| Triumph of the Will | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster byErich Ludwig Stahl [de] | |
| Directed by | Leni Riefenstahl |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Leni Riefenstahl |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Leni Riefenstahl(uncredited) |
| Music by | Herbert Windt |
Production company | Reichsparteitag-Film |
| Distributed by | UFA |
Release date |
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Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | Germany |
| Language | German |
Triumph of the Will (German:Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 GermanNazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited, and co-written byLeni Riefenstahl.Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficialexecutive producer; his name appears in the opening titles. It chronicles the 1934Nazi Party Congress (rally) inNuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters.[1] The film contains excerpts of speeches given byNazi leaders at the Congress, including Hitler,Rudolf Hess andJulius Streicher, interspersed with footage of massedSturmabteilung (SA) andSchutzstaffel (SS) troops and public reaction. Its overriding theme is the return ofGermany as agreat power with Hitler as its leader. The film was produced after theNight of the Long Knives, and many formerly prominent SA members are absent.
Following its release in March 1935, it became a major example of film used as propaganda and was well-received at home. Riefenstahl's techniques—such as moving cameras,aerial photography, the use oflong-focus lenses to create a distortedperspective, and the revolutionary approach to the use of music andcinematography—have earnedTriumph of the Will recognition as one of the greatest propaganda films in history. It won several awards in Germany, France and Italy.[2]
DuringWorld War II,Frank Capra's seven-film seriesWhy We Fight wasdirectly inspired byTriumph of the Will and the United States' response to it.[3]
In today's Germany,Triumph of the Will is not banned. In 2018, theFederal Review Board for Media Harmful to Young Persons even rejected an application to index an imported version. The decision explained thatTriumph of the Will is a historical document that can be classified as having high art-historical value. Nevertheless, the film is not freely distributed in Germany because the rights holder,Transit Film, exercises its copyright and takes action against unauthorized publications. Screenings that take place with the consent of Transit Film are held in an educational context.[4]
The film continued to influence films, documentaries and commercials after the war.[5]
The film begins with a prologue establishing the present-day as 5 September 1934 and the elapsed time sinceWorld War I, theTreaty of Versailles,Hitler's appointment as chancellor, climaxing in his visit toNuremberg on that day. It is the only commentary in the entire film.
Day 1: The film opens with shots of the clouds above the city, and then moves through the clouds to float above the assembling masses below, with the intention of portraying the beauty and majesty of the scene. The cruciform shadow of Hitler's plane is visible as it passes over the tiny figures marching below, accompanied by an orchestral arrangement of theHorst-Wessel-Lied. Upon arriving at the Nuremberg airport, Hitler and other Nazi leaders emerge from his plane to thunderous applause and a cheering crowd. He is then driven into Nuremberg, through equally enthusiastic people, to his hotel where a night rally is later held.
Day 2: The second day begins with images of Nuremberg at dawn, accompanied by an extract from the Act III Prelude (Wach Auf!) ofRichard Wagner'sDie Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Following this is amontage of the attendees preparing for the opening of the Reich Party Congress, and footage of the top Nazi officials arriving at theLuitpold Arena. The film then cuts to the opening ceremony, whereRudolf Hess announces the start of the Congress. The camera then introduces much of the Nazi hierarchy and covers their opening speeches, includingJoseph Goebbels,Alfred Rosenberg,Hans Frank,Fritz Todt,Robert Ley andJulius Streicher. Then the film cuts to an outdoor rally for theReichsarbeitsdienst (Labor Service), which is primarily a series of quasi-military drills by men carrying spades. This is also where Hitler gives his first speech on the merits of the Labour Service and praising them for their work in rebuilding Germany. The day then ends with a torchlightSA parade and fireworks display in whichViktor Lutze speaks to the crowds.
