123-407: Helene Bertha Amalie " Leni " Riefenstahl ( German: [ˈleː.niː ˈʁiː.fn̩.ʃtaːl] ; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, producer, writer, editor, photographer and actress. She is considered one of the most controversial personalities in film history. On the one hand, she is regarded by many critics as an "innovative filmmaker and creative aesthete", while on
246-702: A helicopter crash in Sudan in 2000 while trying to learn the fates of her Nuba friends during the Second Sudanese Civil War , and was airlifted to a Munich hospital, where she received treatment for two broken ribs. Riefenstahl celebrated her 101st birthday on 22 August 2003 at a hotel in Feldafing , on Lake Starnberg , Bavaria , near her home. The day after her birthday celebration, she became ill. Riefenstahl had been diagnosed with cancer for some time, and her health rapidly deteriorated during
369-564: A Minor Key , 1943), Große Freiheit Nr. 7 ( The Great Freedom, No. 7 , 1944), and Unter den Brücken ( Under the Bridges , 1945). Schools were also provided with motion picture projectors because the film was regarded as particularly appropriate for propagandising children. Films specifically created for schools were termed "military education." Triumph des Willens ( Triumph of the Will , 1935) by film-maker Leni Riefenstahl chronicled
492-404: A bead sewn into her lower lip like a permanent cinnamon drop; a wrestler prepared for his match, with his shaven head turned to look over the massive shoulder, all skin color taken away by a coating of ashes. Art Director's Club of Germany awarded Riefenstahl a gold medal for the best photographic achievement of 1975. She also sold some of the pictures to German magazines. Riefenstahl photographed
615-402: A camera on rails to follow the athletes' movement. The film is also noted for its slow motion shots. Riefenstahl played with the idea of slow motion, underwater diving shots, extremely high and low shooting angles, panoramic aerial shots, and tracking system shots for allowing fast action. Riefensthal also "reversed the film to make the divers turn backwards, holding them in the air as if to defy
738-502: A common fatherland for which all Germans must fight. Throughout Mein Kampf , he pushed Germans worldwide to make the struggle for political power and independence their main focus, made official in the Heim ins Reich policy beginning in 1938. On 13 March 1933, a Ministry of Propaganda was established, with Goebbels as its Minister. Its goals were to establish enemies in the public mind:
861-401: A corps commander, explained to his German troops regarding their actions toward Jews, "We want to bring back peace, calm and order to this land…" German leaders tried to make their soldiers believe that Jews were a threat to their society. Thus, German soldiers followed orders given to them and participated in the demonisation and mass murders of Jews. In other words, German soldiers saw Jews as
984-422: A documentary based on Riefenstahl's legacy document collection of 700 archive boxes, in which Riefenstahl's early knowledge of Nazi atrocities are clearly documented. As of 1948, however, Riefenstahl consistently denied all knowledge and presented herself as a victim. Riefenstahl began a lifelong companionship with her cameraman Horst Kettner [ fr ] , who was 40 years her junior and assisted her with
1107-602: A feature film based on Eugen d'Albert 's Tiefland ("Lowlands"), an opera that was extremely popular in Berlin in the 1920s. Riefenstahl received private funding for the production of Tiefland , but the filming in Spain was derailed and the project was cancelled. (When Tiefland was eventually shot, between 1940 and 1944, it was done in black and white, and was the third most expensive film produced in Nazi Germany . During
1230-464: A few others speaking at public meetings until 1929. One study finds that the Weimar government's use of pro-government radio propaganda slowed Nazi growth. In April 1930, Hitler appointed Goebbels head of party propaganda. Goebbels, a former journalist and Nazi Party officer in Berlin, soon proved his skills. Among his first successes was the organisation of riotous demonstrations that succeeded in having
1353-514: A group that was trying to infect and take over their homeland. Bartov's description of Nazi Germany explains the intense discipline and unity that the soldiers had which played a role in their willingness to obey orders that were given to them. These feelings that German soldiers had toward Jews grew more and more as time went on as the German leaders kept pushing further for Jews to get out of their land as they wanted total annihilation of Jews. Until
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#17327911312031476-465: A man's life"—Riefenstahl seems only to have modified the ideas of her Nazi films. In December 1974, American writer and photographer Eudora Welty reviewed Die Nuba positively for the New York Times , giving an impressionistic account of the aesthetics of Riefenstahl's book: She uses the light purposefully: the full, blinding brightness to make us see the all‐absorbing blackness of the skin;
1599-406: A meeting arranged by her friend Gunther Rahn, she met Arnold Fanck , the director of Mountain of Destiny and a pioneer of the mountain film genre. Fanck was working on a film in Berlin. After Riefenstahl told him how much she admired his work, she also convinced him of her acting skill. She persuaded him to feature her in one of his films. Riefenstahl later received a package from Fanck containing
1722-411: A new level and gave her further international recognition. In interviews for the 1993 documentary The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl , Riefenstahl adamantly denied any deliberate attempt to create Nazi propaganda and said she was disgusted that Triumph des Willens was used in such a way. In a private letter to Hitler, quoted in a 2024 documentary, Riefensthal seems enthusiastic about
1845-520: A newspaper published by the Nazi Party (NSDAP) from December 1920 onwards, whose circulation reached 26,175 in 1929. It was joined in 1927 by Joseph Goebbels 's Der Angriff , another unabashedly and crudely propagandistic paper. During most of the Nazis' time in opposition, their means of propaganda remained limited. With little access to mass media, the party continued to rely heavily on Hitler and
1968-468: A propagandistic casus belli . Its credibility doesn't matter. The victor will not be asked whether he told the truth. The main part of this propaganda campaign was the false flag Operation Himmler , which was designed to create the appearance of Polish aggression against Germany, in order to justify the invasion of Poland . Research finds that the Nazis' use of radio propaganda helped it consolidate power and enroll more party members. There are
