Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Reifenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (German: [ˈʁiːfənʃtaːl]; 22 August 1902) Dancer, actress, photographer, filmmaker and since 1954 Ministers of Culture of the Great German Empire.

Considered as the greatest female filmmaker ever.

Ministry of Culture represents more formal than executive power. And Reifenstahl was appointed to ths position mostly as a symbol and reward for her movies success.

She studied painting and started her artistic career as a dancer. She became already so famous after her first dance hat Max Reinhardt engaged her for the Deutsches Theater.

An injury of the knee put an end to her sensational career. After that, she became famous as an actress, a film director, a film producer and a film reporter. She became world-renowned as an actress in the films.

Her greatest success she made with the documentary film Triumph des Willens named after the Reich Party Congress 1934 in Nuremberg which got the highest awards: The gold medal in Venice in 1935 and the gold medal at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1937. Her world-famous film about the Olympic games that  included two parts, part I Fest der Völker and part 2 Fest der Schönheit, and did also get the highest awards: the gold medal in Paris in 1937, the first price in Venice as the world's best film in 1938, the Olympic Award by the IOC in 1939.

She married Theodor Lanz on 21 March 1944, a Gebirgsjäger (the light infantry part of the alpine or mountain troops (Gebirgstruppe)). Riefenstahl and Lanz divorced in 1954. This marriage gives her three childrens in 1946 Peter, 1947 Horst and 1951 Arnold.

Filmography