Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: How many people saw the Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will when it was released in 1935?
Triumph of the Will (German: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited, and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters.[1] The film contains excerpts from speeches given by Nazi leaders at the Congress, including Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess and Julius Streicher, interspersed with footage of massed Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS) troops and public reaction. Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his name appears in the opening titles. The film's overriding theme is the return of Germany as a great power, with Hitler as the leader who will bring glory to the nation. Because the film was made after the 1934 Night of the Long Knives (on 30 June), many prominent Sturmabteilung (SA) members are absent—they were murdered in that Party purge, organised and orchestrated by Hitler to replace the SA with the Schutzstaffel (SS) as his main paramilitary force.
As the central office of Nazi propaganda, it comprehensively supervised and regulated the culture and mass media of Nazi Germany. A major focus of the propaganda was Hitler himself, who was glorified as a heroic and infallible leader and became the focus of a cult of personality. Much of this was spontaneous, but some was stage-managed as part of Goebbels' propaganda work. An example of the latter would be the 1934 Nuremberg Rally. Hitler was the focus and his moves were carefully choreographed. The rally was the subject of the film "Triumph of the Will", one of several Nazi propaganda films directed by Leni Riefenstahl. It won the Gold Medal at the 1935 Venice Film Festival. Goebbels and his ministry were involved in both the rally and the film production.
The 1930s and 1940s, which saw the rise of totalitarian states and the Second World War, are arguably the "Golden Age of Propaganda". Nazi control of the German film industry is the most extreme example of the use of film in the service of a fascist national program and, in 1933, Hitler created the Reich Ministry for People's Enlightenment and Propaganda and appointed the youthful Joseph Goebbels as its head. Fritz Hippler, producer of one of the most powerful propaganda films of the time, 1940's "The Eternal Jew (Der ewige Jude)", ran the film department under Goebbels. "The Eternal Jew" purported to be a documentary depicting the Jewish world, insinuating that the Jewish population consisted of avaricious barbarians putting on a front for civilized European society, remaining indifferent and unaffected by the war. During this time Leni Riefenstahl, a filmmaker working in Nazi Germany, created one of the best-known propaganda films, "Triumph of the Will", a film commissioned by Hitler to chronicle the 1934 Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg. Despite its controversial subject, the film is still recognized for its revolutionary approach to using music and cinematography. Another of Riefenstahl's films, 1938's "Olympia", was meant to prove that the Reich was a democratic and open society under Nazi rule. It had the perfect venue, the 1936 Berlin Olympics in which to showcase Adolf Hitler's Aryan ideals and prowess. One of the most notable shots is Hitler congratulating the African American Jesse Owens on his four gold medals, whose successes spoiled Hitler's wish to depict those of African descent as racially inferior. The film won a number of prestigious film awards but fell from grace, particularly in the United States when, in November 1938, the world learned of the program against the Jews. Riefenstahl's cinematic masterpiece, though temporarily effective propaganda, was unable to mitigate the growing awareness of the political realities in Nazi Germany.
The form of the film is very similar to her later and much more expansive film of the 1934 rally, "Triumph of the Will". "Der Sieg des Glaubens" is Nazi propaganda for the Nazi Party, which funded and promoted the film, which celebrates the victory of the Nazis in achieving power when Hitler assumed the role of Chancellor of Germany in February 1933.
Triumph of the Will premiered on 28 March 1935 at the Berlin Ufa Palace Theater and was an instant success. Within two months the film had earned 815,000 Reichsmark, 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 1935 Venice Biennale, and the Grand Prix at the 1937 World Exhibition in Paris. However, there were few claims that the film would result in a mass influx of "converts" to fascism and the Nazis apparently did not make a serious effort to promote the film outside of Germany. Film historian Richard Taylor also said that Triumph of the Will was not generally used for propaganda purposes inside the Third Reich. 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."[13]
His most famous book, "", was written to explain how one city, (Northeim, Germany) fell into the Nazi trap. Fed by Nazi propaganda, many people of Northeim, especially in the middle classes, in the midst of the Depression saw the Nazis as a way to get their country back to greatness that Hitler and the Nazis promised they would do. The book was widely reviewed and extremely influential.
In "Triumph of the Will", Leni Riefenstahl's 1935 propaganda film about the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, the final scene consists of a military parade through downtown Nuremberg, with Adolf Hitler shown receiving salutes from Nazi troops with the Frauenkirche in the background.
As a member of record of the Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnenangehöriger ("Guild of the German Stage"), she automatically became a member of arts groups which were strongly tied to Joseph Goebbels when the GDBA and similar organizations were forceably merged into the Reichsfilmkammer under Nazi Germany's nationalization of the film industry during the mid-1930s. In the lead-up to, and during, World War II, she then appeared in at least two films considered by historians to have been Nazi propaganda films, including: "Friesennot" (released in 1935, re-released in 1941) and "Die vier Musketiere".