2091-465: A rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her memoir, Riefenstahl wrote, "I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the Earth's surface were spreading out in front of me, like a hemisphere that suddenly splits apart in the middle, spewing out an enormous jet of water, so powerful that it touched the sky and shook
2214-729: A reporter for the Detroit News , "To me, Hitler is the greatest man who ever lived. He truly is without fault, so simple and at the same time possessed of masculine strength". On 31 August 1938, Olympia won the Mussolini cup at the Venice Film Festival as "Best foreign film". She arrived in New York City on 4 November 1938, five days before Kristallnacht (the "Night of the Broken Glass"). When news of
2337-492: A series of foot injuries, which led to knee surgery that threatened her dancing career. It was while going to a doctor's appointment that she first saw a poster for the 1924 film Mountain of Destiny . She became inspired to go into movie making, and began visiting the cinema to see films and also attended film shows. On one of her adventures, Riefenstahl met Luis Trenker , an actor who had appeared in Mountain of Destiny . At
2460-632: A storybook that equated the Jewish people to poisonous mushrooms and aimed to educate children about the Jews. The book was an example of antisemitic propaganda and stated that "The following tales tell the truth about the Jewish poison mushroom. They show the many shapes the Jew assumes. They show the depravity and baseness of the Jewish race. They show the Jew for what he really is: The Devil in human form." "Geopolitical atlases" emphasised Nazi schemes, demonstrating
2583-540: A symbol of masculinity, equated with national pride and dominance, that supposedly channels men's sexual and masculine energy. Riefenstahl's cinematic framing of the flags encapsulated its iconography. Saunders continues, "The effect is a significant double transformation: the images mechanize human beings and breathe life into flags. Even when the carriers are not mostly submerged under the sea of colored cloth, and when facial features are visible in profile, they attain neither character nor distinctiveness. The men remain ants in
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#17327911312032706-553: A tale of how the prince's racial instincts lead him to reject the stepmother's alien blood (present in her daughters) for the racially pure maiden. Nordic sagas were likewise presented as the illustration of the Führerprinzip , which was developed with such heroes as Frederick the Great and Otto von Bismarck . Literature was to be chosen within the "German spirit" rather than a fixed list of forbidden and required, which made
2829-617: A three-hour tour showing her the ongoing production of Fantasia . From the Goebbels Diaries , researchers learned that Riefenstahl had been friendly with Joseph Goebbels and his wife Magda , attending the opera with them and going to his parties. Riefenstahl maintained that Goebbels was upset when she rejected his advances and was jealous of her influence on Hitler, seeing her as an internal threat. She therefore insisted his diary entries could not be trusted. By later accounts, Goebbels thought highly of Riefenstahl's filmmaking but
2952-547: A variety of factors that increased the obedience of German soldiers in terms of following the Nazi orders that were given to them regarding Jews. Omer Bartov, a professor on subjects such as German studies and European history, mentioned in his book, Hitler’s Army: Soldiers, Nazis, and War in the Third Reich , how German soldiers were told information that influenced their actions. Bartov mentioned that General Joachim Lemelsen ,
3075-505: A variety of purposes. It was hoped that people in Allied countries would be persuaded that Jews should be blamed for the war. The Nazis also wished to ensure that German people were aware of the extreme measures being carried out against the Jews on their behalf, in order to incriminate them and thus guarantee their continued loyalty through fear by Nazi-conjectured scenarios of supposed post-war "Jewish" reprisals. Especially from 1942 onwards,
3198-487: A vast enterprise. By contrast and paradoxically, the flags, whether a few or hundreds peopling the frame, assume distinct identities". Riefenstahl distorts the diegetic sound in Triumph of the Will . Her distortion of sound suggests she was influenced by German art cinema. Influenced by Classical Hollywood cinema's style, German art film employed music to enhance the narrative, establish a sense of grandeur, and to heighten
3321-538: Is diabolical and cast out. She is protected by a glowing mountain grotto. According to herself, Riefenstahl received invitations to travel to Hollywood to create films, but she refused them in favor of remaining in Germany with a boyfriend. Hitler was a fan of the film, and thought Riefenstahl epitomized the perfect German female. He saw talent in Riefenstahl and arranged a meeting. In 1933, Riefenstahl appeared in
3444-477: Is distinctive about the fascist version of the old idea of the Noble Savage is its contempt for all that is reflective, critical, and pluralistic. [...] In celebrating a society where the exhibition of physical skill and courage and the victory of the stronger man over the weaker have, at least as she sees it, become the unifying symbol of the communal culture—where success in fighting is the "main aspiration of
3567-436: Is not complex, but simple and consistent. It is not highly differentiated, but has only the negative and positive notions of love and hatred, right and wrong, truth and falsehood. As to the methods to be employed, he explains: Propaganda must not investigate the truth objectively and, in so far as it is favorable to the other side, present it according to the theoretical rules of justice; yet it must present only that aspect of
3690-587: The Ark Royal proved to have survived an attack that German propaganda had hyped. Goebbels instructed Nazi propagandists to describe the invasion of the Soviet Union ( Operation Barbarossa ) as the "European crusade against Bolshevism " and the Nazis then formed different units of the Waffen-SS consisting of mainly volunteers and conscripts . After Stalingrad, the main theme changed to Germany as
3813-523: The 1972 Olympic Games in Munich, and rock star Mick Jagger along with his wife Bianca for The Sunday Times . Years later, Riefenstahl photographed Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried & Roy . She was guest of honour at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec , Canada. In 1978, Riefenstahl published a book of her sub-aquatic photographs called Korallengärten ("Coral Gardens"), followed by
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3936-553: The German film industry became entirely nationalised. The National Socialist Propaganda Directorate, which Goebbels oversaw, had at its disposal nearly all film agencies in Germany by 1936. Occasionally, certain directors such as Wolfgang Liebeneiner were able to bypass Goebbels by providing him with a different version of the film than would be released. Such films include those directed by Helmut Käutner : Romanze in Moll ( Romance in
