Leni Riefenstahl "individuals Are Products of Their Time"

In an extended response of 1200 words (+/- 10%) using double lined spacing, answer the following question.

“Individuals are products of their times.”

How accurate is this statement in relation to Leni Riefenstahl?

The quote ‘individuals are products of their times’ is extremely accurate when referring to Leni Riefenstahl. This is because as she herself stated; “I feel as though I have lived many lives,” and she was different in each of them. Therefore, she is the product of the certain surrounding in which she lives. The three distinctive lives which Leni had were: the expressionist life of the Weimar Republic, the propaganda and Hitler obsessive life of Nazi-Germany and finally her reclusive outcast journey of her post Nazi life.

In her first life Leni was an entertainer in the expressionist society of the Weimar Republic, she reflected the values of the time by being a very talented and enthusiastic expressionist dancer and actor. The world in Germany after the end of the first world war was one of the breaking of contemporary culture and conservatism values, as was described by Austrian writer Stefan Zweig “Amid the general collapse of values, a kind of insanity took hold of precisely those middle class circles which had been unshakeable in their order.” Leni very much reflected these changing values, she was a fan and a figure of the new expressionist wave which was taking hold of Germany, and, as dance was a key medium for the new movement Leni was a representation of the values of the time. Shaped by these expressionist values she stated "Of all the things I have done in my life as an artist, it was dancing that fascinated me and made me happy,'' this shows the memories she has of the Weimar period are representative of its culture and values as pure artistry was reflective of only her Weimar life and contrast to her Nazi life values. She further proved that she is a product of the time as after she finished a wildly popular dance genre of the time (expressionist) she then moved into an extremely popular movie genre of the time; mountain genre. After her entrance into this movie genre she quickly became a star and went on to become a film director, creating the extremely successful and popular, The Blue Light. This movie was full of artistic themes and representations and she has described her work and mindset of the time as “my juvenile sense of romanticism and the beautiful image,” values very reflective of the culture she lived in at the time. In the Weimar time period, where individuality, freedom and artistry were prominent features of the arts, Leni’s stand out characteristics were her unrivalled artistic abilities and her ability to capture and represent the expressionist movement.

In 1933 the life in Germany changed dramatically with the ascension of Hitler and the Nazi’s into power, this gave birth to Leni’s second life, that of Nazi propaganda. The artistic values of her first life were not present in her second, the values and culture of Nazi Germany were a near opposite of those of Weimar. The arts and expressionist values were quashed and replaced with the values of the state and Hitler as “the greatest man whom ever lived" as stated by Leni herself. The freedom of arts was the first part of her previous existence which was destroyed as the Nazi’s gained control of the content of movies and News people watched and the radio they listened to. Leni as an expressionist artist should have been very upset about this, however she was changing with the times and as she changed, so too did her work, Hitler described her second propaganda film for him as "(Triumph of the Will) was a totally unique and incomparable glorification of the power and beauty of our movement." Such admiration form Hitler shows that during this time period, she has become a product of the main cultural influence i.e. the Nazi movement. However, despite this change to a more Nazi stance, pieces of her individuality and Weimar charisma led Goebbels and her to have a difficult relationship, with him stating "it is impossible to work with this wild woman." This shows that now she is both a product of Nazi and Weimar Germany. Her work during this time period was not just described as Nazi and propaganda by Hitler but by many Historians and political figures since and not always in a positive light with feminist figure Susan Sontag calling her film Triumph of the Will “(the) Most successful, most purely propagandistic film ever made, whose very conception negates the possibility of the film-makers having an aesthetic concept independent of propaganda.” Her individual devotion to Hitler during this time period is also reflective of the Nazi viewpoint as after his conquering of France she sent him a present with the inscription "To my dear Fuhrer with my deepest admiration." This shows that she not only had a public respect for him but also a deeper independent admiration for him and his leadership. During the Nazi rule in Germany Leni’s most important and outspoken qualities were her direction of the films ‘Triumph of the Will’ and ‘Olympia’ and while she managed to keep a small part of her Weimar spirit, her work showed an overwhelming respect and obedience towards the Nazi party, their ideals and their Propaganda.