Day 3: The third day starts with aHitler Youth rally on the parade ground. Again the camera covers the Nazi dignitaries arriving and the introduction of Hitler byBaldur von Schirach. Hitler then addresses the Youth, describing inmilitaristic terms how they must harden themselves and prepare for sacrifice. Everyone present, including GeneralWerner von Blomberg, then assemble for a military pass and review, featuringWehrmacht cavalry and various armored vehicles. That night Hitler delivers another speech to low-ranking party officials by torchlight, commemorating the first year since the Nazis took power and declaring that the party and state are one entity.
Day 4: The fourth day is theclimax of the film, where the most memorable of the imagery is presented. Hitler, flanked byHeinrich Himmler and Viktor Lutze, walks through a long wide expanse with over 150,000SA andSS troops standing at attention, to lay a wreath at a First World War memorial. Hitler then reviews the parading SA and SS men, following which Hitler and Lutze deliver a speech where they discuss theNight of the Long Knives purge of the SA several months prior. Lutze reaffirms the SA's loyalty to the regime, and Hitler absolves the SA of any crimes committed byErnst Röhm. New party flags are consecrated by letting them touch theBlutfahne (the same cloth flag said to have been carried by the fallen Nazis during theBeer Hall Putsch) and, following a final parade in front of theNuremberg Frauenkirche, Hitler delivers his closing speech. In it he reaffirms the primacy of the Nazi Party in Germany, declaring, "All loyal Germans will become National Socialists. Only the best National Socialists are party comrades!" Hess then leads the assembled crowd in a finalSieg Heil salute for Hitler, marking the close of the party congress. The entire crowd sings theHorst-Wessel-Lied as the camera focuses on the giant Swastika banner, which fades into a line of silhouetted men in Nazi party uniforms, marching in formation as the lyrics "Comrades shot by the Red Front and the Reactionaries march in spirit together in our columns" are sung.
Riefenstahl, a popular German actress, had directed her first film calledDas blaue Licht (The Blue Light) in 1932.[6] Hitler was impressed withDas blaue Licht, and in 1933 asked her to direct a film about the Nazis' annualNuremberg Rally, which becameDer Sieg des Glaubens (The Victory of Faith).[7] Hitler chose Riefenstahl as he wanted the film as "artistically satisfying"[8] as possible to appeal to a non-political audience, but he also believed that propaganda must admit no element of doubt.[9]
The Victory of Faith faced numerous technical problems, including a lack of preparation (Riefenstahl reported having just a few days) and Hitler's apparent unease at being filmed.[10] Though the film apparently did well at the box office, it later became a serious embarrassment to the Nazis after SA LeaderErnst Röhm, who had a prominent role in the film, was executed during the Night of the Long Knives. All references to Röhm were ordered to be erased from German history, which included the destruction of all copies ofThe Victory of Faith. It was considered alost film until a copy turned up in the 1980s in theGerman Democratic Republic's film archives.[11]
In April 1934, Riefenstahl was commissioned by Hitler to create a successor film toThe Victory of Faith.[12] Riefenstahl however, remained focused on production of her own filmTiefland (which was released only in 1954), while fellow directorWalter Ruttmann worked on the party film. Ruttmann's ideals departed significantly fromThe Victory of Faith and sought to reorient the focus of the film onto the history of the Nazi movement rather than Hitler himself.[13] Hitler visited the studio on 6 December 1934 and permanently removed Ruttmann from the project, leaving Riefenstahl in sole control of what would becomeTriumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will).[14] Riefenstahl claimed that she attempted to avoid doing the film by committing toTiefland and having Ruttmann doing it instead.[15]
The film follows a design similar toThe Victory of Faith, with the city of Nuremberg scenes, even to the shot of a cat, included in the city driving sequence in both films.[16]Herbert Windt reused much of his musical score from Victory of Faith, inTriumph des Willens, which he also scored.
