Leni Riefenstahl Trivia Quiz

Answer: Berlin

Bertha Helene Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was born on 22 August 1902 in the family apartment on Prinz-Eugen-Strasse in the Wedding district of Berlin. Her father, Alfred Riefenstahl, was a successful businessman. As his heating and ventilation systems firm on Kurfuerstenstrasse prosperred the family worked its way up in the middle class. Alfred Riefenstahl met Leni's mother Bertha Ida Scherlach at the costume ball in 1900.

They married on 5 April 1902.

Answer: Kollmorgen-Lyceum

In 1908 Leni went to the elementary school in Berlin-Neukoelln. She was very precocious and often interrupted teachers with questions outside the curriculum. For this she regularly received bad marks.

After the elementary school she attended the Kollmorgen-Lyceum which was a girls' school. She was at the top of her class, her favourite subjects being drawing, maths and gymnastics. In 1918 Leni left the Lyceum with the leaving certificate for 16-year-olds. Her father wanted her to study home economics, however Leni had managed to persuade him to send her to the State School of Commercial Art on Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse.

Answer: knee

While in school, Leni Riefenstahl was enthusiastic about sports and especially gymnastics. The passion for sports remained with her for the rest of her life. Being a pro-sports person, her father supported his daughter's idea of entering the gymnastics club. She did and even the small injuries couldn't stop her from trying new activities like roller skating and ice skating.

She had a particular passion for dancing. After attending theatre and ballet performances this passion only grew stronger. Once, at the private concert of the pianist Ferruccio Busoni she performed a dance and was surprised when the audience, including the pianist himself applaused and encouraged her to continue. Leni, however, injured her knee while performing in Prague and had to abandon dancing.

Answer: 1918

Despite her father's total disapproval of her interest in acting, Leni decided to secretly audition for a film in 1918. She read the advertisement in the daily newspaper "B.Z. am Mittag" about twenty female extras who were needed for "Opium". Without her parents' permission she audutioned and got a part in the movie, however she had to turn it down later as she knew that her father would never approve of it.

Answer: SOS Iceberg

Leni Riefenstahl acted in up to 10 movies during the 1920s and early 1930s. Her last role was in the film "SOS Iceberg" where she played Hella Lorenz, the wife of Dr. Karl Lorenz, an explorer who disappeared in Greenland. The search expedition was sent to Greenland to find him.

The expedition found Lorenz' journal with all the routes and locations. The four people on the expedition eventually find Dr. Lorenz in an ice cave. They signal for help. When Hella hears the news she flies out to the location but her plane crashes into the iceberg that the rest of the group is on.

Answer: Victory of Faith

The very first movie Leni Riefenstahl directed was "The Blue Light" in 1932, however the first movie she directed for the Nazi party was the "Victory of Faith" in 1933. The film is a documentary on the Fifth Party Rally in Nuremberg which was held between 30th August and 3rd of September 1933. Ernst Roehm, the head of the SA and at that time the second or third most important man in the Third Reich was featured in the film.

But after Roehm was killed in the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934, all the copies of the film were destroyed in Germany.

However few months before, in April 1934, Leni Riefenstahl visited Great Britain where she gave lectures in the British universities on her movie techniques. It was then that the film was duplicated.

It was found only after 60 years and it is now the only copy of the movie that survived.

Answer: Triumph of the Will

"Triumph of the Will" is regarded as one of the best propaganda movies ever made. It was the second movie directed by Leni Riefenstahl for the NSDAP. The documentary is about the Sixth Party Rally which was held in Nuremberg from September 4th to September 10th, 1934. It was described as the film "by Nazis, for Nazis, and about Nazis".

The only commentary in the movie is the lines written on the stone wall: "On September 5th, 1934, ... 20 years after the outbreak of the World War ... 16 years after the beginning of our suffering ... 19 months after the beginning of the German rebirth ... Adolf Hitler flew again to Nuremberg to review the columns of his faithful followers ..." The film features the top Nazi officials and generals like Joseph Goebbels, Hans Frank, Alfred Rosenberg, Fritz Todt, etc. It also shows the army and Hitler Youth parades as well as the SA and SS marches. The movie ends with Hitler's closing speech followed by the singing of the "Horst-Wessel-Lied", Nazi party anthem.