4059-604: The German government paid her 7 million ℛ︁ℳ︁ in compensation. From 23 September until 13 November 1940, she filmed in Krün near Mittenwald . The extras playing Spanish women and farmers were drawn from Romani detained in a camp at Salzburg-Maxglan who were forced to work with her. Filming at the Babelsberg Studios near Berlin began 18 months later in April 1942. This time Sinti and Roma people from
4182-515: The Marzahn detention camp near Berlin were compelled to work as extras. Almost to the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence that the concentration camp occupants had been forced to work on the movie were later sent to the Auschwitz death camp , Riefenstahl continued to maintain that all the film extras survived. Riefenstahl sued filmmaker Nina Gladitz, who said Riefenstahl personally chose
4305-523: The Nuremberg Laws , which were claimed to allow the German and Jewish peoples to co-exist without the danger of mixing. Science was to be presented as the most natural area for introducing the "Jewish Question" once teachers took care to point out that in nature, animals associated with those of their own species. Teachers' guidelines on racial instruction presented both the handicapped and Jews as dangers. Despite their many photographs glamorising
4428-648: The "Nordic" type, the texts also claimed that visual inspection was insufficient, and genealogical analysis was required to determine their types and report any hereditary problems. However, the National Socialist Teachers League (NSLB) stressed that at primary schools, in particular, they had to work on only the Nordic racial core of the German Volk again and again and contrast it with the racial composition of foreign populations and
4551-510: The "encirclement" of Germany, depicting how the prolific Slav nations would cause the German people to be overrun, and (in contrast) showing the relative population density of Germany was much higher than that of the Eastern regions (where they would seek Lebensraum ). Textbooks would often show that the birth rate amongst Slavs was prolific compared to Germans. Geography text books stated how crowded Germany had become. Other charts would show
4674-461: The 1990 book Wunder unter Wasser ("Wonder under Water"). On 22 August 2002, her 100th birthday, she released the film Impressionen unter Wasser ("Underwater Impressions"), an idealized documentary of life in the oceans and her first film in over 25 years. Riefenstahl was a member of Greenpeace for eight years. When filming Impressionen unter Wasser , Riefenstahl lied about her age in order to be certified for scuba diving. Riefenstahl survived
4797-507: The Allied Nations. After Germany’s defeat and subsequent surrender on May 7, 1945, the Allied governments banned all forms of Nazi propaganda and the organizations which produced and disseminated such materials during the years of denazification . Nazi propaganda promoted Nazi ideology by demonising the enemies of the Nazi Party, notably Jews and communists , but also capitalists and intellectuals . It promoted
4920-542: The Allied troops shortly after the war. Riefenstahl said she was not aware of the nature of the internment camps. According to Schulberg, "She gave me the usual song and dance. She said, 'Of course, you know, I'm really so misunderstood. I'm not political'". Riefenstahl said she was fascinated by the Nazis, but also politically naive, claiming ignorance about any war crimes. Such claims were not unambiguously dispelled until 2024, testifying to Riefenstahl's successful campaign of denial over six decades. Throughout 1945 to 1948, she
5043-630: The American anti-war film All Quiet on the Western Front banned in Germany. A major political and ideological cornerstone of Nazi policy was the unification of all ethnic Germans living outside the Reich's borders (e.g. in Austria and Czechoslovakia ) under one Greater Germany. In Mein Kampf , Hitler denounced the pain and misery of ethnic Germans outside Germany, and declared the dream of
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5166-559: The Aryan master race ( Herrenvolk ) while the Jews were untrustworthy, parasitic, and Untermenschen (subhumans). Course content and textbooks unnecessarily included information that was propagandistic, an attempt to sway the children's views from an early age. Maps showing the racial composition of Europe were banned from the classroom after many efforts that did not define the territory widely enough for party officials. Fairy tales were put to use, with Cinderella being presented as
5289-536: The Grimm-Reiter Dance School in Berlin, where she quickly became a star pupil. Riefenstahl attended dancing academies and became well known for her self-styled interpretive dancing skills, traveling across Europe with Max Reinhardt in a show funded by Jewish producer Harry Sokal . Riefenstahl often made almost 700 ℛ︁ℳ︁ for each performance and was so dedicated to dancing that she gave filmmaking no thought. She began to suffer
5412-536: The Holocaust , and was criticized as the "voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense." Riefenstahl's postwar work included an autobiography book and two photography books on the Nuba peoples of southern Sudan. Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl was born in Berlin on 22 August 1902. Her father, Alfred Theodor Paul Riefenstahl, owned a successful heating and ventilation company and wanted his daughter to follow him into
5535-782: The Jews during World War II. For example, Hitler claimed that the international language Esperanto was part of a Jewish plot and makes arguments toward the old German nationalist ideas of " Drang nach Osten " and the necessity to gain Lebensraum ("living space") eastwards (especially in Russia). Other books such as Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes ("Racial Science of the German People") by Hans Günther and Rasse und Seele ("Race and Soul") by Dr. Ludwig Ferdinand Clauß [ de ] (published under different titles between 1926 and 1934) attempt to identify and classify
5658-532: The Jews. In occupied France, the German Institute encouraged the translation of German works although chiefly German nationalists, not ardent Nazis, produced a massive increase in the sale of translated works. The only books in English to be sold were English classics, and books with Jewish authors or Jewish subject matter (such as biographies) were banned, except for some scientific works. Control of
5781-639: The Nazi Party Congress of 1934 in Nuremberg . It followed an earlier film of the 1933 Nuremberg Rally produced by Riefenstahl, Der Sieg des Glaubens . Triumph of the Will features footage of uniformed party members (though relatively few German soldiers), who are marching and drilling to militaristic tunes. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including Hitler. Frank Capra used scenes from
