Estate of a Nazi icon The lies of Leni Riefenstahl
Produced by Sandra Maischberger, the documentary "Riefenstahl" provides an insight into the life of the former Nazi propaganda filmmaker. It shows that Riefenstahl had ardent admirers for a long time.
26.10.2024, 23:44
dpa
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Producer Sandra Maischberger and director Andres Veiel are bringing the new documentary "Riefenstahl" to the cinema.
- They have sifted through the previously unknown estate of the Nazi icon, which comprises 700 boxes.
- The film suggests that the director never regretted her work for the Nazis.
Leni Riefenstahl grins, her dyed blonde locks perfectly curled as she sits in a talk show in 1976. "You must have me confused," she says to a contemporary witness who asks her about the inhuman character of her films.
Riefenstahl (1902-2003), who made films such as "Triumph of the Will" and "Olympia" for Adolf Hitler, was known for denying her historical responsibility. With a smiling poker face, she presented herself as a naive artist who had only fulfilled her orders. This is also how she is portrayed in the new documentary "Riefenstahl", which is now being released in cinemas.
"Riefenstahl" is a film by Andres Veiel. Produced by Sandra Maischberger, the film examines Riefenstahl's relationship to the Nazi regime on the basis of her estate, but also tells the story of her biography. Veiel and Maischberger were the first to have access to the artist's estate, which consists of 700 boxes.
She hid references to her enthusiasm for Hitler
The result is a dark and fascinating work about a woman who knew how to manipulate. The film repeatedly shows scenes that suggest that Riefenstahl probably did not regret her work for the Nazi regime. After the Second World War, she was classified as a follower; she herself repeatedly emphasized that she was apolitical.
Research into the estate revealed a different picture, says director Veiel. "We came across a reference to a Daily Express interview with Riefenstahl from 1934, but the actual interview was missing," he explains. "We then got it from the newspaper's archive. In it, Riefenstahl confessed that she had read Hitler's Mein Kampf in 1932 and had already become an enthusiastic National Socialist after reading the first few pages."
Why did she remove the interview from her estate? "Such a document would have torn down her painstakingly built legend of an "apolitical" woman in one fell swoop," says Veiel. In "Riefenstahl", he shows interview excerpts as well as private photos, recorded private phone calls and quotes from personal notes.
Maischberger: Riefenstahl refused to purify herself
Veiel and Maischberger are aware that Riefenstahl is unlikely to have left the really explosive information from her estate to posterity.
"We know that she destroyed parts of the evidence from her estate," said Maischberger at the Venice Film Festival, where the work celebrated its premiere. "But I was surprised at how many things she left behind." Riefenstahl had "refused to purify herself internally and externally until the end", Maischberger had previously said in a press release.
"There are numerous traces of this in her estate: the seemingly thoughtlessly scribbled words 'vote NPD' on a page of her calendar; the openly exchanged, unbroken regret about the end of the good, National Socialist era in an exchange of letters with a long-time companion; words of thanks from a well-known Holocaust denier. But above all, the exchange with friends and admirers in many telephone conversations, which Riefenstahl had recorded in large numbers."
Filmmakers like Tarantino admire her
Riefenstahl has many admirers when it comes to her cinematic art. "Jodie Foster, Rammstein and many others approached the artist without wanting to dwell too long on her political and historical involvement," said Maischberger. And quoted a statement by director Quentin Tarantino, who once said that Riefenstahl was "the best female director who ever lived".
Others admired her not only for her film work. It was particularly depressing to listen to the tapes of phone calls that Riefenstahl received after the broadcast of the talk show mentioned at the beginning in 1976, said Maischberger.
She was a guest on the WDR talk show "The Later the Evening" at the time and had to face critical questions. "I couldn't have foreseen back then - and neither could many millions of others - what would happen," she says. "I didn't know."
"Anti-Semitic resentment is making a comeback"
After the talk show, she receives hundreds of affirming letters. A few of them are read out in the documentary. "As you have now experienced for yourself, the majority of the FRG is on your side," it says, for example. Anyone searching for videos of the talk show on the internet will also find current comments with similar wording.
"Riefenstahl" does not offer any shocking revelations, but should rather be seen as a testimony and warning in the current political climate. "Anti-Semitic resentment is currently experiencing a massive resurgence, combined with a longing for a nation state in which everything was supposedly better, more orderly and safer in the past," says Veiel.
And: "We also quote Leni Riefenstahl in this context. During her lifetime, she hoped that the German people would return to decency, manners and morals; after all, they had the ability to do so. The quote could also have come from prominent representatives of the AfD."