The film won the National Film Prize, Grand Prix in Paris and the gold medal at the Venice Biennale.

"Triumph of the Will" influenced many contemporary directors like George Lucas and Ridley Scott. The scenes and the imagery of the film had been imitated in many well-known movies e.g. Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Lion King, Gladiator, etc.

Answer: tracking shot

"Olympia" was a documentary released in 1938, depicting the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. It consists of two parts: the Festival of the People and the Festival of Beauty. It is regarded as one of the best movies ever made. "Olympia" was also the first documentary of the Olympic Games.

Leni Riefenstahl used new techniques like the tracking shot, extreme close-ups and unusual camera angles. The documentary received numerous awards: National Film Prize, gold medal at Venice Biennale, Greek Sports Prize, Swedish Polar Prize and the gold medal from the International Olympic Committee.

In 2005 Time.com named "Olympia" one of the best 100 movies made in the last 80 years.

Answer: 12 September

Leni Riefenstahl was photographed during the invasion of Poland wearing SS uniform with a revolver. She was involved in the execution of 30 civilians at Konskie on 12 September, 1939. She tried to intervene, but was pushed away by a German soldier. She was very upset and went to Zoppot to meet Hitler. Nevertheless, she started filming a victory parade in Warsaw for Hitler in October 1939.

Answer: French detention camp

After the war Leni spent four years in a French detention camp. Even though she was criticised for her use of prisoners in Nazi concentration camps for her films, the authorities, however, had never been able to convict her of any crimes. In her memoirs and interviews, Riefenstahl claimed she was enthralled by Hitler, his speeches and the National Socialists in general, but she did not know that the prisoners she used in her films were later killed.

She also stated that she was unaware of and ignorant of the war crimes committed by the Nazis.

Answer: Nuba

Leni Riefenstahl's attempts to make a movie after the war were not successful as they were met with protests. She turned to photography instead. She travelled to Africa and lived with the Sudanese tribe Nuba. Her photo reportages appeared in several well-known magazines: "L'Europeo", "Paris Match", "The Sun", "Newsweek", "The Sunday Times Magazine", "Stern", etc.

Her two illustrated books "The Last of the Nuba" and "The People of Kau" were published in 1974 and 1976 respectively.

Answer: 52

At the age of 72 Leni got certified for scuba diving which was another of her passions. She became an underwater photographer. She published an illustrated book called "Coral Gardens" in 1978 which was a great success.

Later Leni started her work on the memoirs which finally appeared in 1987. The book was published in 13 countries. In 1993 Ray Muller directed a documentary called "Die Macht der Bilder" about Riefenstahl's life and work which was based on Leni's memoirs. The movie won an Emmy Award and Golden Space Needle Award at the Seattle International Film Festival.

Answer: Underwater Impressions

After Leni's "Tiefland" produced in 1954, she left directing. In 2002, however, she released her last movie called "Underwater Impressions" which is a documentary about the coral reefs. In the film she shows a great variety of life that exists in the reefs. There is no voice in the movie just the music.

Answer: helicopter crash

Riefenstahl hadn't been to Sudan for 23 years and at the age of 97 she finally received a permission to entry the country. She went to Khartoum in February 2000 with Horst Kettner, her assistant. After long negotiations she was allowed to go to the mountains to meet with the Nuba people.

Many of her Nuba friends had died during the Civil War and she desperately tried to find those who survived. However the new fights broke out and she was forced to leave by a helicopter which later crashed near El Obeid. Leni was injured and had to be transported by another helicopter to Germany.

But even after the accident she continued to visit her friends in the Sudan.

Answer: 101

Leni Riefenstahl died in her sleep on 8 September, 2003 in Pocking, Germany, almost three weeks after her 101st birthday. She had suffered from lung cancer for a long time. She was buried in Munich.