5904-460: The Nazi party remained unclear during her lifetime. This can be explained with Riefenstahl's vehemence to control interpretation. Shortly before she died, Riefenstahl voiced her final words on the subject of her connection to Hitler in a BBC interview: "I was one of millions who thought Hitler had all the answers. We saw only the good things; we didn't know bad things were to come." In October 2024, Andres Veiel and Sandra Maischberger released
6027-475: The Nazis, such as German nationalism, eugenics , and antisemitism had been in circulation since the 19th century, and the Nazis seized on this body of existing work in their own publications. The most notable is Hitler's Mein Kampf , detailing his beliefs. The book outlines major ideas that would later culminate in World War II. It is heavily influenced by Gustave Le Bon 's 1895 The Crowd: A Study of
6150-563: The Popular Mind , which theorised propaganda as a way to control the seemingly irrational behavior of crowds. Particularly prominent is the violent antisemitism of Hitler and his associates, drawing, among other sources, on the fabricated " The Protocols of the Elders of Zion " (1897), which implied that Jews secretly conspired to rule the world. This book was a key source of propaganda for the Nazis and helped fuel their common hatred against
6273-722: The Soviet Union. One of the primary sources for propaganda was the Wehrmachtbericht , a daily radio broadcast from the High Command of the Wehrmacht , the OKW . Nazi victories lent themselves easily to propaganda broadcasts and were at this point difficult to mishandle. Satires on the defeated, accounts of attacks, and praise for the fallen all were useful for Nazis. Still, failures were not easily handled even at this stage. For example, considerable embarrassment resulted when
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#17327911312036396-551: The U.S.-German co-productions of the Arnold Fanck -directed, German-language SOS Eisberg and the Tay Garnett -directed, English-language S.O.S. Iceberg . The films were filmed simultaneously in English and German and produced and distributed by Universal Studios . Her role as an actress in S.O.S. Iceberg was her only English language role in film. Riefenstahl heard Nazi Party (NSDAP) leader Adolf Hitler speak at
6519-430: The Will , however, significantly damaged her career and reputation after World War II . Adolf Hitler closely collaborated with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films , and they formed a friendly relationship. After the war, Riefenstahl was arrested and found to be a Nazi " fellow traveller " but was not charged with war crimes . Throughout her later life, she denied having known about
6642-587: The age of 39 on the Eastern Front in Nazi Germany 's war against the Soviet Union . Riefenstahl fell in love with the arts in her childhood. She began to paint and write poetry at the age of four. She was also athletic, and at the age of twelve joined a gymnastics and swimming club called Nixe . Her mother was confident her daughter would grow up to be successful in the field of art and therefore gave her full support, unlike Riefenstahl's father, who
6765-520: The announcement that Jews were being exterminated served as a group unification factor to preclude desertion and force the Germans to continue fighting. Germans were fed the knowledge that too many atrocities had been committed, especially against the Jews, to allow for an understanding to be reached with the Allies. Nazi media vilified arch-enemies of Nazi Germany as Jewish ( Franklin D. Roosevelt ) or in
6888-527: The attention and appeal to the hearts of the national masses. The broad masses of the people are not made up of diplomats or professors of public jurisprudence nor simply of persons who are able to form reasoned judgment in given cases, but a vacillating crowd of human children who are constantly wavering between one idea and another. (...) The great majority of a nation is so feminine in its character and outlook that its thought and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than by sober reasoning. This sentiment, however,
7011-416: The broad masses of the people. (...) All propaganda must be presented in a popular form and must fix its intellectual level so as not to be above the heads of the least intellectual of those to whom it is directed. (...) The art of propaganda consists precisely in being able to awaken the imagination of the public through an appeal to their feelings, in finding the appropriate psychological form that will arrest
7134-401: The business world. Since Riefenstahl was the only child for several years, Alfred wanted her to carry on the family name and secure the family fortune. However, her mother, Bertha Ida (Scherlach), who had been a part-time seamstress before her marriage, had faith in Riefenstahl and believed that her daughter's future was in show business. Riefenstahl had a younger brother, Heinz, who was killed at
7257-438: The cases of Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill abject puppets of an international Jewish conspiracy intent on ruining Germany and Nazism. Problems in propaganda arose easily in this stage; expectations of success were raised too high and too quickly, which required explanation if they were not fulfilled, and blunted the effects of success, and the hushing of blunders and failures caused mistrust. The increasing hardship of
7380-527: The conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad on 2 February 1943, German propaganda emphasised the prowess of German arms and the humanity German soldiers had shown to the peoples of occupied territories. Pilots of the Allied bombing fleets were depicted as cowardly murderers and Americans in particular as gangsters in the style of Al Capone . At the same time, German propaganda sought to alienate Americans and British from each other, and both these Western nations from
7503-494: The cost of disabled children as opposed to healthy ones, or show how two-child families threatened the birthrate. Math books discussed military applications and used military word problems, physics and chemistry concentrated on military applications, and grammar classes were devoted to propaganda sentences. Other textbooks dealt with the history of the Nazi Party. Elementary school reading text included large amounts of propaganda. Children were taught through textbooks that they were
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#17327911312037626-477: The differences between the German, Nordic , or Aryan type and other supposedly inferior peoples. These books were used as texts in German schools during the Nazi era. The pre-existing and popular genre of Schollen-roman , or novel of the soil, also known as blood and soil novels, was given a boost by the acceptability of its themes to the Nazis and developed a mysticism of unity. The immensely popular "Red Indian" stories by Karl May were permitted despite
