Leni Riefenstahl

The film that brought Leni glory as a director, and later fierce condemnation, was a 1934 propaganda film for the Nazis, the National Socialist German Workers' Party.

Leni Riefenstahl: “Before 1945, no newspaper called Triumph of the Will a propaganda film. The whole world praised me. Yet after the war they completely changed their attitude, and suddenly I was treated like a criminal.”

In 1923, an encounter at a Berlin underground station opened a new opportunity. A poster for the film Mountain of Destiny caught her eye as she passed. It inspired Leni's desire to enter the world of cinema, and bold efforts soon made that dream real.

Cinematographer G. Lantschner: "Riefenstahl had to meet the director's demands one after another. Acting in snowy mountains was dangerous and required considerable courage. But she tackled every performance enthusiastically and never complained that anything was too difficult."

Actor B. Freitag: ‘She certainly was attractive—her well-proportioned figure, her manner, the way she looked at people. For her, captivating—not ten, perhaps, but two or three actors—would have been child’s play.’

Leni wrote Hitler a letter. It was the beginning of a fateful friendship.

Goebbels: ‘For a ruler to succeed, he must first succeed in propaganda. Politics and publicity are inseparable. The success of government depends on political propaganda.’

Leni Riefenstahl: ‘I did not think I had the talent. I had never made a documentary. I wanted to be an actress rather than a director. But I could not refuse.’

Former Hitler attendant H. Döring: ‘She visited the Reich Chancellery in Berlin regularly. At one point, almost every day—sometimes several times a day. But it was entirely business, not pleasure or romance. They discussed the film she was going to make, but Hitler was slow to decide. He kept coming up with new ideas, and each time Leni was summoned to the Chancellery.’

What they were planning was a major propaganda film about Hitler and his Party.

Nuremberg, 1933. Leni was entrusted with the major task of recording the first Party rally after Hitler's seizure of power. Grand celebrations unfolded before Riefenstahl's cameras. She tackled the difficult assignment boldly.

Leni's biographer R. Rother: "It was a test of nerve, you might say. For her very first documentary, she was suddenly entrusted with a Nazi Party rally. Victory of Faith was not a perfect achievement for her. There was too little filming equipment, and on location she had to use whatever was available."

Leni's biographer R. Rother: "In footage of Hitler from this period, we glimpse comical gestures of which he himself was unaware. He did not yet know exactly how to behave before the camera."

‘Filming Triumph of the Will took only ten days. I was not originally meant to direct it, and I was rather reluctant. I wanted to act, not direct.’

Leni steadily built her record of achievements and became close to Nazi leaders.

Actor B. Freitag: “Leni was close enough to the Nazi leaders to shake hands frequently and exchange knowing glances with them. How could she possibly have kept her distance from politics? Or was she hiding her true feelings and merely pretending to believe in Nazi ideology? I think she sincerely sympathized with the Nazis at the time. Once you become deeply involved and acquire that much power, it must be very difficult to resistresist authority.”

An affectionate stroll in the countryside.

Berlin Olympic marathon champion Sohn Kee-chung: “We athletes received a very friendly welcome. In the Olympic Village we were repeatedly invited to parties and events. But we could not go sightseeing, so we knew nothing about conditions outside.”

Film historian H. Hoffmann: "Foreign visitors to Germany saw Hitler as someone they could like. But this was a manufactured image. The dictator in the stadium was dressed up in rosy colors. Every publicly released image of Hitler had been selected through meticulous preparation and censorship. He was always staged as a figure with a certain aura, overlaid with the wholesome image of sport."

Cinematographer H. Ertl: “An incident occurred during filming, at the swimming stadium. A beautiful young woman wearing a hat suddenly appeared. Carrying a bouquet, she ran toward where Hitler was sitting. Of course that should never have been allowed, but she approached Hitler with the flowers. Then, astonishingly, as she offered him the bouquet, she embraced him and kissed him passionately in front of the huge crowd.”

'I am interested only in beautiful things.' After the war, this was Leni Riefenstahl's reply whenever some critics denounced these images as fascist.

After the Olympics, Leni Riefenstahl shut herself in the editing room with an enormous quantity of footage. The two-part, four-hour epic was completed two years later.

In 1938, at Leni’s wish, the film opened on Hitler’s birthday. The dictator was moved and greatly satisfied.

Hitler's former bodyguard W. Schneider: “Leni Riefenstahl's artistic talent served Nazi Germany's propaganda and gave it a beautiful outward form. In that sense, she was a leading force behind the Party.”

As war approached, Hitler was devising an enormous plan in Berlin: to rebuild the city completely as Germania, the capital of the world.

Former Hitler bodyguard W. Schneider: ‘One day at the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, I was ordered to set a dining table in the great hall. Before long, SS General Brückner appeared with Leni Riefenstahl, and then Führer Hitler arrived. The two exchanged greetings…but the scene at that moment is vividly burned into my memory. Her beautiful eyes, gazing at the Führer, glittered as if on fire. There was something extraordinary in the atmosphere.’

In September 1939, the Second World War began in Poland. The supreme commander immediately went to the war zone.

Photographs of Riefenstahl's visit to the front survived in a German's album. She intended to film soldiers elated by victory. But something unexpected happened: Wehrmacht soldiers were shot at a frontline encampment.

Cinematographer H. Hölscher: "During filming—it was autumn—we had heavy snow and everything turned white. Since snow was unwanted in the scene, she telephoned someone at the Reich Chancellery and asked them to send a company of soldiers immediately to clear the roofs. A company actually arrived. Its commander was Peter Jacob. Apparently, as soon as he met Leni, he bluntly told her she was crazy to make him and his men shovel snow. After that she became infatuated with him. To our surprise, she actually married him toward the end of the war."

The investigation concluded that Leni Riefenstahl had been a Nazi sympathizer. She has continued to insist that she had nothing to do with politics and that her postwar assessment was unjust.

Cinematographer H. Hölscher: "Black Cargo is the story of a researcher. To find her husband, who has vanished in Central Africa, his wife sets out with a slave trader. Scenes such as the transport of slaves were to be filmed in the African wilderness itself."

Cinematographer H. Hölscher: “A great deal of time had passed, and even the filming boats were ready, yet there was no concrete plan for which scenes to shoot when. Such a leisurely, absurd approach was no longer workable.”

Cinematographer H. Hölscher: "All directors at the time worked under similar conditions; she was not singled out for especially cold treatment. But she could not compromise with those conditions. She was not buried by others; she defeated herself."

Film historian H. Hoffmann: "She lives within her own truth and does not even perceive contradictions in her words and actions. Of course she condemns Nazi policy toward the Jews, but she firmly believes that Hitler himself, and her relationship with him, are entirely separate matters."

Today, looking back over the twentieth century, the world is trying to reassess objectively Leni Riefenstahl's extraordinary talent and influence. But she herself no longer even cares how her age judges what she diddid.