.

• execution
• Dachau
• concentration camp
• 1945
• death

The title refers to the precise amount of time between Hitler's departure from the Bierkeller and the bomb's detonation. Those 13 minutes represent the cruel twist of fate that prevented Elser's assassination attempt from succeeding, turning a meticulously planned operation into a tragic failure.

• 13 minutes
• title
• timing
• near miss