Leni Riefenstahl

Infobox actor
name = Leni Riefenstahl

---

birthname = Helene Bertha Amalie Riefenstahl
birthdate = birth date|1902|8|22|mf=y
birthplace = Berlin, Germany
deathdate = death date and age|2003|9|8|1902|8|22|mf=y
deathplace = Pöcking, Germany
yearsactive = 1925 - 1954, 2002
spouse = Peter Jacob (1944-1947)
Horst Kettner (2003-death)
awards = Kinema Junpo Award for Best Foreign Film
1941 "Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der Völker"
Mussolini Cup for Best Foreign Film
1938 "Olympia 1. Teil - Fest der Völker" ; "Olympia 2. Teil - Fest der Schönheit"

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (August 22 1902 – September 8 2003) was a German film director, dancer and actress widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will"), a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party. Riefenstahl's prominence in the Third Reich along with her personal friendships with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels thwarted her film career following Germany's defeat in World War II, after which she was arrested but never convicted of war crimes.cite video
people = Leni Riefenstahl
year = 1993
date =
title = The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
url =
format =
medium = motion picture
publisher = Ray Müller
location = Germany, Africa
accessdate =
accessmonth=
accessyear =
time = ]

The propaganda value of her films made during the 1930s repels most commentators but many film histories cite the aesthetics as outstanding. [Koster, Ron, " [http://www.riefenstahl.org/actress/1925/film-debut.html Leni Riefenstahl's Film Début] ", 2004, retrieved 6 January 2008] [New York Times, Janet Maslin, " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B04E0DC163DF930A25750C0A962958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 Just What Did Leni Riefenstahl's Lens See?] ", 13 March 1994, retrieved 6 January 2008] [Pysmon, " [http://www.psymon.com/art/leni/ Leni Gallery] ", retrieved 6 January 2008] After her death the Associated Press described Riefenstahl as an "acclaimed pioneer of film and photographic techniques." [Bulldog News, " [http://www.bulldognews.net/hitlers_filmmaker.html Hitler's Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl Dead at 101] " (after Associated Press), 9 September 2003, retrieved 5 January 2008] "Der Tagesspiegel" newspaper in Berlin noted, "Leni Riefenstahl conquered new ground in the cinema." [bbc.com, " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3097018.stm Leni Riefenstahl the Devil's Diva] ", 10 September 2003, retrieved 5 January 2008] The BBC said her documentaries "were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time." [bbc.com, " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3093154.stm Film-maker Leni Riefenstahl dies] ", 9 September 2003, retrieved 4 January 2008. Text from article: "Her Nazi documentaries were hailed as groundbreaking film-making, pioneering techniques involving cranes, tracking rails, and many cameras working at the same time."] Reviewer Gary Morris called Riefenstahl "an artist of unparalleled gifts, a woman in an industry dominated by men, one of the great formalists of the cinema on a par with Eisenstein or Welles." [Bright Lights Film Journal, " [http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/26/riefenstahl.html Lonesome Leni] " (film review), November 1999, retrieved 4 January 2008] Riefenstahl later published her still photography of the Nuba tribes in Africa and made films of marine life.

Biography

Dancer and actress

Riefenstahl was born in the working class neighbourhood of Wedding in Berlin. She began her career as a self-styled and well-known interpretive dancer. After injuring her knee while performing in Prague, she saw a nature film about mountains and became fascinated with the possibilities of film. She went to the Alps to meet the film's director Arnold Fanck, hoping to secure the lead in his next project. Instead Riefenstahl found an actor who had starred in Fanck's films who wrote to the director about her. Riefenstahl went on to star in many of Fanck's mountain films as an athletic and adventurous young woman with a suggestive appeal. Riefenstahl had a prolific career as an actor in silent films. She was popular with the German public and highly regarded by directors. Her last acting role before becoming a director was the 1933 U.S.-German co-production "SOS Eisberg" (U.S. title "SOS Iceberg"), produced and distributed by Universal Studios.