Riefenstahl's staff had sixteen cameramen, who all had an assistant of their own, using thirty cameras and four complete sound-equipment trucks. 120 assistants worked on the film.[17] Riefenstahl shot an estimated 61 hours of footage to create the two hour film.[18]
Riefenstahl shotTriumph of the Will on a nominal budget of roughly 280,000 RM (approximately US$110,000 in 1934, $1.54 m in 2015).[19] However Hans Saupert, chief of staff forFranz Xaver Schwarz, claimed that the actual cost of the film was 1 million RM. Riefenstahl claimed that the film was financed by her own efforts and a distribution agreement with Ufa, but she received a large amount of financial support from the Nazis directly and indirectly through construction projects for the rally. While being interrogated after World War II, she admitted to having a Reich Party Account, and she was reimbursed by the Nazis for all expenditures.[20]
Extensive preparations were facilitated by the cooperation of party members, the military, and high-ranking Nazis like Goebbels. In 1975,Susan Sontag wrote that "The Rally was planned not only as a spectacular mass meeting, but as a spectacular propaganda film."[21] Goebbels wanted film propaganda to be done using subtle methods, butTriumph of the Will was produced against his wishes.[17]
Albert Speer, Hitler's personal architect, designed the set in Nuremberg and did most of the coordination for the event. Pits were dug in front of the speakers' platform so Riefenstahl could get the camera angles she wanted, and tracks were laid so that her cameramen could get traveling shots of the crowd. When the audio from rough cuts was not up to par, major party leaders and high-ranking public officials reenacted their speeches in a studio for her.[22]
Riefenstahl was visited by high-ranking Nazis during the editing process. Hitler suggested the titleTriumph of the Will in September 1934. Goebbels came on 5 December, Hitler andJulius Schaub on 6 December, and Hess on 7 December. She started with 130,000 metres of film and reduced it to 3,000 metres by March 1935. The final product was almost twice as long asVictory of Faith.[23]
Walter von Reichenau visited Riefenstahl in December 1934 to see the footage she shot of the military. He was disappointed that Riefenstahl was not going to include the footage in the final film due to the poor quality caused by bad weather during the military exercises. She later producedDay of Freedom: Our Armed Forces which focused on the military at the 1935 Nuremberg Rally.[24]
Triumph of the Will was approved by the censors on 26 March 1935, and premiered on 28 March at theBerlin Ufa Palace Theater.[25] Within two months the film had earned 815,000Reichsmark (equivalent to 4 million 2021 euros), and Ufa considered it one of the three most profitable films of that year. Hitler praised the film as being an "incomparable glorification of the power and beauty of our Movement." For her efforts, Riefenstahl was rewarded with the German Film Prize (Deutscher Filmpreis), a gold medal at the 1935Venice Biennale, and the Grand Prix at the 1937World Exhibition in Paris. However, there were few claims that the film would result in a mass influx of "converts" tofascism, and the Nazis apparently did not make a serious effort to promote the film outside of Germany. Film historian Richard Taylor also said thatTriumph of the Will was not generally used for propaganda purposes inside Nazi Germany.The Independent wrote in 2003: "Triumph of the Will seduced many wise men and women, persuaded them to admire rather than to despise, and undoubtedly won the Nazis friends and allies all over the world."[26]
The reception in other countries was not always as enthusiastic. British documentarianPaul Rotha called it tedious, while others were repelled by its pro-Nazi sentiments. During World War II,Frank Capra helped to create a direct response, through the film series calledWhy We Fight, a series of newsreels commissioned by the United States government that spliced in footage fromTriumph of the Will, but recontextualized it so that it promoted the cause of theAllies instead. Capra later remarked thatTriumph of the Will "fired no gun, dropped no bombs. But as apsychological weapon aimed at destroying the will to resist, it was just as lethal."[27] Clips fromTriumph of the Will were also used in an Allied propaganda short calledGeneral Adolph Takes Over,[28] set to the British dance tune "The Lambeth Walk". The legions of marching soldiers, as well as Hitler giving his Nazi salute, were made to look like wind-up dolls, dancing to the music. The Danish resistance used to take over cinemas and force the projectionist to showSwinging the Lambeth Walk (as it was also known); Erik Barrow has said: "The extraordinary risks were apparently felt justified by a moment of savage anti-Hitler ridicule."[29] Also during World War II, the poetDylan Thomas wrote a screenplay for and narratedThese Are The Men, a propaganda piece usingTriumph of the Will footage to discredit Nazi leadership.[30]
