Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl
Riefenstahl in 1935
Born
Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl

(1902-08-22)22 August 1902
Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
Died8 September 2003(2003-09-08) (aged 101)
Pöcking, Germany
Resting placeMunich Waldfriedhof
Citizenship
Occupations
  • Film director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
  • editor
  • photographer
  • actress
Years active1925–2002
Known for
Spouse
Eugen Karl "Peter" Jacob
​
​
(m. 1944; div. 1946)​
PartnerHorst Kettner [fr] (from 1968)
Websiteleni-riefenstahl.de
Signature

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",[1] while on the other hand she is criticized for her works in the service of propaganda during the Nazi era.[2][3][4]

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 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.[5]

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 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.[6][7]

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 the Holocaust, and was criticized as the "voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense."[8][9][10] Riefenstahl's postwar work included an autobiography book and two photography books on the Nuba peoples of southern Sudan.

  1. ^ "Leni Riefenstahl". Filmmuseum Potsdam (in German).
  2. ^ "Leni Riefenstahl ou le talent artistique au service d'une entreprise de mort – La cinéaste officielle du régime hitlérien aura cent ans le 22 août. Un destin qui épouse l'histoire du XXe siècle et pose la question des liens entre esthétique et idéologie" [Leni Riefenstahl or artistic talent at the service of an enterprise of death – The official filmmaker of the Hitler regime will be one hundred years old on August 22. A destiny that embraces the history of the 20th century and raises the question of the links between aesthetics and ideology]. Le Monde (in French). 15 August 2002.
  3. ^ "La cinéaste allemande Leni Riefenstahl est morte – La réalisatrice allemande Leni Riefenstahl, qui mit sa caméra au service d'Hitler, est décédée lundi soir à l'âge de 101 ans, selon une journaliste se présentant comme très proche" [German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl is dead – German director Leni Riefenstahl, who put her camera at the service of Hitler, died Monday evening at the age of 101, according to a journalist presenting herself as very close]. Le Monde (in French). 9 September 2003.
  4. ^ "Leni Riefenstahl, artiste asservie au nazisme" [Leni Riefenstahl, artist enslaved to Nazism]. Le Monde (in French). 10 September 2003. Retrieved 7 May 2021.
  5. ^ Barker, Jennifer (2010). "Indifference, Identification, and Desire in Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas, Leni Riefenstahl's The Blue Light and Triumph of the Will, and Leontine Sagan's Maedchen in Uniform". Women in German Yearbook. 26 (1). Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press: 73–96. doi:10.5250/womgeryearbook.26.1.0073. JSTOR 10.5250/womgeryearbook.26.1.0073. S2CID 142865328.
  6. ^ Downing 2012, p. 23.
  7. ^ Scheinberg, Robert (4 September 1997). "Award to German filmmaker spurs debate on her role as propagandist". JTA News. Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Retrieved 27 February 2017. 'Without the Riefenstahls of the world in the 1930s, the Shoah might not have happened. I would consider her an unindicted co-conspirator.' (Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center)
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :3 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Kakutani, Michiko (13 May 2007). "Triumph of Willful Blindness to the Horror of History". The New York Times. Riefenstahl would repeatedly ignore or deny news reports of anti-Semitic atrocities in Germany. Mr. Bach reports that she claimed not to believe reports about Kristallnacht, shrugging it off as slander on her homeland, and that during a 1938-39 trip to the United States, she told a reporter that as an artist she could not be expected to know about events, even if the rest of the world did. . . . In 1940, with the fall of Paris, Riefenstahl wrote Hitler an ecstatic 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.' This from a woman who wanted history to see her simply as an artist, who falsely denied ever making anti-Semitic statements, who implausibly claimed she knew next to nothing about Hitler's persecution of the Jews, a woman who never acknowledged moral accountability for the role her movies played in promoting Hitler and his cause . . . .
  10. ^ Connolly, Kate (9 December 2021). "Burying Leni Riefenstahl: one woman's lifelong crusade against Hitler's favourite film-maker". The Guardian. Jürgen Trimborn, author of a highly critical biography published in 2002, declared that there was "no evidence that, due to her proximity to the regime, Riefenstahl knew more than others did about the mass annihilation of the Jews. But it is obvious that, like most Germans, she knew enough to be sure that it was better not to know even more." (Gladitz would later judge this analysis as far too generous.)