When presented with the opportunity to direct "Das Blaue Licht" (1932) she took it. Breaking from Fanck's style of setting realistic stories in fairytale mountain settings, Riefenstahl -- working with leftist screen writers Béla Balázs and Carl Mayer -- filmed "Das Blaue Licht" as a romantic, wholly mystical tale which she thought of as more fitting to the terrain.

Propaganda/documentaries

Riefenstahl heard Adolf Hitler speak at a rally in 1932 and was mesmerized by his talent as a public speaker. Describing the experience in her "Memoiren", Riefenstahl wrote: "I had an almost apocalyptic vision that I was never able to forget. It seemed as if the earth's surface were spreading out in front of me, like a hemisphere that suddenly splits apart in the middle, spewing out an enormous jet of water, so powerful that it touched the sky and shook the earth." [Leni Riefenstahl, Memoiren, München, 1987]

According to the "Daily Express" of 24 April 1934, Leni Riefenstahl had read "Mein Kampf" during the making of "Das Blaue Licht". This newspaper article quotes her as having commented, "The book made a tremendous impression on me. I became a confirmed National Socialist after reading the first page. I felt a man who could write such a book would undoubtedly lead Germany. I felt very happy that such a man had come." [Fraser, J., 'An ambassador for Nazi Germany', Films II/5 (London, April, 1982) 12. He quotes from the "Daily Express" 24 April 1934.]

Hitler already admired "Das Blaue Licht" and during a personal meeting he asked Riefenstahl to direct the 1933 film "Der Sieg des Glaubens" ("Victory of Faith"), an hour-long feature about the Nazi Party rally at Nuremberg in 1933 (released on DVD in 2003). Ernst Röhm was featured in the film but when he was murdered during the purge of the SA (Night of the Long Knives) "Der Sieg des Glaubens" became a political embarrassment ."Leni Riefenstahl: A Life" by Jürgen Trimborn, trans. Edna McCown, Faber & Fabar 2007. ISBN 978-0-374-18493-3 and 0-374-28493-3 p. 102]

Nonetheless impressed with Riefenstahl's work, Hitler asked her to film the upcoming 1934 Party rally in Nuremberg. The result, "Triumph of the Will", was a documentary generally recognized as a masterful, epic, innovative work of documentary filmmaking. "Triumph of the Will" became a rousing success in Germany. However, it was widely banned in America as a propaganda film for the Nazi Party. The film won many international awards as a ground-breaking example of filmmaking and is widely regarded as one of the most effective pieces of propaganda ever produced.

In interviews for the 1993 film "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl", Riefenstahl adamantly denied any deliberate attempt to create pro-Nazi propaganda and said she was disgusted that "Triumph of the Will" was used in such a way.Interview with Leni Riefenstahl by Ray Müller: "The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl" (DVD), 1993] In 2003, "The Economist" magazine cited "Triumph of the Will" as having "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century." ["The Economist", " [http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=2051630 Leni Riefenstahl: Hand-held history] ", September 2003, added 5 January 2008]

In 1935 Riefenstahl made"" (German for "Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces"), a lesser-known film about the German Wehrmacht. Like "Der Sieg des Glaubens" and "Triumph of the Will", this was made at the annual Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. Over a million Germans had participated in the 1934 Nuremberg Rally and later yearly rallies held there got even bigger. The 1935 rally is noted for pronouncements about the status of Jews in Germany. [ [http://www.ushmm.org/outreach/nlaw.htm The Nuremberg Race Laws] ] These became known as the Nuremberg Laws which for Jews in Europe would soon become matters of life and death.

