Germany has finally dealt with Leni Riefenstahl

The history of German cinema in the first half of the last century has finally reached a decisive end.

As Spiegel reported, the German Film Association (SPIO) has stripped 14 German filmmakers of their honorary medals due to their Nazi past.

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It's worth noting that not all of their names are familiar to Ukrainian film connoisseurs, with the possible exception of Leni Riefenstahl. Hitler's favorite was forgiven everything after the war due to her exceptional creative achievements in documentary filmmaking.

For example, footage of the massive parade of SS and SA troops in rectangular formations at the Luitpold Arena in Nuremberg, shown in her documentary "Triumph of the Will," is featured in virtually every documentary on the history of Nazism, without citation. The lack of citation is not surprising, as "Triumph of the Will," filmed in 1935, was a veritable visual anthem to the Nazi movement. (Riefenstahl, naturally, denied this after the war.)

The same can be said, albeit in a different format, of her documentary film "Olympia," dedicated to the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Incidentally, for those unaware, the Olympic torch relay, with runners carrying a flaming torch, was first introduced at these Games—the Nazis knew a thing or two about mass spectacles. Leni Riefenstahl, however, presented the sporting competitions in "Olympia" with such perfect aesthetics, linking them to ancient Greek tradition, that it became a subject of imitation for decades.

As for another famous German, Olga Chekhova, the first film star of the time, rumors circulated during and immediately after the war that she enjoyed the favor of the very top brass of the Third Reich off-screen, and some time after the war, that she allegedly worked for Allied intelligence.

And here it's important to note that, as stated at the outset, the final decision was not made by subjective opinions, but by a current study by the Munich Institute of Contemporary History (IfZ), which classified 14 people on the list, the rest of whom are not as famous as Riefenstahl and Chekhov, as "tainted by a Nazi past" or "Nazi-compatible."

SPIO commissioned this study for its 100th anniversary, and, as noted, drew its first conclusions by stripping those on the list of their honorary awards.

Photo: Leni Riefenstahl editing her film Wikipedia