Triumph of the Will was released in 1935 and became a major example of film used as propaganda. Riefenstahl's techniques—such as moving cameras, aerial photography, the use of long focus lenses to create a distorted perspective, and the revolutionary approach to the use of music and cinematography—have earned Triumph of the Will recognition as one of the greatest propaganda films in history. Riefenstahl helped to stage the scenes, directing and rehearsing some of them at least fifty times. Riefenstahl won several awards, not only in Germany but also in the United States, France, Sweden and other countries. The film was popular in the Third Reich, and has continued to influence films, documentaries and commercials to this day.[2] In Germany, the film is not censored but the courts commonly classify it as Nazi propaganda which requires an educational context to public screenings.[3]
In the closing speech of Triumph of the Will, Hitler enters the room from the back, appearing to emerge from the people. After a one sentence introduction, he tells his faithful Nazis how the German nation has subordinated itself to the Nazi Party because its leaders are mostly of Germans. He promises that the new state that the Nazis have created will endure for thousands of years. Hitler says that the youth will carry on after the old have weakened. They close with a chant, "Hitler is the Party, Hitler." The camera focuses on the large Swastika above Hitler and the film ends with the images of this Swastika imposed on Nazis marching in a few columns. His speech brought attention to the rally and created a huge turnout in the following years. He attracted many people in the way that he addressed the issues and his people. He spoke to them as if it were a sermon and engaged the people. In 1934, over a million Germans participated in the Nuremberg Rally.
In Germany, before he came to power, Hitler was often portrayed satirically in newspaper cartoons and propaganda by political enemies. The photomontagist John Heartfield regularly depicted Hitler in absurd ways in his anti-Nazi poster designs. When the Nazis came to national power in January 1933, Hitler was mostly depicted as a god-like figure, loved and respected by the German people, as shown for example in "Triumph of the Will", which Hitler co-produced. An exception was the German movie "Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse" ("The Testament of Dr. Mabuse") from 1933, which was banned by the Nazi propaganda ministry. Many critics consider Fritz Lang's depiction of a homicidal maniac masterminding a criminal empire from within the walls of a criminal asylum to be an allegory of the Nazi ascent to power in Germany.
Nuremberg held great significance during the Nazi Germany era. Because of the city's relevance to the Holy Roman Empire and its position in the centre of Germany, the Nazi Party chose the city to be the site of huge Nazi Party conventions — the Nuremberg rallies. The rallies were held in 1927, 1929 and annually from 1933 through 1938. After Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1933 the Nuremberg rallies became huge Nazi propaganda events, a centre of Nazi ideals. The 1934 rally was filmed by Leni Riefenstahl, and made into a propaganda film called "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will").
In an attempt to erase Röhm from German history, all known copies of the 1933 propaganda film "The Victory of Faith" ("Der Sieg des Glaubens"), in which Röhm appeared, were destroyed in 1934, probably on Hitler's order. "The Victory of Faith" was long thought to have been lost until a single copy was found in storage in Britain in the 1990s. (It can be viewed free of charge on the Internet Archive.) The 1935 film "Triumph of the Will" ("Triumph des Willens"), produced in 1934, showed the new Nazi hierarchy, with the SS as the Nazis' premier uniformed paramilitary group and Röhm replaced by Viktor Lutze but by then, the role of the SA was much less prominent than in the early years.
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James G. Stahlman, political correspondent for "Nashville Banner," wrote an editorial in 1939, criticizing the film for exploiting people's emotions over a serious matter – a repugnant, dangerous, dictator – in a way that clouds objectivity of the public at a critical time when force of arms may be needed. Stahlman seemed to say that using sensational propaganda to build antagonistic emotions under the guise of flag-waving public service (educating the public of the already obvious evils of Hitler) was easy money for the production, but dangerous for America. (see Exploitation film and Nazi exploitation) Propaganda "vs." propaganda: a sub-irony of Stahlman's point was that the anti-Nazi propaganda film was being used to ridicule pro-Nazi propaganda related to the plot.
The film's depiction of Commodus's entry into Rome borrows imagery from Leni Riefenstahl's Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will" (1935), although Scott has pointed out that the iconography of Nazi rallies was itself inspired by the Roman Empire. "Gladiator" reflects back on the film by duplicating similar events that occurred in Adolf Hitler's procession. The Nazi film opens with an aerial view of Hitler arriving in a plane, while Scott shows an aerial view of Rome, quickly followed by a shot of the large crowd of people watching Commodus pass them in a procession with his chariot. The first thing to appear in "Triumph of the Will" is a Nazi eagle, which is alluded to when a statue of an eagle sits atop one of the arches (and then is shortly followed by several more decorative eagles throughout the rest of the scene) leading up to the procession of Commodus. At one point in the Nazi film, a little girl gives flowers to Hitler, while Commodus is met by several girls who all give him bundles of flowers.
Franz Weihmayr (30 December 1903 – 26 May 1969) was a German cinematographer who worked on over eighty films between 1924 and 1964. He was one of the leading German cinematographers of the Nazi era, working on a number of Zarah Leander films and the 1935 propaganda documentary "Triumph of the Will". After the Second World War Weihmayr worked in West German cinema including rubble films such as "Love '47".