In 1936 Riefenstahl was invited to film the Olympic Games in Berlin. She also went to Greece to take footage of the games' original site at Olympia, where she was aided by Greek photographer Nelly's. This material became "Olympia", a film widely noted for its technical and aesthetic achievements. She was one of the first film makers to use tracking shots in a documentary, placing a camera on rails to follow the athletes' movement. Riefenstahl's work on Olympia has been cited as a major influence in modern sports photography. [Schneider, Stier, "The Sport Journal", " [http://www.thesportjournal.org/2001Journal/fall/olympia.htm Leni Riefenstahl's Olympia, Brilliant Cinematography or Nazi Propaganda?] ", 2003, retrieved 5 January 2008]

World War II

During the Invasion of Poland Leni Riefenstahl was photographed in Poland wearing a military uniform and a pistol on her belt in the company of German soldiers. [Riefenstahl in military uniform, image from: Steven Bach (2007). Leni - The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl. [http://www.randomhouse.com/knopf/authors/bach/images7.html] ; [http://www.forumfilmowe.art.pl/wfa/1065382816x33x32x40 Ścinki Taśmy] , Polityka, 2003-10-05] On 12 September 1939 she was in the town of Końskie when 30 civilians were executed there, in retaliation for an alleged attack on German soldiers. According to her memoir Riefenstahl tried to intervene but a furious German soldier held her at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her on the spot. Closeup photographs of a distraught Leni survive from that day. By 5 October 1939 Riefenstahl was back in occupied Poland filming Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw.

On June 14, 1940, the day Paris was declared an open city by the French and occupied by German troops, Riefenstahl wrote to Hitler in a 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." [Die Neue Rechte, by Kay Sokolowsky, Konkret 3, 1999:" "Mit unbeschreiblicher Freude, tief bewegt und erfüllt mit heissem Dank, erleben wir mit Ihnen mein Führer, Ihren und Deutschlands grössten Sieg, den Einzug Deutscher Truppen in Paris. Mehr als jede Vorstellungskraft menschlicher Fantasie vollbringen Sie Taten, die ohnegleichen in der Geschichte der Menschheit sind, wie sollen wir Ihnen nur danken? Glückwünsche auszusprechen, das ist viel zu wenig, um Ihnen die Gefühle auszusprechen, die mich bewegen." "] Riefenstahl was friends with Hitler for twelve years and reports vary as to whether she ever had an intimate relationship with him. [See Infield, Glenn B. "Eva and Adolf" New York:1974--Grosset and Dunlap (Interviews with former SS officers who had been close to Hitler and Eva Braun)]

After the Nuremberg rallies trilogy and "Olympia" Riefenstahl began work on a feature film based on Hitler's favorite opera, Eugen d'Albert's "Tiefland". On Hitler's direct order the German government paid her 7 million reichsmarks in compensation. [Jürgen Trimborn : Riefenstahl, Berlin 2002, page. 325] From September 23 until November 13, 1940 she filmed in Krün near Mittenwald. The extras playing Spanish women and farmers were drawn from gypsies (Sinti) detained in a camp at Salzburg-Maxglan who were forced to work with her. Filming at the Babelsberg Studios near Berlin began 18 months later in April 1942 and lasted into summer. This time Sinti and Roma from the Marzahn detention camp near Berlin were compelled to work as extras. [Kein Vergessen, 70. Jahrestag der Errichtung des Zwangslagers für Sinti und Roma in Berlin - Marzahn. [http://www.kein-verstecken.de/keinvergessenheft.pdf] The photo on page 13 shows Riefenstahl during the making of the film. See also: Leni Riefenstahl's 'Gypsy Question', by Susan Tegel, in: journal Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Volume 23, Issue 1 March 2003, pages 3 - 10 ] A surviving document from camp Marzahn shows a list of 65 inmates who were ordered to serve in the production. ["Sozialausgleichsabgabe für die Zigeu­ner bei dem Film Tiefland ab 27.4.42"] 50 stills from the filming in Krün near Mittenwald were later found and from these, surviving prisoners were able to identify 29 camp inmates who worked for Riefenstahl and were then deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau in the first weeks of March 1943 following Himmler's December 1942 decree. [In a decree dated December 16, 1942, Himmler ordered the deportation of Gypsies and part-Gypsies to Auschwitz--Birkenau. See: Sinti and Roma, ed. Holocaust Museum [http://www.holocaust-trc.org/sinti.htm] ] [Fourteen of them, with concentration camp numbers, were: Robert Adler (Z-5792); Karl Dewüs (Z-4145), Heini Ernst (Z-5696), Wilhelm Ritter (Z-4883), Albrecht Rose (Z-752), Charlotte Rosenberg (Z-5406), Werner Rosenberg (Z-4860), Otto Schmelzer (Z-5448); Karl Steinbach (Z-4875), Ludwig Weisenbach (Z-4857), Hermann Weiß (Z-644), Johann Weiß (Z-643), Willy Zander (Z-5933); Hans Zens (Z-178). Berliner Zeitung, 17.02.2001, Riefenstahls Liste. Zum gedenken an die ermordeten Komparsen, by Reimar Gilsenbach and Otto Rosenberg [http://www.berlinonline.de/berliner-zeitung/archiv/.bin/dump.fcgi/2001/0217/magazin/0390/] ] To the end of her life, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Riefenstahl continued to maintain all the film extras survived and that she had met them after the war. ["Leni Riefenstahl: A Life" by Trimbonr, p. 206-8]

