• Alliance between aesthetics and power
• Perversion of aesthetic criteria into tools of political power
• Recorded events of the colossal 1934 party rally in Nuremberg

Film introduced the "new political reality" to all the Germans in a "Gesamtkunstwerk" (total art work). How?

individual fragments of daily life

individual perception

treasured symbols

eagle, flags and swastikas

clichés of German culture

slow destruction of individual entities

unity, equality, purity, discipline, wholeness

Film was produced for the masses so that the people would feel themselves to be participants in the consolidation of Nazi power.

Questions for the discussion

• The Nazis’ aim was totality. Propaganda was their tool. Explain this and relate it to the film.
• “The Nazis preferred to reduce the intellect by working primarily upon emotions.” (Kracauer*,  p. 300-301). Explain this and discuss what the Nazis did (physically and psychologically) to achieve this.
•  The Nazis loved the word “Bewegung” (movement). Explore the different meanings (literally and metaphorically) of this term in the film.
• What was the purpose of the film? How was it achieved? Was it a documentary or a propaganda film? Or both?
• Discuss the use of the masses in the film as an ornament. What did this mean to the Nazis and why did they like it a lot?
• Kracauer mentions “the deep feeling of uneasiness Triumph of the Will arouses in unbiased minds”. What were your reactions and your emotional responses to the film? Explain.
• Explain the notion of “baptism of the flag” in the film. Discuss the meaning of flags and how they were used in the film.
• Compare the “Be Prepared”-scene and its underlying theme in The Lion King with scenes from Triumph of the Will. Discuss if it was appropriate or not for Disney to use such themes in a children movie?

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* Kracauer, Siegfried. From Caligari to Hitler, a Psychological History of the German Film. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP, 1947.