7749-495: The earth". Hitler was immediately captivated by Riefenstahl's work. She is described as fitting in with Hitler's ideal of Aryan womanhood, a feature he had noted when he saw her starring performance in Das Blaue Licht . In May 1933, Hitler asked Riefenstahl to make a film about Horst Wessel , but she declined. Riefenstahl was offered the opportunity to direct Der Sieg des Glaubens , an hour-long propaganda film about
7872-420: The emotions in a scene. In Triumph of the Will , Riefenstahl used traditional folk music to accompany and intensify her shots. Ben Morgan comments on Riefenstahl's distortion of sound: "In Triumph of the Will , the material world leaves no aural impression beyond the music. Where the film does combine diegetic noise with the music, the effects used are human (laughter or cheering) and offer a rhythmic extension to
7995-473: The end of the war. The French government confiscated all of her editing equipment, along with the production reels of Tiefland . After years of legal wrangling, these were returned to her, but the French government had reportedly damaged some of the film stock whilst trying to develop and edit it, with a few key scenes being missing (although Riefenstahl was surprised to find the original negatives for Olympia in
8118-697: The event reached the United States, Riefenstahl publicly defended Hitler. On 18 November, she was received by Henry Ford in Detroit . Olympia was shown at the Chicago Engineers Club two days later. Avery Brundage , President of the International Olympic Committee, praised the film and held Riefenstahl in the highest regard. She negotiated with Louis B. Mayer , and on 8 December, Walt Disney brought her on
8241-462: The expedition to magazines in various parts of the world. While scouting shooting locations, she almost died from injuries received in a truck accident. After waking up from a coma in a Nairobi hospital, she finished writing the script, but was soon thoroughly thwarted by uncooperative locals, the Suez Canal crisis and bad weather. In the end, the film project was called off. Even so, Riefenstahl
8364-641: The external enemies which had imposed the Treaty of Versailles on Germany, and internal enemies such as Jews, Romani , homosexuals, Bolsheviks , and cultural trends including " degenerate art ". For months prior to the beginning of World War II in 1939, German newspapers and leaders had carried out a national and international propaganda campaign accusing Polish authorities of organising or tolerating violent ethnic cleansing of ethnic Germans living in Poland. On 22 August, Hitler told his generals: I will provide
8487-466: The extras at their holding camp; Gladitz had found one of the Romani survivors and matched his memory with stills of the movie for a documentary Gladitz was filming. The German court ruled largely in favour of Gladitz, declaring that Riefenstahl had known the extras were from a concentration camp, but they also agreed that Riefenstahl had not been informed the Romani would be sent to Auschwitz after filming
8610-404: The familiar sequences of adoring women greeting Hitler's arrival and cavalcade through Nuremberg. In these Hitler clearly remains the focus of attraction, as more generally in the visual treatment of his mass following. Rather, it is encoded in representation of flags and banners, which were shot in such a way as to make them visually desirable as well as potent political symbols". The flag serves as
8733-521: The few women in Germany to direct a film during the Weimar era when, in 1932, she decided to try directing with her own film, The Blue Light . In the latter half of the 1930s, she directed the Nazi propaganda films Triumph of the Will (1935) and Olympia (1938), resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim. The films are widely considered two of the most effective and technically innovative propaganda films ever made. Her involvement in Triumph of
8856-498: The fifth Nuremberg Rally in 1933. The opportunity that was offered was a huge surprise to Riefenstahl. Hitler had ordered Joseph Goebbels 's Propaganda Ministry to give the film commission to Riefenstahl, but the Ministry had never informed her. Riefenstahl agreed to direct the movie even though she was only given a few days before the rally to prepare. She and Hitler got on well, forming a friendly relationship. The propaganda film
8979-535: The film began on 26 February 1944. Directed by Kurt Gerron , it was meant to show how well the Jews lived under the "benevolent" protection of Nazi Germany. After the shooting, most of the cast, and even the filmmaker himself, were deported to the concentration camp of Auschwitz where they were murdered. Hans Fritzsche , who had been head of the Radio Chamber, was tried and acquitted by the Nuremberg war crimes tribunal . Antisemitic wartime propaganda served
9102-603: The film, insisted on Tiefland being shown at the Cannes Film Festival, which he was running that year. In 1960, Riefenstahl attempted to prevent filmmaker Erwin Leiser from juxtaposing scenes from Triumph des Willens with footage from concentration camps in his film Mein Kampf . Riefenstahl had high hopes for a collaboration with Cocteau called Friedrich und Voltaire ("Friedrich and Voltaire"), wherein Cocteau
9225-551: The film, which he described partially as "the ominous prelude of Hitler's holocaust of hate", in many parts of the United States government's Why We Fight anti-Axis seven-film series, to demonstrate what the personnel of the U.S. military would be facing in World War II, and why the Axis had to be defeated. During 1940 three antisemitic films were shown: The Rothschilds , Jud Süß , and Der ewige Jude . Mountain of Destiny Too Many Requests If you report this error to
9348-516: The filming of Tiefland, Riefenstahl utilized Romani from internment camps for extras, who were severely mistreated on set, and when the filming completed they were sent to the death camp Auschwitz .) Hitler was able to convince her to film Triumph des Willens on the condition that she would not be required to make further films for the party, according to Riefenstahl. The motion picture was generally recognized as an epic, innovative work of propaganda filmmaking. The film took Riefenstahl's career to
9471-787: The groundwork for the party’s later methodology while the newspapers, the Völkischer Beobachter and later Der Angriff , served as the early practical foundations for later propaganda during the party’s formative years. These were later followed by many media types including books, posters, magazines, photos, art, films, and radio broadcasts which took increasingly prominent roles as the party gained more power. These efforts promulgated Nazi ideology throughout German society. Such ideology included promotion of Nazi policies and values at home, worldview beyond their borders, antisemitism , vilification of non-German peoples and anti-Nazi organizations, eugenics and eventually total war against