Leni Riefenstahl married Peter Jacob on March 21, 1944 shortly after she introduced him to Hitler in Kitzbühel, Austria (they divorced in 1947).

In October 1944 the production of "Tiefland" moved to Barrandov Studios in Prague for interior filming. Lavish sets made these shots some of the most costly in the film but they were finished within days. The film would not be edited and released until almost ten years later.

As Germany's military collapsed in the spring of 1945 Riefenstahl was hitchhiking with a group of men, trying to reach her mother, when she was taken into custody by American troops. She walked out of a holding camp, beginning a series of arrests and escapes across the chaotic landscape. At last making it back home on a bicycle, she found that American troops had seized her house, then was surprised by how kindly they treated her.courses.washington.edu, " [http://courses.washington.edu/ger371/riefenstahl/biography.html Leni Riefenstahl - biography] ", retrieved 11 September 2008]

Post-war life and career

Detention and trials

Writer Budd Schulberg, assigned by the US Navy to the OSS for intelligence work while attached to John Ford's documentary unit, was ordered to arrest Riefenstahl at her chalet in Kitzbühel, Austria, ostensibly to have her identify the faces of Nazi war criminals in German film footage captured by the Allied troops. Riefenstahl claimed she wasn't aware of the nature of the internment camps. According to Schulberg, "She gave me the usual song and dance. She said, 'Of course, you know, I'm really so misunderstood. I'm not political.'" [ [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/28/AR2005112802026.html Washington Post article] , November 29, 2005; Page C01] However, when Riefenstahl later claimed she had been forced to follow Goebbels' orders under threat of being sent to a concentration camp, Schulberg asked her why she should have been afraid if she didn’t know concentration camps existed. [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/25/books/review/James.t.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print "New York Times"] , Clive James review, "Reich Star", March 25, 2007]

Riefenstahl continued to maintain she was "fascinated" by the National Socialists but politically naïve and ignorant about any war crimes. [ [http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/movies/feature/2002/10/01/leni_riefenstahl/index.html Happy Birthday, Leni Riefenstahl] ] From 1945 through 1948 she was held in sundry American and French-run detention camps and prisons along with house arrest but although Riefenstahl was tried twice by postwar authorities, she was never convicted in a denazification trial either for her alleged role as a propagandist or for the use of concentration camp inmates in her films.

