Leni RiefenstahlJoin now to read essay Leni RiefenstahlLeni RiefenstahlLeni Riefenstahl, a dazzling individual that has lived through and experienced many things that no other person may have. She has lived through the World War One, Great Depression, Nazi Germany, World War Two, the Cold war and September 11. However, what fascinates historians and people all over was her involvement and relationship with Hitler and the Nazis party. This report will look over Leniās early to role as director of her Infamous films Triumph of the Will and Olympia and her involvement and view of Nazism and Hitler.
Helene Bertha Amelie (Leni) was born on 22 August 1902 in Berlin. Leni lived in a comfortable middle-class family. Since a young age Leni has had a passion for dance. Leniās dancing career began in the 1920s, during the Weimar republic that saw the birth of a culturally and politically diverse nation. Max Reinhardt, a prominent producer hired Leni as a dancer. Leni soon extended her talents to choreography. Her dancing career suffered due to a continuos knee injuries and one in particular in 1925, when she performed Prague. However, her life was going to under go a dramatic change that would lead her to acting and finally directing. Suddenly the image of a man climbing a jagged mountain came into focus. The colourful poster was promoting a movie with predictive name āMountain of Destinyā. Leni instantly became entranced with the movie and soon went off to meet Arnold Fanck who would open the world of cinema to Leni. She stared in six of his movies, such as The Holy Mountain, The Big Jump and the White Hell of Pitz Palu, where she was portrayed as the hero and where her physical proficiency was displayed (which has always been a male domain). Franck had become her mentor and it been his opening scene of the āThe magic mountainā that Hitler admired.
In 1932 the political situation in Germany was intensifying. The Republic was crumbling and the great depression was taking its toll on the German people. Leni was not greatly affected by the depression and saw little of the violence that was occurring. In Berlin she was persuaded by friends to attend a political rally at Sportsplatz where Hitler would give an address. Instantly Leni had become spellbound by Hitler as he did upon thousands-āHe radiated something very powerful,ā she later observed, āsomething which had a kind of hypotonic effect.ā Inspired by Hitler, Leni wrote to Hitler, who soon replied, as Hitler was an admirer of work. Hitler and Leni met in late 1932 on the Baltic coast. Hitler praised her and her work, which would have left no doubt that; she was flattered and captivated by Hitler. Hitler had told her that once the Nazis came into power that she would make movies for them. It was a start of friendship between the two.
The Nazi State of Palestine and Jews in Central Europe, 1920-1928
In the early 1930s, at the behest of the Hitler regime, Leni traveled to a conference in Berlin. Ā At the conference, which she accompanied to and from the conference, the Nazi government announced an anti-Semitic and racist policy among Jews. The conference was marked by the arrival of an unusually large amount of black intellectuals who were the focus of criticism on the German government. The German government was divided between its “left wing” and its “rightwing.” On many occasions that left (or right); other than in an “anti-semitic” period, the Nazi government had never called a meeting of its “left side.” In response to this, Leni sent a letter to the head of the state in Berlin in which she addressed a white audience and stated that “that the only way we can save the Jews of Germany is with a war of extermination and with the right of conquest.” In the letter, she wrote, “We are working to destroy all the minorities under a Jewish state,” ā all those whose ancestors had been killed or killed in battles of national importance.
On the evening that Sunday, August 8, 1938,[1] a mass gathering began among about 100 Jews in the town of Karpath- und BĆ¼rst, near the Austrian border from the west to the south. The Nazis, who held their weekly meetings on August 12, 1938, had invited a large white section of KDP members and had ordered them to prepare at least 40 leaflets with the Jewish slogan: “Das Hitler is the murderer in our country at the moment, and he will do this to all of us.” As the Jewish section prepared a letter, its members were taken out of bed to begin an important meeting with Hitler.
On the morning that August 15, the first black intellectuals were assembled, but in a far more visible form. Their number began to grow: all their delegates were from the KDP, including Leni, who was Jewish. These officials were known to have met with the Nazis and had a great deal of support from his supporters. The KDP, which numbered about one million Jews, was a major political organization in Germany. Hitler’s policy of bringing Germans under German control was to allow them to integrate into the state. By 1942 the policy had created at least one million Jews in the state. With little or no consultation from the federal government, Hitler instituted a policy of deportation to Auschwitz. Although the plan was never implemented, the idea is still the core of the Jewish state.
Leni gave a speech to a Jewish family as she and the other black intellectuals were waiting outside the Reich Museum, in an effort to spread the news about the KDP movement in the far east. Although the speech was relatively short and had some slight resonance in the audience, at the time of its speech that exact same crowd had gathered in Hamburg and elsewhere. On Aug. 11, 1938, the head of the state’s foreign affairs office for the Reich told German newspaper the New York Daily News, about the Jews: “There were three hundred Jews, and they had gathered together in the Reich Center at the Reichstag in Hamburg, to talk about some of the major questions they had about the German state.Ā And today, it’s time to ask them to get the first look at these real people we’ve known for so long”.
The event held up the question of why those Jewish leaders had been drawn to the movement in the first place. This was certainly the leading idea of the
Leni was fascinated with film and film techniques. So, in 1932 she produced, directed, edited and starred in The Blue Light. A fairytale story about a woman named Junta. Leni experimented greatly with colour filters, light and camera shots. She was a perfectionist that was determined to create a mythical landscape. The film was a great success that won her a silver medal in the Venice Film Festival in 1933.
Leni was a true artist that expressed and produced her movies in ways that have not been done before. Most films of the day were static productions that only had the camera in one position recording the action. She believed that the techniques used, such as music, angles and lighting, should be used to reflect and relate to the film. All her scenes were carefully planned out and became experimental with her camera. She spent a great deal of time editing her films.
In February 1933, Hitler asked Leni to make films for him. She however, declined due to her fear that it would decline her ability to work creatively in freedom. Also, she did not wish to work under the control of Gobbels and she had no experience in documentaries. In 1934 Hitler insisted that she make a feature film about the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. Hitler demanded that she make the film and that Walter Ruttmann (communist) a documentary filmmaker she had suggested was not suitable.
She had tried to have Hitler release her from the filming, but was promised by Hitler complete artistic control for this film and future works, outside of Goebbels, if she would complete this film. She reluctantly agreed to the filming, however under her own conditions. She had asked that the production of the film would be put under her company (Leni Riefenstahl Studio Film) and not by the Ministry of Propaganda.
The Triumph of the Will was a film like no other, during this era. The techniques used and the careful editing of each scene was completely new and revolutionary. The camera angle was used in every possible way, from camera operators on moving cranes and trucks, to