Leni Riefenstahl

Leni Riefenstahl Historical Figure Nationality: Germany, later West Germany (born in Prussia) Year of Birth: 1902 Year of Death: 2003 Cause of Death: Cancer Religion: Lutheran Occupation: Actor, Film Director, Propagandist, Author of Non-Fiction Spouse: Peter Jacob (divorced), Horst Kettner (common-law) Political Party: NSDAP Fictional Appearances: In the Presence of Mine Enemies POD: c. 1940 Type of Appearance: Posthumous reference Date of Death: c. 2007 Cause of Death: Undisclosed

Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, dancer, and actress, widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph of the Will, a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party.

After the war, Riefenstahl was arrested and found to be a Nazi "fellow traveller" but was not charged with war crimes. Throughout her later life, she denied having known about the Holocaust, and was criticized as the "voice of the 'how could we have known?' defense." Riefenstahl's postwar work included an autobiography and two photography books on the Nuba people.

She died of cancer in 2003, slightly more than two weeks after her 101st birthday.

Leni Riefenstahl in In the Presence of Mine Enemies

Leni Riefenstahl (1902-c. 2007) was most famous for directing the film Triumph of the Will, which was required viewing for schoolchildren in the Greater German Reich well into the 21st century.

Riefenstahl predeceased Kurt Haldweim, the third Führer, by only a few years. She was over 100 years old.

Literary Comment

Leni Riefenstahl died a few months before the novel was published, but almost certainly after the book was completed and presented to the publisher. Apparently Harry Turtledove imagined Riefenstahl as having died after 2003 in the novel's timeline.

See Also

• Performance Arts References, for more minor references to Riefenstahl in Turtledove's work.