Thwarted film projects

Most of the negatives for Riefenstahl's finished films and other production materials relating to her unfinished projects were lost towards the end of the war. The French government confiscated all of her editing equipment, along with the production reels of "Tiefland". After years of legal wrangling these were returned to her, but the French government had reportedly damaged some of the film stock whilst trying to develop and edit it and a few key scenes were missing (although Riefenstahl was surprised to find the original negatives for "Olympia" in the same shipment). She edited and dubbed what elements were left and "Tiefland" premiered on 11 February 1954 in Stuttgart, however it was denied entry into the Cannes Film Festival. Although Riefenstahl lived for almost another half century, "Tiefland" was her last feature film. [news.bbc.co.uk, " [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/shropshire/4096400.stm Nazi propaganda photos withdrawn] ", 15 June 2005, retrieved 11 September 2008]

Riefenstahl tried many times to make films during the 1950s and 1960s but was met with resistance, public protests and sharp criticism. Although both film professionals and investors were willing to support her work, most of the projects she attempted were stopped owing to ever-renewed and highly negative publicity about her past work for the Third Reich. In 1956, inspired by Ernest Hemingway's 1935 novel "Green Hills of Africa" she began an ambitious film project in Africa drawn from another novel called "Schwarze Fracht" ("Black Freight") but whilst scouting shooting locations almost died from injuries received in a truck accident. After waking up from a coma in a Nairobi hospital she finished writing the script there but was soon thoroughly thwarted by uncooperative locals, the Suez Canal crisis and bad weather (only test shots were ever made). Riefenstahl had high hopes for a collaboration with Jean Cocteau called "Friedrich und Voltaire", wherein Cocteau was to play two roles. They thought the film might symbolize the "love-hate relationship" between Germany and France. Cocteau's illness and 1963 death put an end to this project.

Photography

In the 1960s she began a lifelong companionship with Horst Kettner who was forty years her junior. At this time Riefenstahl took up photography, documenting a diverse array of subjects. She developed an interest in the Nuba tribe in Sudan where she sporadically lived among them, learning about their culture so she could photograph them more easily. Her books with photographs of the tribe were published in 1974 and 1976. While heralded by many as outstanding colour photographs, they were harshly criticized by Susan Sontag, who claimed in a review they were further evidence of Riefenstahl's "fascist aesthetics". ["Fascinating Fascism", 1975] She also sold her pictures to German magazines for income. Pictures taken at a 1971 social event show a camera-wielding Riefenstahl snapping photos of rock star Mick Jagger and his wife Bianca. Years later she was similarly photographed with Las Vegas entertainers Siegfried and Roy. At age 72, Riefenstahl began pursuing underwater photography, after lying about her age to gain certification for scuba diving (she claimed she was 52). On August 22, 2002, her 100th birthday, Riefenstahl released a film called "Impressionen unter Wasser" ("Underwater Impressions"), an idealized documentary of life in the oceans.

She survived a helicopter crash in Sudan in 2000.

econd marriage and death

In 2003 at the age of 101 Riefenstahl married Kettner. [TZ Online, " [http://www.tz-online.de/tzheute/art1061,153276 Leni Riefenstahl: Letztes Geheimnis geleftet!] " retrieved 04 October 2007]

Leni Riefenstahl died in her sleep on the late evening of September 8 2003 at her home in Pöcking, Germany a few weeks after her 101st birthday. She had been suffering from cancer. She was buried in the Waldfriedhof in Munich.

In his book "The Story of Film" film scholar Mark Cousins claims, "Next to Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock, Leni Riefenstahl was the most technically talented Western film maker of her era."

