KC044

KC045

KC046

]

KC047

KC048

Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl's career included work as a dancer, actress, film producer, director, and also a photographer, but the rest of Leni Riefenstahl's career was shadowed by her history as a documentary maker for Germany's Third Reich in the 1930s. Often called Hitler's propagandist, she disclaimed knowledge of or any responsibility for the Holocaust, saying in 1997 to the New York Times, "I did not know what was going on. I did not know anything about those things."

Leni Riefenstahl was born in Berlin in 1902. Her father, in the plumbing business, opposed her goal to train as a dancer, but she pursued this education anyway at Berlin's Kunstakademie where she studied Russian ballet and, under Mary Wigman, modern dance.

Leni Riefenstahl appeared on stage in many European cities as a dancer in the years 1923 through 1926.  She was impressed with the work of film-maker Arnold Fanck, whose "mountain" films presented images of almost mythical struggle of humans against the strength of nature.  She talked Fanck into giving her a role in one of his mountain films, playing the part of a dancer. Then she went on to star in five more of Fanck's films.

By 1931, she'd formed her own production company, Leni Riefenstahl-Produktion.  In 1932 she produced, directed and starred in Das blaue Licht ("The Blue Light"). This film was her attempt to work within the mountain film genre, but with a woman as the central character and a more romantic presentation.  Already, she showed her skill in editing and in the technical experimentation that was a hallmark of her work later in the decade.

Leni Riefenstahl later told the story of happening upon a Nazi party rally where Adolf Hitler was speaking. His effect on her, as she reported it, was electrifying.  She contacted him, and soon he had asked her to make a film of a major Nazi rally.  This film, produced in 1933 and titled Sieg des Glaubens ("Victory of the Faith"), was later destroyed, and in her later years Riefenstahl denied that it had much artistic value.

Leni Riefenstahl's next film was the one that made her reputation internationally: Triumph des Willens ("Triumph of the Will").  This documentary of the 1934 Nazi Party convention in Nuremburg (Nürnberg) has been termed the best propaganda film ever made.  Leni Riefenstahl always denied that it was propaganda -- preferring the term documentary -- and she has also been called the "mother of the documentary."

The album pages below contain the hand-signed Riefenstahl photos in my collection. The album pages contain some biographical information about Leni, a photo of her filming "Triumph of the Will" and a more modern photo of her. She died in 2003 at the age of 101.

LR001

LR002

LR003

LR004