Like American filmmakerD. W. Griffith'sThe Birth of a Nation,Triumph of the Will has been criticized as a use of spectacular filmmaking to promote a profoundlyunethical system. In her defense, Riefenstahl said that she was naïve about the Nazis when she made it and had no knowledge of anygenocidal orantisemitic policies. She pointed out thatTriumph of the Will contains "not one single anti-semitic word".[citation needed] It contains a comment byJulius Streicher that "a people that does not protect its racial purity will perish".[citation needed]
Roger Ebert wrote that for some, "the very absence of anti-semitism inTriumph of the Will looks like a calculation; excluding the central motif of almost all of Hitler's public speeches must have been a deliberate decision to make the film more efficient as propaganda."[31]
Riefenstahl said in 1964:
If you see this film again today you ascertain that it doesn't contain a single reconstructed scene. Everything in it is true. And it contains no tendentious commentary at all. It is history. A pure historical film ... it isfilm-vérité. It reflects the truth that was then in 1934, history. It is therefore a documentary. Not a propaganda film. Oh! I know very well what propaganda is. That consists of recreating events in order to illustrate athesis, or, in the face of certain events, to let one thing go in order to accentuate another. I found myself, me, at the heart of an event which was the reality of a certain time and a certain place. My film is composed of what stemmed from that.[32]
Riefenstahl was an active participant in the rally, though in later years she downplayed her influence significantly, claiming, "I just observed and tried to film it well. The idea that I helped to plan it is downright absurd." Ebert states thatTriumph of the Will is "by general consent [one] of the best documentaries ever made", but added that because it reflects the ideology of a movement regarded by many asevil, it poses "a classic question of the contest between art and morality: Is there such a thing as pure art, or does all art make a political statement?"[31] When reviewing the film for his "Great Movies" collection, Ebert reversed his opinion, characterizing his earlier conclusion as "the received opinion that the film is great but evil" and calling it "a terrible film, paralyzingly dull, simpleminded, overlong and not even 'manipulative', because it is too clumsy to manipulate anyone but a true believer".[33]
According toSusan Sontag in 1975,Triumph of the Will is the "most successful, most purely propagandistic film ever made, whose very conception negates the possibility of the filmmaker's having an aesthetic or visual conception independent of propaganda." Sontag points to Riefenstahl's involvement in the planning and design of the Nuremberg ceremonies as evidence that Riefenstahl was working as a propagandist, rather than as an artist in any sense of the word. With some 30 cameras and a crew of 150, the marches, parades, speeches, and processions were orchestrated like a movie set for Riefenstahl's film. Further, this was not the first political film made by Riefenstahl for the Nazis (there wasVictory of Faith, 1933), nor was it the last (Day of Freedom, 1935, andOlympia, 1938). "Anyone who defends Riefenstahl's films as documentary", Sontag states, "if documentary is to be distinguished from propaganda, is being disingenuous. InTriumph of Will, the document (the image) is no longer simply the record of reality; 'reality' has been constructed to serve the image."[21] This is considerably different from the position she takes ten years earlier in a 1965 essay entitled "On Style", where she opposes the idea that Riefenstahl's propaganda films are purely propaganda, and writes: "To call Leni Riefenstahl'sThe Triumph of the Will andThe Olympiad masterpieces is not to gloss over Nazi propaganda with aesthetic lenience. The Nazi propaganda is there. But something else is there, too, which we reject at our loss. Because they project the complex movements of intelligence and grace and sensuousness, these two films of Riefenstahl (unique among works of Nazi artists) transcend the categories of propaganda or even reportage. And we find ourselves—to be sure, rather uncomfortably—seeing 'Hitler' and not Hitler, the '1936 Olympics' and not the 1936 Olympics. Through Riefenstahl's genius as a film-maker, the 'content' has—let us even assume, against her intentions—come to play a purely formal role."[34]
| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Venice Film Festival | 1935 | Gold Medal | Triumph of the Will | Won | [35] |
Triumph of the Will gave instant and lasting international fame to Riefenstahl.The Economist said it "sealed her reputation as the greatest female filmmaker of the 20th century."[36] For a director who made eight films, only two of which received significant coverage outside of Germany, Riefenstahl had unusually high name recognition for the remainder of her life, most of it stemming fromTriumph of the Will. However, her career was also permanently damaged by this association. After the war, Riefenstahl was imprisoned by the Allies for four years[citation needed] for allegedly being a Nazi sympathizer and was permanentlyblacklisted by the film industry. When she died in 2003—sixty-eight years after the film's premiere—herobituary received significant coverage in many major publications, including theAssociated Press,[37]The Wall Street Journal,[38]The New York Times,[39] andThe Guardian,[40] most of which reaffirmed the importance ofTriumph of the Will.