References and notes

Bibliography

* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/Germanfilmbib.html#Riefenstahl Leni Riefenstahl Bibliography (via UC Berkeley)]
* [http://users.skynet.be/deneulin/books.html Over 1400 references in English, German and French]
* Loiperdinger, Martin/David Culbert: "Leni Riefenstahl, the SA and the Nazi Party Rally Films, Nuremberg 1933-1934: 'Sieg des Glaubens' and 'Triumph des Willens' ", in: Historical Journal of Film and Television, 8/1/1988, S.3-38.
* Loiperdinger, Martin: "Sieg des Glaubens. Ein gelungenes Experiment nationalsozialistischer Filmpropaganda", in: Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 31/1993, S.35-48.
*Fabe, Marilyn: Triumph of the Will. The Arrival of Hitler. Notes and Analysis. Mount Vernon/N.Y. 1975.
*Heinzelmann, Herbert: "Die Heilige Messe des Reichsparteitags. Zur Zeichensprache von Leni Riefenstahls 'Triumph des Willens' ", in: Bernd Organ/Wolfgang W. Weiß: Faszination und Gewalt. Zur politischen Ästhetik des Nationalsozialismus, Nürnberg 1992, o. S.
*Loiperdinger, Martin/David Culbert: "Leni Riefenstahl, the SA and the Nazi Party Rally Films, Nuremberg 1933-1934: 'Sieg des Glaubens' and 'Triumph des Willens' ", in: Historical Journal of Film and Television, 8/1/1988, S.3-38.
*Schwartzman, R.J.: "Racial Theory and Propaganda" in 'Triumph of the Will' ", in: Florida State University on Literatur and Film, 18/1993, S.136-153.
*"Leni Riefenstahl - A Memoir", St. Martin's Press, 1993, ISBN 0-312-09843-X
*"A Portrait of Leni Riefenstahl" by Audrey Salkeld, 1996, ISBN 0-7126-7338-5
*"The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl", documentary film directed by Ray Müller (1994)
*"Leni Riefenstahl: The fallen film goddess" by Glenn B. Infield (Crowell, 1976, ISBN 0-690-01167-9)
*"Leni Riefenstahl: The Seduction of Genius" by Rainer Rother, translated by Martin H. Bott (Continuum International Publishing Group reprint edition, 2003, ISBN 0-8264-7023-8)
*"The Films of Leni Riefenstahl" by David B. Hinton, Scarecrow Press 3rd edition, 2000, ISBN 1-57886-009-1)
*"Leni Riefenstahl: Five Lives" by Angelika Taschen, 2000, ISBN 3-8228-6216-9)
*"Leni Riefenstahl: A Life" by Jurgen Trimborn, Translation by Edna McCown, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007, ISBN 0-3741-8493-3
*cite book
last = Bach
first = Steven
authorlink = Steven Bach
coauthors =
year = 2007
title = Leni - The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl
publisher = Knopf , ISBN 0-3754-0400-7

Works

Actress

* "Wege zu Kraft und Schönheit - Ein Film über moderne Körperkultur" ("Ways to Strength and Beauty", 1926)
* "Der Heilige Berg" ("The Holy Mountain", 1926)
* "Der Große Sprung" ("The Great Leap", 1927)
* "Das Schicksal derer von Habsburg" ("The Destiny of the Habsburgs", 1928)
* "Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü" ("The White Hell of Pitz Palu", 1929)
* "Stürme über dem Mont Blanc" ("Storm Over Mont Blanc", 1930)
* "Der weiße Rausch – neue Wunder des Schneeschuhs" ("The White Ecstasy", 1931)
* "Das Blaue Licht" ("The Blue Light", 1932)
* "S.O.S. Eisberg" ("S.O.S. Iceberg", 1933)
* "Olympia" (Part 1 "Festival of the Nations", 1938) (uncredited, as nude model in opening sequence)
* "Tiefland" ("Lowlands", 1954)

Director

* "Das Blaue Licht" ("The Blue Light", 1932) co-director: Bela Balazs
* "Der Sieg des Glaubens" ("Victory of Faith", 1933)
* "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will", 1934)
* "" ("Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces", 1935)
* "Olympia" (Part 1 known as "Fest der Völker"/"Festival of the Nations", Part 2 as "Fest der Schönheit"/"Festival of Beauty", 1938)
* "Tiefland" ("Lowlands", 1954)
* "Impressionen unter Wasser" ("Underwater Impressions", 2002)

