To what extent does Leni Riefenstahl’s film Triumph of the Will symbolize the ideological incoherence between Nazi social policy and modernization? Anonymous College

Leni Riefenstahl’s 1935 film Triumph of the Will is easily the most important and enduring work of Nazi propaganda created, and possibly is the most important propaganda film ever made. While broadly known for its innovative film techniques and for its comprehensive visual account of the 1934 Nazi Party congress and rally in Nuremburg, its historical value lies particularly in its borrowings from other early modernist films, its exploration of Nazi pastoral romance, its presentation of Nazi civic religious themes and mechanization, and in elevating Hitler to become the German nation. In presenting these various elements in concert, Riefenstahl strikes a key notion of the incoherence of Nazi social policy as discussed in David Schoenbaum’s book Hitler’s Social Revolution, showing how the anti-modern agrarian party myth was to be achieved by modern means.

Leni Riefenstahl’s cinematography is probably the most evident modernist trait in Triumph of the Will, presenting the Nuremburg rallies with revolutionary film techniques akin to the constructivist and artificial cutting and collage employed by Sergei Eisenstein in his film October. From the very first scene of the approach to Nuremburg through the clouds (Riefenstahl’s Triumph...