Triumph of the Will
Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi era films have been hailed and criticized as Nazi documentaries, propaganda, and superb film making although she defended them as works of art.
Triumph of the Will (1935) has been called the greatest propaganda film ever made although the creator, Leni Riefenstahl, vigorously denied that the film was made for propaganda purposes. Riefenstahl, often called the “mother of modern film,” frequently said in her defense after the war that she was coerced by the Nazis into making the movie. Whether her goal was pure art or propaganda or a mixture of both, Triumph of the Will took a ranting demagogue and turned him into a modern god.
The Appeal of Triumph of the Will
The so-called documentary begins with aerial pictures of Nuremberg through billowing clouds. Hitler’s plane is filmed flying out of the clouds. Over the city, the plane’s silhouette shadowed on the streets below, moves block to block to the grounds where the Nazi Party rallies took place. In the background, the viewer can hear the Horst Wessel song.
Filmed from many angles, the black and white chronicle of the 1934 party rally captures all of the ritual, pageantry, and martial qualities of the movement. Flags flutter everywhere; Hitler youth bands play popular party marches. Hitler makes emotional speeches, demonstrating his charisma with the people who stop him with wild applause, holding up their arms in the Nazi salute and shouting “Sieg Heil!”
Riefenstahl accomplished an effect that simply could not be the same without the use of black and white. Hundreds of jubilant facial shots capture the total participation of the crowd. German historian Klaus Fischer points out that in films like Triumph of the Will, the people themselves became “coactors.”
Hitler the Artist
Adolf Hitler loved the film. Triumph of the Will represented a massive spectacle that appealed to a man whose initial background was as an artist. It should also be remembered that Hitler’s favorite composer was Richard Wagner, the 19th Century romanticist whose resume included being a revolutionary and a rabid anti-Semite.
The backdrops and staging of the party rallies throughout the 1930s were much like the elaborate and heroic Wagnerian operas that were performed, most ideally, at Bayreuth, a theater constructed around the needs of Wagner’s grandiose operas, similar to the immense structures at the Nazi Party Rally Grounds.
Leni Riefenstahl after the War
In a May 11, 1965 television interview, Riefenstahl claimed that in 1934/1935, she did not consider Triumph of the Will to be propaganda but conceded that, in hindsight, future generations might see it as such. Throughout the interview, she portrayed herself as a victim, noting her troubles with Dr. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi Propaganda Minister.
Of the wars years, she stated, “I didn’t know it was so dangerous.” During a National Public Ratio obituary upon her death in September 2003, commentator Bob Edwards played an excerpt from an earlier interview in which Riefenstahl stated firmly, “It is not a propaganda film” (NPR, Morning Edition, September 9, 2003).
Riefenstahl made several post-war “come backs.” She mastered photography, demonstrating her talents in Africa. She learned under-water photography and produced spectacular pictures. Leni Riefenstahl had a singular gift for capturing uniquely spatial events and moments.
Riefenstahl’s other “great” movie demonstrates this quality as well. Olympia or Gods of the Stadium (1938) captured the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games in a documentary that some film critics hail as one of the best movies ever made.
Never a member of the Nazi Party, Riefenstahl, during her interviews, comes across like many Germans of the time who became caught up in a movement without stopping to question the motives or means. And like other Germans coming out that period, Riefenstahl saw herself as a victim. She died in 2003 at the age of 101.
Sources:
- Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds, VHS Tape, Nuremberg Museums, 2000
- Klaus P. Fischer, Nazi Germany: a New History (New York: Continuum, 1995)
- Anna Maria Sigmund, Women of the Third Reich (NDE Publishing, 2000)
- National Public Radio (several interviews on-line)
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