Photographer

* "The Last of the Nuba" (Harper, 1974; St. Martin's Press, 1995, ISBN 0-312-13642-0)
* "The People of Kau" (Harper, 1976; St. Martin's Press reprint edition, 1997, ISBN 0-312-16963-9)
*"Vanishing Africa" (Harmony 1st American edition, 1988, ISBN 0-517-54914-X)
*"Africa" (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1616-7)
*"Riefenstahl Olympia" (Taschen, 2002, ISBN 3-8228-1945-X)

Author

*Kampf in Schnee und Eis (Leipzig, 1933)
*Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitags-Films [Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitags-Films [http://www.leniriefenstahl.it/hinter/index.htm] complete online text and photos] (München, 1935)
*Schönheit im olympischen Kampf (Berlin, 1937)
*Die Nuba (München, 1973)
*Die Nuba von Kau (München, 1976)
*Korallengärten (München, 1978)
*Mein Afrika (München, 1982)
*Memoiren (München, 1987)
*Wunder unter Wasser (München, 1990)

In translation:
*"Leni Riefenstahl" by Leni Riefenstahl, autobiography (Picador Reprint edition, 1995, ISBN 0-312-11926-7)
*"Coral Gardens" by Leni Riefenstahl (Harpercollins 1st U.S. edition, 1978, ISBN 0-06-013591-3)

ee also

* Walter Frentz

External links

* [http://www.dasblauelicht.net Das Blaue Licht: The Art of Leni Riefenstahl] Unofficial biographical website endorsed by the Riefenstahl Estate
* [http://1971films.com/Victory_of_Faith_Triumph_of_the_Will.htm Her propaganda marches on] , An analysis of Victory of Faith and Triumph of the Will.
* [http://leni-riefenstahl.de Homepage of Leni Riefenstahl]
* [http://www.riefenstahl.org/ www.riefenstahl.org - a fanpage] , claims the "most accurate and detailed Leni Riefenstahl filmography ... available anywhere."
*
* [http://womenshistory.about.com/od/riefenstahl Women's History collection]
* [http://wsws.org/articles/2003/sep2003/rief-s15.shtml "Leni Riefenstahl: propagandist for the Third Reich"] by Stefan Steinberg, on World Socialist Web Site published by the Trotskyist International Committee of the Fourth International
* [http://www.anti-rev.org/textes/Sontag74a/index.html "Fascinating Fascism", a critical 1975 essay] by Susan Sontag (out of "Under the Sign of Saturn")
* [http://www.riefenstahl.org/director/1954/dassanowsky-titanic.html Robert von Dassanowsky: "Tiefland/Titanic" analysis]
* [http://www.germanhollywood.com/rief.html Biography at The German-Hollywood Connection]
* [http://users.skynet.be/deneulin/video.html (a list of documentaries about and or with Leni Riefenstahl 1965–2004)]
* [http://www.hyperhistory.org/index.php?option=displaypage&Itemid=703&op=page Leni Riefenstahl: Film Maker Extraordinaire or Nazi Stooge?] National Centre for History Education - Australia]
* [http://users.skynet.be/deneulin/DBL.html Das blaue Licht article]
* [http://users.skynet.be/deneulin/tieflanddvd.html Tiefland article]
* [http://www.nevasport.com/nevablogs/d/leni-riefenstahl/3831 Early photographs of Leni Riefenstahl]
* [http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=670 Photographs of Leni Riefenstahl]

Persondata
NAME= Riefenstahl, Leni
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Riefenstahl, Helene Berta Amalie
SHORT DESCRIPTION=German film director, dancer and actress
DATE OF BIRTH= birth date|1902|8|22|mf=y
PLACE OF BIRTH= Berlin, Germany
DATE OF DEATH= death date|2003|9|8|mf=y
PLACE OF DEATH= Berlin, Germany