9594-589: The heroic treatment of the hero Winnetou and "coloured" races; instead, the argument was made that the stories demonstrated the fall of the Red Indians was caused by a lack of racial consciousness, to encourage it in the Germans. Other fictional works were also adapted; Heidi was stripped of its Christian elements, and Robinson Crusoe 's relationship to Friday was made a master-slave one. Children's books also made their appearance. In 1938, Julius Streicher published Der Giftpilz (The Poisonous Mushroom),
9717-485: The idea that has been put forward. (...) Every change that is made in the subject of a propagandist message must always emphasize the same conclusion. The leading slogan must, of course, be illustrated in many ways and from several angles, but in the end one must always return to the assertion of the same formula. Hitler put these ideas into practice with the reestablishment of the Völkischer Beobachter ,
9840-475: The initial news of Hitler's death on the night of 1 May; an announcer claimed he had died that afternoon as a hero fighting against Bolshevism . Hitler's successor as head of state , Karl Dönitz , further asserted that the U.S. forces were continuing the war solely to spread Bolshevism within Europe. The Nazis and sympathisers published many propaganda books. Most of the beliefs that would become associated with
9963-619: The killings, Hitler ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed, although Riefenstahl disputed that this ever happened. Still impressed with Riefenstahl's work, Hitler asked her to film Triumph des Willens ("Triumph of the Will"), a new propaganda film about the 1934 party rally in Nuremberg. More than one million Germans participated in the rally. The film is sometimes considered the greatest propaganda film ever made. Initially, according to Riefenstahl, she resisted and did not want to create further Nazi Party films, instead wanting to direct
10086-677: The last weeks of her life. Kettner said in an interview in 2002, "Ms. Riefenstahl is in great pain and she has become very weak and is taking painkillers". Riefenstahl died in her sleep at around 10:00 pm on 8 September 2003 at her home in Pöcking . After cremation, her ashes were buried in Munich Waldfriedhof . After her death, there was a varied response in the obituary pages of leading publications, although most recognized her technical breakthroughs in filmmaking. Nazi propaganda Final solution Parties Propaganda
10209-650: The laws of gravity". Many of these shots were relatively unheard of at the time, but Riefenstahl's use and augmentation of them set a standard, and is the reason they are still used to this day. Riefenstahl's work on Olympia has been cited as a major influence in modern sports photography. Riefenstahl filmed competitors of all races, including African-American Jesse Owens in what later became famous footage. Olympia premiered for Hitler's 49th birthday in 1938. Its international debut led Riefenstahl to embark on an American publicity tour in an attempt to secure commercial release. In February 1937, Riefenstahl enthusiastically told
10332-614: The main defender of what they called "Western European culture" against the "Bolshevist hordes". The introduction of the V-1 and V-2 "vengeance weapons" was emphasised to convince Britons of the hopelessness of defeating Germany. On 23 June 1944, the Nazis permitted the Red Cross to visit the concentration camp Theresienstadt to dispel rumors about the Final Solution , which was intended to kill all Jews. In reality, Theresienstadt
10455-461: The market, which was relayed to the soldiers as "Get rid of the Jews", thus leading to the massacre. Photographs of a potentially distraught Riefenstahl survive from that day. Nevertheless, by 5 October 1939, Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw . Afterwards, she left Poland and chose not to make any more Nazi-related films. On 14 June 1940, the day Paris
10578-456: The most important inquiries into the relation of esthetics to ideology we have had in many years", Sontag argued that: Although the Nuba are black, not Aryan, Riefenstahl's portrait of them is consistent with some of the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the contrast between the clean and the impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical. [...] What
10701-403: The music rather than a contrast to it. By replacing diegetic sound, Riefenstahl's film employs music to combine the documentary with the fantastic." When Germany invaded Poland on 1 September 1939, Riefenstahl was photographed in Poland wearing a military uniform and a pistol on her belt in the company of German soldiers; she had gone to Poland as a war correspondent. On 12 September, she was in
10824-456: The other hand she is criticized for her works in the service of propaganda during the Nazi era . A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl became interested in dancing during her childhood, taking lessons and performing across all Europe. After seeing a promotional poster for the 1924 film Mountain of Destiny , she was inspired to move into acting and between 1925 and 1929 starred in five successful motion pictures. Riefenstahl became one of
10947-647: The outbreak of World War II , Nazi propaganda vilified Germany's enemies, notably the United Kingdom , the Soviet Union , and the United States , and in 1943 exhorted the population to total war . Adolf Hitler devoted two chapters of his 1925 book Mein Kampf , itself a propaganda tool, to the study and practice of propaganda. He claimed to have learned the value of propaganda as a World War I infantryman exposed to very effective British and ineffectual German propaganda. The argument that Germany lost
11070-653: The paper supply allowed Germans the easy ability to pressure publishers about books. The Nazi-controlled government in German-occupied France produced the Vica comic book series during World War II as a propaganda tool against the Allied forces. The Vica series, authored by Vincent Krassousky , represented Nazi influence and perspective in French society, and included such titles as Vica Contre le service secret Anglais , and Vica défie l'Oncle Sam . The Nazis produced many films to promote their views, using
11193-515: The party's Department of Film for organising film propaganda. An estimated 45 million people attended film screenings put on by the NSDAP. Reichsamtsleiter Karl Neumann declared that the goal of the Department of Film was not directly political in nature, but was rather to influence the culture, education, and entertainment of the general population. On 22 September 1933, a Department of Film
11316-406: The photographs of George Rodger . She visited Kenya for the first time in 1956 and later Sudan, where she photographed Nuba tribes with whom she sporadically lived, learning about their culture so she could photograph them more easily. Even though her film project about modern slavery entitled Die Schwarze Fracht ("The Black Cargo") was never completed, Riefenstahl was able to sell the stills from
