LENI RIEFENSTAHL

1902-2003

WHO IS SHE?Leni was a German dancer,

actress and film director best known for the brilliant

propaganda films she made in support of the Nazi Party.

She rose to become Germany’s most famous and

successful filmmaker at a time when Nazi policy enforced

women playing a secondary role to men.

Her filmmaking brilliance is still celebrated by those in the

film industry, but historians continue to debate the nature

and value of her role in German history.

“Femininity was the cloak that shrouded

her in denial. By painting a portrait of herself as eternally

feminine, Riefenstahl was able to lay claim to a state of purity and innocence. No

man in Riefenstahl’s position would be

believed if he told the world that he used

actors from concentration camps

but knew nothing about Nazism or its

atrocities.”(bell hooks 1997)

“Artistically she is a genius, and politically

she is a nitwit.” (Liam O’Leary, film

historian)

It would be unwise to believe a single

word of Riefenstahl’s

memoirs unless it can be

corroborated by contemporary documentary

evidence . . . A comparison of Riefenstahl’s memoirs with other, more

contemporary, sources shows the memoirs to be self-

serving and untrustworthy

(Andrew Bonnell, 2001)

No other film director was in such a privileged position:

her position in the Third Reich film

industry was unique. She may have been a woman, but such a

disadvantage was more than offset by

her direct line to Hitler and the

awareness on the part of others that she had this direct

line.(Susan Tegel 2006)

Riefenstahl's portrait of them evokes some of

the larger themes of Nazi ideology: the

contrast between the clean and the

impure, the incorruptible and the defiled, the physical and the mental, the joyful and the critical . .

. (Susan Sontag 1976)

Each dolly shot [in documentary film] is a moral affair, each

camera setup reveals a system of values, every shot

shows a vision of the world. So, the films of Leni Riefenstahl developed, in the time of national socialism, the

glorification of the fascist regime. Her

name cannot be separated, in terms of both aesthetics and politics, from

Nazism.(Jean Perret)

"Where is my guilt? I can regret. I can

regret that I made the party film, `Triumph of the Will,' in 1934. But I cannot regret that I lived in that

time. No anti-Semitic word has ever

crossed my lips. I was never anti-Semitic. I did not join the party. So where then is my guilt? You tell me. I

have thrown no atomic bombs. I have

never betrayed anyone. What am I

guilty of?”(Leni Riefenstahl 1993)

THE SYLLABUS

PAST QUESTIONS - PART A (10 MARKS)➤ Outline the main features in the background and rise to prominence of the

twentieth-century personality you have studied➤ Describe the role played by the personality you have studied in national

and/or international history➤ Describe the personal background and historical context of the personality

you have studied➤ Outline the life of the personality you have studied➤ Describe the life of the personality you have studied➤ Provide a detailed description of THREE significant events in the life of the

personality you have studied➤ Describe THREE significant factors which resulted in the prominence of the

personality you have studied➤ Describe the rise to prominence of the personality you have studied➤ Outline the background and rise to prominence of the personality you have

studied➤ Describe the significant events in the life of the personality you have studied

PAST QUESTIONS - PART B (15 MARKS)➤ To what extent does history present us with a balanced interpretation of this personality?➤ “Events shape people more than people shape events”. How accurate is this statement in

relation to the personality you have studied?➤ “History is about winners”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you

have studied?➤ “Individuals are products of their times”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the

personality you have studied?➤ “People are swept along by events. Some individuals use events to advantage.” How

accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have studied?➤ Assess the contribution of the personality you have studied to their period of national

and/or international history➤ To what extent did the personality you have studied have a positive impact on his or her

times?➤ Evaluate the significance of the personality you have studied to his/her period of national

and/or international history➤ “The significance of an individual is created more by themselves than by the events of their

life.” How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have studied and their period of national or international history?

➤ “It is the way an individual faces challenges that shapes them and their achievements.” To what extent is this statement accurate in relation to the personality you have studied and their role in history?

KEY SKILLS➤ Describing life events without

analysis or evaluation➤ Selecting events appropriately

according to question, syllabus or historical significance

➤ Analysing, comparing and contrasting historical perspectives

➤ Evaluating the reliability of historical sources and exploring conflicts between sources

➤ Explaining historical sources with reference to the historian or author

➤ Constructing an original argument that references, compares and evaluates a range of historical perspectives and primary sources