Triumph of the Will remains well known for its striking visuals. As one historian notes, "many of the most enduring images of the [Nazi] regime and its leader derive from Riefenstahl's film."[41]
Extensive excerpts of the film were used inErwin Leiser's documentaryMein Kampf, produced in Sweden in 1960. Riefenstahl unsuccessfully sued the Swedish production company Minerva-Film for copyright violation, although she did receive forty thousand marks in compensation from German and Austrian distributors of the film.[42]
In 1942, Charles A. Ridley of theBritish Ministry of Information made a short propaganda film called, among other names,Schichlegruber – Doing the Lambeth Walk andLambeth Walk – Nazi Style, which edited footage of Hitler and German soldiers from the film to make it appear they were marching and dancing to the song "The Lambeth Walk".[note 1] The targeted-at-Nazis film was a parody of "The Lambeth Walk," a British dance that had been popular in swing clubs in Germany and was denounced by the Nazis as "Jewish mischief and animalistic hopping."[43] The propaganda film was distributed uncredited to newsreel companies, who would supply their own narration.[44]
Charlie Chaplin's satireThe Great Dictator (1940) was inspired in large part byTriumph of the Will.[45]Frank Capra used significant footage, with a mocking narration in thefirst installment of the propagandistic film produced by the United States ArmyWhy We Fight as an exposure of Nazi militarism and totalitarianism to American soldiers and sailors.[46]
Triumph of the Will remains in copyright. However, the film is commonly mistaken as belonging to thepublic domain, and it receives frequent unauthorized home video releases as a result.[47]
Riefenstahl initially stated that the Nazi Party held the copyright for the film. She later stated that she held the copyright, as it was her own creation despite funding from the party, after meeting with her lawyer Eugen Krämer in August 1949.[48]
Riefenstahl filed lawsuits against two postwar documentaries which had incorporated footage ofTriumph of the Will. The first lawsuit occurred in 1954 against Wolfgang Hartwig, producer ofBis fünf nach zwölf. Hartwig argued that the rights belonged to the state, but reportedly eventually paid compensation to Riefenstahl, who donated it to a charity dedicated to returningprisoners of war.[49] Her second lawsuit against Swedish producerErwin Leiser'sMein Kampf in 1960 was enveloped in greater public debate about the copyright and morality of works produced during the Nazi regime.[50] The case was settled against her in 1969.[51]
In a judgement by theFederal Court of Justice on 29 December 1966, the copyright to the film was transferred to the Federal Republic of Germany as the legal successor of Nazi Germany.[52] These rights are administered by the federally owned Transit-Film GmbH based in Munich, although it was contractually regulated in 1974 that any public screening until 2004 had to be approved by Riefenstahl and that she received 70% of all revenues.[53]
In 1996, the copyrights of the film were restored to Riefenstahl under theUruguay Round Agreements Act,[54] although some aspect of the US copyrights are uncertain.[55]
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