T. Harry Williams Center for Oral History Collection

ABSTRACT

INTERVIEWEE NAME: Leni Riefenstahl [1902-2003]

COLLECTION: 4700.0053

IDENTIFICATION: German actress and film maker; producer of official documentaries during the Nazi regime

INTERVIEWER: David Culbert

PROJECT: Miscellaneous

DATE: 5 September 1979

FOCUS DATES: 1930s

ABSTRACT:

Incomplete files on some of films because burned by a party member; selecting Herbert Windt to write music for the 1933 documentary Seig Des Glaubens; meeting cameraman Walter Frentz; controversy over photograph of Rudolph Hess on stage of Louguess Hall at Nuremberg rally; using staged shots of Nazi leaders in her films; working on documentary S.O.S. Eisberg in Greenland when Hitler rose to power; discusses first film Das Blaue Licht (released in 1932); preparing to make film Mademoiselle Docteur (about a German spy during World War I) but Propaganda Ministry prohibited it; first meeting with Adolph Hitler and her refusal to make a documentary of party rally at Nuremberg; second meeting with Hitler three days before rally -- assumes that she is making documentary; fight between Hitler and Joseph Gobbels over the documentary; Hitler's insistence that she make the documentary (Seig Des Glaubens); problems filming Seig Des Glaubens; screening of Seig Des Glaubens for German school children; problems encountered cutting Seig Des Glaubens; compares to Seig Des Glaubens to Triumph Des Willens; outlines content of Seig Des Glaubens; destruction of copies Seig Des Glaubens; describes her film technique; conflict over whether or not to include a military presence in Triumph Des Willens; making a film on the German military (Tag Der Freiheit); brochure "Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitags" created to accompany Triumph; journalist Ernst Jaeger being ostracized for being married to a Jewish woman; discusses cinematography and filming of Triumph; refusal of news bureau to give her newsreel for use in her films; meeting her production manager Walter Traut; lost all rights to films that she made for Nazi Party; film maker Walter Ruttmann; Hitler insisting that she make Triumph and promising her that if she did so that he would allow her to chose her future projects; describes grueling schedule she kept while working on Triumph; describes cutting scene with Hitler arriving and flag unfurling; discusses camera techniques; music scores for films; making boring subject matter (parades and speeches) into interesting films; shooting Olympia (her film about the Olympics)

TAPES: T60; T61; T62

TOTAL PLAYING TIME: 3 hours

PAGES TRANSCRIPT: 19

RESTRICTIONS: Only English excerpts from the transcripts may be made available to researchers.