Riefenstahl was best known for her documentary film "Olympia" (1938), on the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and her Nazi propaganda films, "Der Sieg des Glaubens" (1933), "Triumph of the Will" (1935), and "Tag der Freiheit" (1935), which are regarded by historians as among the greatest propaganda films of all time.
The Nazi Party's manipulation of all forms of media from newspaper, books and films became omnipresent and extended beyond Germany. Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl created two epic propaganda films, "Der Sieg des Glaubens" or "Victory of Faith" (1933) and "Triumph des Willens" or "Triumph of the Will" (1935) that depicted the fervent Nazi multitudes in the 1930s Nuremberg Rallies.
Despite the emigration of many film-makers and the political restrictions, the period was not without technical and aesthetic innovations, the introduction of Agfacolor film production being a notable example. Technical and aesthetic achievement could also be turned to the specific ends of the Nazi state, most spectacularly in the work of Leni Riefenstahl. Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will" (1935), documenting the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, and "Olympia" (1938), documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, pioneered techniques of camera movement and editing that have influenced many later films. Both films, particularly "Triumph of the Will", remain highly controversial, as their aesthetic merit is inseparable from their propagandising of Nazi ideals.
Wessel was buried in Berlin on 1 March 1930. Contrary to Nazi claims, there were no attacks on the funeral procession, which Goebbels claimed was watched by 30,000 people. The funeral was filmed and turned into a major propaganda event by the NSDAP. Wessel was elevated by Goebbels' propaganda apparatus to the status of leading martyr of the Nazi movement. Many of Goebbels's most effective propaganda speeches were made at gravesides, but Wessel received unusual attention among the many unremembered storm troopers. In an editorial in the "Völkischer Beobachter" ("People's Observer"), Alfred Rosenberg wrote of how Wessel was not dead, but had joined a combat group that still struggled with them; afterwards, Nazis spoke of how a man who died in conflict had joined "Horst Wessel's combat group" or were "summoned to Horst Wessel's standard". The Prussian police had outlawed public gatherings and the display of swastikas at the funeral procession, with the exception of a few Nazi Party vehicles. Wessel's coffin was paraded through large parts of the center of Berlin in a procession that took many hours.
A major focus of Nazi propaganda was Hitler himself, who was glorified as a heroic and infallible leader and became the focus of a cult of personality. Much of this was spontaneous, but some was stage-managed as part of Goebbels' propaganda work. Adulation of Hitler was the focus of the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, where his moves were carefully choreographed. The rally was the subject of the film "Triumph of the Will", one of several Nazi propaganda films directed by Leni Riefenstahl. It won the Gold Medal at the 1935 Venice Film Festival. At the 1935 Nazi party congress rally at Nuremberg, Goebbels declared that "Bolshevism is the declaration of war by Jewish-led international subhumans against culture itself."
In the 1930s, she directed "Triumph des Willens" ("Triumph of the Will") and "Olympia", resulting in worldwide attention and acclaim. The movies are widely considered two of the most effective, and technically innovative, propaganda films ever made. Her involvement in "Triumph des Willens", however, significantly damaged her career and reputation after the war. The exact nature of her relationship with Nazi Party leader Adolf Hitler remains a matter of debate. However, Hitler was in close collaboration with Riefenstahl during the production of at least three important Nazi films, and a closer friendship is claimed to have existed. When in 2000 Jodie Foster was planning a biographical drama on Riefenstahl, war-crime documenters warned against a revisionist view that glorified the director. They stated that publicly Riefenstahl seemed "quite infatuated" with Hitler and was in fact the last surviving member of his "inner circle". Others go further, arguing that Riefenstahl's visions were essential to the success of the Holocaust. After the war, Riefenstahl was arrested, but classified as being a "fellow traveler" or "Nazi sympathiser" only and was not associated with war crimes. Throughout her life, she denied having known about the Holocaust. Besides directing, Riefenstahl released an autobiography and wrote several books on the Nuba people.
Critics and fans have noted the use of imagery highly reminiscent of Nazi Germany for the First Order in "The Force Awakens", including a sequence mimicking the 1935 Nazi propaganda film "Triumph of the Will". "The Force Awakens" writer/director J. J. Abrams said that the First Order is inspired by the theory of ODESSA, which involved SS officers allegedly fleeing to Argentina and other countries following the aftermath of World War II.
German film director Leni Riefenstahl, who produced propaganda films for the Nazi regime, is said to have influenced Bannon's film-making techniques, with Bannon describing himself as the "Riefenstahl of the GOP". The opening of Bannon's 2012 documentary film "The Hope & The Change" consciously imitated Riefenstahl's 1935 film "The Triumph of the Will", which depicted the 1934 Nuremberg Rally.
In 1934, Riefenstahl had no wish to repeat the fiasco of Der Sieg des Glaubens and initially recommended fellow director Walter Ruttmann. Ruttmann's film, which would have covered the rise of the Nazi Party from 1923 to 1934 and been more overtly propagandistic (the opening text of Triumph of the Will was his), did not appeal to Hitler. He again asked Riefenstahl, who finally relented (there is still debate over how willing she was) after Hitler guaranteed his personal support and promised to keep other Nazi organizations, specifically the Propaganda Ministry, from meddling with her film.