11439-774: The photographs; they were together from the time she was 60 and he was 20. Riefenstahl travelled to Africa, inspired by the works of George Rodger that celebrated the ceremonial wrestling matches of the Nuba. Riefenstahl's books with photographs of the Nuba tribes were published in 1974 and republished in 1976 as Die Nuba (translated as "The Last of the Nuba") and Die Nuba von Kau ("The Nuba People of Kau"). They were harshly criticized by American writer and philosopher Susan Sontag , who wrote in The New York Review of Books that they were evidence of Riefenstahl's continued adherence to "fascist aesthetics". In this review, which art critic Hilton Kramer described as "one of
11562-499: The production of Tiefland moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly of the film. The film was not edited and released until almost ten years later. The last time Riefenstahl saw Hitler was when she married Peter Jacob on 21 March 1944. Riefenstahl and Jacob divorced in 1946. As Germany's military situation became impossible by early 1945, Riefenstahl left Berlin and
11685-511: The propaganda effects of Triumph des Willens : "the film's impact as German propaganda is greater than I could have imagined and your image, my Führer, is always applauded". Despite allegedly vowing not to make any more films about the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl made the 28-minute Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht ("Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces") about the German Army in 1935. Like Der Sieg des Glaubens and Triumph des Willens , this
11808-412: The ray of light slanting down from the single hole, high in the wall, that is the doorway of the circular house, which tells us how secret and safe it has been made; the first dawn light streaking the face of a calf in the sleeping camp where the young men go to live, which suggests their world apart. All the pictures bring us the physical beauty of the people: a young girl, shy and mischievous of face, with
11931-405: The route of the inaugural torch relay and the games' original site at Olympia , where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly's . This material became Olympia , a hugely successful film which has since been widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. Olympia was secretly funded by the Nazis. She was one of the first filmmakers to use tracking shots in a documentary, placing
12054-584: The same shipment). During the filming of Olympia , Riefenstahl was funded by the state to create her own production company in her own name, Riefenstahl-Film GmbH, which was uninvolved with her most influential works. She edited and dubbed the remaining material and Tiefland premiered on 11 February 1954 in Stuttgart . However, it was denied entry into the Cannes Film Festival . Although Riefenstahl lived for almost another half century, Tiefland
12177-405: The script of the 1926 film The Holy Mountain . She made a series of films for Fanck, where she learned from him acting and film editing techniques. One of Fanck's films that brought Riefenstahl into the limelight was The White Hell of Pitz Palu of 1929, co-directed by G. W. Pabst . She had to undergo many physical challenges that would probably be deemed unethical in today's standards. Some of
12300-416: The silver medal at the Venice Film Festival , but was not universally well-received, for which Riefenstahl blamed the critics, many of whom were Jewish. Upon its 1938 re-release, the names of Balázs and Sokal, both Jewish, were removed from the credits; some reports say this was at Riefenstahl's behest. In the film, Riefenstahl played an innocent peasant girl who is hated by the villagers because they think she
12423-429: The teachers all the more cautious although Jewish authors were impossible for classrooms. While only William Shakespeare 's Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice were actually recommended, none of the plays were actually forbidden, even Hamlet , denounced for "flabbiness of soul." Biology texts, however, were put to the most use in presenting eugenic principles and racial theories; this included explanations of
12546-543: The torments included: being engulfed in small avalanches, jumping into mountain lakes and icy streams, climbing rocky pinnacles while barefoot, letting herself be pulled up a rock face being pelted by snow and ice, balancing on a ladder above a deep glacial crevasse, and enduring obscene jokes from her exclusively male colleagues. Her fame spread to countries outside Germany. Riefenstahl produced and directed her own work called Das Blaue Licht ("The Blue Light") in 1932, co-written by Carl Mayer and Béla Balázs . This film won
12669-419: The town of Końskie when 30 civilians were executed in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers. According to her memoir , Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot. She said she did not realize the victims were Jews. According to another account given by a German officer, Riefenstahl had asked that the Jews be removed from
12792-437: The truth which is favorable to its own side. (...) The receptive powers of the masses are very restricted, and their understanding is feeble. On the other hand, they quickly forget. Such being the case, all effective propaganda must be confined to a few bare essentials and those must be expressed as far as possible in stereotyped formulas. These slogans should be persistently repeated until the very last individual has come to grasp
12915-492: The values asserted by the Nazis, including heroic death, Führerprinzip (leader principle), Volksgemeinschaft (people's community), Blut und Boden (blood and soil), and pride in the Germanic Herrenvolk (master race). Propaganda was also used to maintain the cult of personality around Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, and to promote campaigns for eugenics and the annexation of German-speaking areas . After
13038-505: The war for the German people also called forth more propaganda that the war had been forced on the German people by the refusal of foreign powers to accept their strength and independence. Goebbels called for propaganda to toughen up the German people and not make victory look easy. After Hitler's death , his successor as chancellor of Germany , Goebbels, informed the Reichssender Hamburg radio station. The station broke
13161-605: The war largely because of British propaganda efforts, expounded at length in Mein Kampf , reflected then-common German nationalist claims. Although untrue—German propaganda during World War I was mostly more advanced than that of the British—it became the official truth of Nazi Germany thanks to its reception by Hitler. Mein Kampf contains the blueprint of later Nazi propaganda efforts. Assessing his audience, Hitler writes in chapter VI: Propaganda must always address itself to
