Leo F.

Class of '26

GUILT IN THE THIRD REICH

World Wars Fiszel.mp4

Leni Riefenstahl, “The Devil's Own Director”

Leni Riefenstahl was a renowned Nazi filmmaker and director and is best known for her controversial work during Nazi Germany, particularly for the documentaries “Triumph of the Will” (1935) and “Olympia” (1938). However, Leni Riefenstahl's work is challenging to analyze due to her arguably “best” works negative focus and her complicity and responsibility when questioned. Because of this, her ability to make excellent documentaries are challenging to highlight because of her association with the Nazis.

Leni Riefenstahl was always interested in the arts, which led her to start her ballet career in her twenties. She performed solo and also choreographed her dances. Later, she became an actress. One of the men who liked her acting was Adolf Hitler. (Blair) As a result, Hitler asked her to film the Nazi party rally of 1933. This began their relationship, and once Hitler saw her skills as a director, he made her make more propaganda for the regime. Joseph Goebbels, who was the head of Nazi propaganda, complained about Leni and said, ‘It is impossible to work with this wild woman.’ (Blair) This shows that although objectively Leni was amazing at her craft, she was hatred by some of the Nazis even though Hitler liked her and valued her work. Although Leni made Nazi party documentaries and had a close relationship with Hitler, she was never truly part of the Nazi party, which after the war led to her denying she was a Nazi or she had anything to do with the Holocaust. Her Pro-Nazi films made her propaganda have a significant impact on people's perception of the party. (“The Many Leni Riefenstahls: Inventing a Cinematic Legend”)

Lenis's famous propaganda took the form of documentaries such as “Triumph of the Will” (1935) and “Olympia” (1938). Leni initially hesitated to make any documentaries, but because Hitler persuaded her to make them, she had access to a big production budget. (“The Many Leni Riefenstahls: Inventing a Cinematic Legend”) This was important to Leni because many people didn't get the opportunity to make films with such a large budget. Hitler liked her especially because of her creative style, so when filming “Triumph of the Will,” she made sure to be very artistic with her shots in order to evoke emotion in the viewer. (Riefenstahl) The German filmmaker Rainer Rother analyzed her film and explained, "On the one hand, she employed cuts modeled on narrative films in an attempt to place the audience in the position of the ‘ideal spectator’.” He explains that Riefenstahl made certain shots to “heroize” the main subject of her film. (“The Many Leni Riefenstahls: Inventing a Cinematic Legend”) Her skillful direction makes Hitler seem like a god, leading the German people to like Hitler even more. Leni coined the term for a new type of shot called seeing through the “eye of the Fuhrer.” Her goal of portraying Hitler as a god among men was achieved and made her one of Hitler who was a narcissist, a favorite person in his party.

Leni’s work to put Hitler in a positive light was one that only a very intelligent person could achieve, and because of this, she was involved in the Nazi party. Still, one could only imagine how much success she would have if she hadn't been involved with the party. Lenis's work is hard to separate from the main subject, but she should held responsible for what she did. When she claims that the propaganda was not “about politics” it was merely a job.” (Bach 36) This shows how she was not in the right because someone who truly felt like it was just a job would admit their wrong, and Leni, a Nazi supporter, wanted to help the party as her passion.

Works Cited

Bach, Steven. Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2008.

Blair, Laurence. “Birth of Leni Riefenstahl.” History Today. Accessed 13 November 2024.

Gillespie, Dana M., and Dana Marie. “Leni: A Screenplay Based on the Career of Leni Riefenstahl.” UNT Digital Library. Accessed 31 October 2024.

“Leni Riefenstahl.” Holocaust Encyclopedia. Accessed 12 November 2024.

“The Many Leni Riefenstahls: Inventing a Cinematic Legend.” Scholar Commons. Accessed 31 October 2024.

Riefenstahl, Leni. Behind the Scenes of the National Party Convention Film. Edited by David Holbrook Culbert, translated by David Holbrook Culbert, International Historic Films, Incorporated, 2010.

Riefenstahl, Leni, director. Triumph of the Will. Nazi, 1935.

Trimborn, Jürgen. Leni Riefenstahl: A Life. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2008.

(Riefenstahl with Hitler at the Nuremberg rally in 1934. Photograph: Everett/Shutterstock)

Artist's Statement

I chose to study Leni Riefenstahl because I knew that she was involved with the Nazis, but I didn't know anything about her. Once I learned that she was the person mainly responsible for being a filmmaker in Nazi German, I became interested in how she worked on her propaganda. I chose to dramatize this particular moment because I thought it would be interesting to share many parts of Leni‘s life. After all, it adds to the whole story of her work. In the film, I covered how she met Hitler's hand in films, including parts of Triumph of Will and Imaginary Court, which I thought added to The dramatic idea of the assignment. In writing my script, I found it easy to come up with me. I do because I did good research beforehand, so it flowed very well. The idea of the court case came to me because I was inspired by a friend when I was trying to troubleshoot the idea of getting multiple aspects of her life in one short movie. So, it would be good to include both actual quotes in the script and include a lot of historical aspects of her life and the real clips she produced. When editing the video was over, it was a long process because I both hired actors and used two different types of video editing software. The actors took many days to shoot because I had direction, and we called to confirm my ideas for what I wanted out of the shoot. The editing happened three days after the first talk with the actors. During the editing, I used CapCut to add a green screen and mask the actors in a courtroom while adding black-and-white film and sunrise over the lawyer's face. However, little did I know CapCut was owned by Bytedance, the parent company of TikTok. When it got banned for those 24 hours, I was unable to edit my video or do anything to it, so I had to switch over to iMovie to complete the rest I found. I learned fast and worked hard to both at the clips and make transitions, flow, and add time markers to the film. I will remember the whole process of how this film came about from this project. In addition to learning more about Leni Restall, I got to become more creative with history and my learning of people from World War II. I think that this was more beneficial to me than writing an essay because it’s so much more memorable, and I put so many hours into it. I think that the period when Leni still made her films was terrible. I think she was a brilliant filmmaker, and it is unfortunate to see that her skills were used to portray Hitler so positively. Overall, I’m interested in World War II because of the holocaust and stories of Nazis like Leni and others. This can connect to modern 21st-century history because some people, like TikTok, use video editing, AI software, and other things to manipulate the news and cause people to feel a different way. They create their own propaganda similar to Leni, and although more advanced, it is still used for the same purpose to alter people’s views of history and current events.

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