10 Jul Triumph of the Will
Triumph of the Will, documentary starring Hitler
(1935) Triumph of the Will is a documentary propaganda film made for Hitler in 1935. It centers around the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg. The Nuremberg Rallies were held annually from 1933 to 1938 as huge propaganda events.
I read: “This film has been called the most powerful propaganda film ever made.” It was the inspiration for Frank Capra’s series Why We Fight, as it was for Chaplin’s The Great Dictator.
It was 1935. Hitler had become Chancellor of Germany in 1933. Führer in 1934. Well, by 1935 he was a rock star and thought he was God. All you have to do is watch this film, and you’ll agree. You can watch the whole thing on archive.gov.
I’ve attended many motivational rallies. Anthony Robbins, Elvis, Jimmy Swaggart … none of them could come close to Adolf and his crew on how to whip a crowd into a frenzy. A choreographed frenzy to be sure. I know there was some rehearsal for this but the street scenes, the candids … they weren’t rehearsed.
The precision marching was unbelievable. If you’re watching the video, skip to the 1:05-hour mark for the famous crowd shot of the Rally. Hitler and two of his cronies walking between tens of thousand of soldiers. Parting the Red Sea.
Hey, I wanted to be there too! Darling little girls. Handsome young men. (17 minutes into the video) I was watching perfection. The Truman Show. Shangri-la. Everyone was either smiling, cheering, clapping, or crying for joy. And then of course there was Hitler who was going to make everything in the world right again. For the pure Aryan Germans.
Germany was ripe for a saviour. Its people wanted to regain the pride they had lost during WWI. Hitler promised to rebuild Germany to an economic greatness it had never seen. All they had to do was to place their faith in him, their God.
Sieg Heil!
Hitler and two of his aides walking between the thousands of soldiers at the Nuremberg Rally, 1935
Triumph of the Will at amazon.com
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