13284-469: The war was over, and in that spirit I sent the cable to Hitler". Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for 12 years. However, her relationship with Hitler severely declined in 1944 after her brother died on the Russian Front. After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and Olympia , Riefenstahl began work on the movie she had tried and failed to direct once before, namely Tiefland . On Hitler's direct order,
13407-439: The years, she filed and won over fifty libel cases against people who had accused her of complicity with Nazi crimes. Riefenstahl said that her biggest regret in life was meeting Hitler, declaring, "It was the biggest catastrophe of my life. Until the day I die people will keep saying, 'Leni is a Nazi', and I'll keep saying, 'But what did she do?'" Even though she went on to win up to fifty libel cases, details about her relation to
13530-431: Was hitchhiking with a group of men, trying to reach her mother, when she was taken into custody by American troops. She walked out of a holding camp, beginning a series of escapes and arrests across the chaotic landscape. At last making it back home on a bicycle, she found that American troops had seized her house. She was surprised by how kindly they treated her. Most of Riefenstahl's unfinished projects were lost towards
13653-581: Was a crucial tool of the German Nazi Party from its earliest days in 1920, after its reformation from the German Worker’s Party (DAP), to its final weeks leading to Germany's surrender in May 1945. As the party gained power, the scope and efficacy of its propaganda grew and permeated an increasing amount of space in Germany and, eventually, beyond. Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (1925) provided
13776-410: Was a transit camp for Jews en route to extermination camps . In a sophisticated propaganda effort, fake shops and cafés were erected to imply that the Jews lived in relative comfort. The guests enjoyed the performance of a children's opera, Brundibár , written by inmate Hans Krása . The hoax was so successful for the Nazis that they went on to make a propaganda film Theresienstadt . The shooting of
13899-521: Was angered with what he saw as her overspending on the Nazi-provided filmmaking budgets. In Triumph of the Will , Tom Saunders argues that Hitler serves as the object of the camera's gaze. Saunders writes, "Without denying that 'rampant masculinity' (the 'sexiness' of Hitler and the SS) serves as the object of the gaze, I would suggest that desire is also directed toward the feminine. This occurs not in
14022-399: Was completed. This issue came up again in 2002, when Riefenstahl was 100 years old and she was taken to court by a Roma group for denying the Nazis had exterminated Romani. Riefenstahl apologized and said, "I regret that Sinti and Roma [people] had to suffer during the period of National Socialism. It is known today that many of them were murdered in concentration camps ". In October 1944
14145-488: Was declared an open city by the French and occupied by German troops, Riefenstahl wrote to Hitler in a telegram , "With indescribable joy, deeply moved and filled with burning gratitude, we share with you, my Führer, your and Germany's greatest victory, the entry of German troops into Paris. You exceed anything human imagination has the power to conceive, achieving deeds without parallel in the history of mankind. How can we ever thank you?" She later explained, "Everyone thought
14268-596: Was filmed at the annual Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg. Riefenstahl said this film was a sub-set of Der Sieg des Glaubens , added to mollify the German Army which felt it was not represented well in Triumph des Willens . Hitler invited Riefenstahl to film the 1936 Summer Olympics scheduled to be held in Berlin, a film which Riefenstahl said had been commissioned by the International Olympic Committee . She visited Greece to take footage of
14391-637: Was funded entirely by the NSDAP. During the filming of Der Sieg des Glaubens , Hitler had stood side by side with the leader of the Sturmabteilung (SA), Ernst Röhm , a man with whom he clearly had a close working relationship. Röhm was murdered on Hitler's orders a short time later, during the purge of the SA referred to as the Night of the Long Knives . It has gone on record that, immediately following
14514-541: Was granted Sudanese citizenship for her services to the country, becoming the first foreigner to receive a Sudanese passport. Novelist and sports writer Budd Schulberg , assigned by the U.S. Navy to the OSS for intelligence work while attached to John Ford 's documentary unit, was ordered to arrest Riefenstahl at her chalet in Kitzbühel, ostensibly to have her identify Nazi war criminals in German film footage captured by
14637-433: Was held by various Allied-controlled prison camps across Germany. She was also under house arrest for a period of time. She was tried four times by postwar authorities for denazification and eventually found to be a " fellow traveller " ( Mitläufer ) who sympathised with the Nazis. While never an official member of the Nazi party, she was always seen in association due to the propaganda films she made in Nazi Germany . Over
14760-648: Was her last feature film. Riefenstahl tried many times to make more films during the 1950s and 1960s, but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. Many of her filmmaking peers in Hollywood had fled Nazi Germany and were unsympathetic to her. Although both film professionals and investors were willing to support her work, most of the projects she attempted were stopped owing to ever-renewed and highly negative publicity about her past work in Nazi Germany. In 1954, Jean Cocteau , who greatly admired
14883-456: Was incorporated into the Chamber of Culture. The department controlled the licensing of every film prior to its production. Sometimes the government selected the actors for a film, financed the production partially or totally, and granted tax breaks to the producers. Awards for "valuable" films would decrease taxes, thus encouraging self-censorship among movie makers. Under Goebbels and Hitler,
15006-470: Was not interested in his daughter's artistic inclinations. In 1918, when she was 16, Riefenstahl attended a presentation of Snow White which interested her deeply; it led her to want to be a dancer. Her father instead wanted to provide his daughter with an education that could lead to a more dignified occupation. His wife, however, continued to support her daughter's passion. Without her husband's knowledge, she enrolled Riefenstahl in dance and ballet classes at
15129-454: Was to play two roles. They thought the film might symbolize the love-hate relationship between Germany and France. Cocteau's illness and 1963 death put an end to the project. A musical remake of Das Blaue Licht ("The Blue Light") with an English production company also fell apart. In the 1960s, Riefenstahl became interested in Africa from Ernest Hemingway 's Green Hills of Africa and from
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