For Modern History course

1. LENI
RIEFENSTAHL1902-2003

2. WHO IS SHE?
Leni was a German dancer,
actress and film director best
known for the brilliant propaganda
films she made in support of the
Nazi Party.
She rose to become Germany’s
most famous and successful
filmmaker at a time when Nazi
policy enforced women playing a
secondary role to men.
Her filmmaking brilliance is still
celebrated by those in the film
industry, but historians continue to
debate the nature and value of her
role in German history.

3. “Femininity was the cloak
that shrouded her in
denial. By painting a
portrait of herself as
eternally feminine,
Riefenstahl was able to
lay claim to a state of
purity and innocence. No
man in Riefenstahl’s
position would be
believed if he told the
world that he used actors
from concentration

4. “Artistically she is
a genius, and
politically she is a
nitwit.”
(Liam O’Leary, film
historian)

5. It would be unwise to
believe a single word
of Riefenstahl’s
memoirs unless it can
be corroborated by
contemporary
documentary
evidence . . . A
comparison of
Riefenstahl’s memoirs
with other, more
contemporary,

6. No other film director
was in such a
privileged position: her
position in the Third
Reich film industry was
unique. She may have
been a woman, but
such a disadvantage
was more than offset
by her direct line to
Hitler and the

7. Riefenstahl's
portrait of them
evokes some of the
larger themes of
Nazi ideology: the
contrast between
the clean and the
impure, the
incorruptible and
the defiled, the
physical and the
mental, the joyful

8. Each dolly shot [in
documentary film] is a
moral affair, each
camera setup reveals a
system of values, every
shot shows a vision of
the world. So, the films
of Leni Riefenstahl
developed, in the time
of national socialism,
the glorification of the
fascist regime. Her

9. "Where is my guilt? I can
regret. I can regret that I
made the party film,
`Triumph of the Will,' in
1934. But I cannot regret
that I lived in that time.
No anti-Semitic word has
ever crossed my lips. I
was never anti-Semitic. I
did not join the party. So
where then is my guilt?
You tell me. I have
thrown no atomic bombs.
I have never betrayed

10. THE SYLLABUS

11. PAST QUESTIONS - PART A (10
MARKS)➤ Outline the main features in the background and rise to prominence of the twentieth-
century personality you have studied
➤ Describe the role played by the personality you have studied in national and/or
international history
➤ Describe the personal background and historical context of the personality you have
studied
➤ Outline the life of the personality you have studied
➤ Describe the life of the personality you have studied
➤ Provide a detailed description of THREE significant events in the life of the personality
you have studied
➤ Describe THREE significant factors which resulted in the prominence of the personality
you have studied
➤ Describe the rise to prominence of the personality you have studied
➤ Outline the background and rise to prominence of the personality you have studied
➤ Describe the significant events in the life of the personality you have studied

12. PAST QUESTIONS - PART B (15
MARKS)➤ To what extent does history present us with a balanced interpretation of this personality?
➤ “Events shape people more than people shape events”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the
personality you have studied?
➤ “History is about winners”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have
studied?
➤ “Individuals are products of their times”. How accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you
have studied?
➤ “People are swept along by events. Some individuals use events to advantage.” How accurate is this
statement in relation to the personality you have studied?
➤ Assess the contribution of the personality you have studied to their period of national and/or international
history
➤ To what extent did the personality you have studied have a positive impact on his or her times?
➤ Evaluate the significance of the personality you have studied to his/her period of national and/or
international history
➤ “The significance of an individual is created more by themselves than by the events of their life.” How
accurate is this statement in relation to the personality you have studied and their period of national or
international history?
➤ “It is the way an individual faces challenges that shapes them and their achievements.” To what extent is
this statement accurate in relation to the personality you have studied and their role in history?

13. KEY SKILLS
➤ Describing life events without analysis
or evaluation
➤ Selecting events appropriately
according to question, syllabus or
historical significance
➤ Analysing, comparing and contrasting
historical perspectives
➤ Evaluating the reliability of historical
sources and exploring conflicts
between sources
➤ Explaining historical sources with
reference to the historian or author
➤ Constructing an original argument that
references, compares and evaluates a
range of historical perspectives and
primary sources