Adolf Hitler was a dedicated movie fanatic, having a taste for everything from cartoons to comedies and even indulging in an eclectic array of foreign films produced in America, France and Great Britain. Once coming to power in 1933 until the outbreak of WW2, he watched two or sometimes three films every evening in his private theater at the Berghof or at the Chancellory. His favorite movie was ”King Kong” which he apparently spoke about incessantly for many days after having seen it. To the public eye Hitler was very solicitous in disclosing his choice in film viewings in order to demonstrate his solidarity with important groups whose loyalty mattered most to him: the German navy (Morgenrot), the Hitler Youth (Hitler Youth Quex) the SA (Storm Trooper Brand), the army (Shock Troop 1917) and the air force (Pour le Mérite). This album of photographs includes Hitler attending the premieres of all of these films in addition to Leni Riefenstahl’s numerous personally commissioned films.

Morgenrot

“Morgenrot” is a 1933 German submarine film set during World War I. Released just three days after Adolf Hitler became Reichskanzler, it was the first film to have its screening in Nazi Germany. It became a symbol of the new times touted by the National Socialist regime. The title, literally meaning “morning-red”, is the German term for the reddish coloring of the east sky about a half-hour before the sunrise. “Dawn” was the title used for the U.S release. It was filmed in Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, and was the first German submarine movie made after World War I.

S.A.-Mann Brand

“S.A.-Mann Brand” was another German film made around the time that Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany. The film presents the story of a truck driver, Fritz Brand, who joins the Nazi Sturmabteilung to defend Germany against communist subversion orchestrated from Moscow. He persuades his social circle of the imminent danger and the need to support Adolf Hitler in the federal election. A review in The New York Times noted favorably the film’s production value and the absence of any anti-Semitic message but also expressed contempt for its unsophisticated plot.

Hitler Youth Quex

“Hitlerjunge Quex” is a 1933 film based on the novel “Der Hitlerjunge Quex” that had been released the previous year by Karl Aloys Schenzinger based on the life of Herbert “Quex” Norkus. Set in the depths of the Great Depression and in the waning days of the crumbling Weimar Republic, a poor Berlin youth is torn between loyalty to his unemployed Communist father and his ever-growing fascination of the Hitler Youth movement. The film was described by Joseph Goebbels as the “first large-scale” transmission of National Socialist ideology using the medium of cinema. Both the book and the film, like “S.A.-Mann Brand” and “Hans Westmar” glorified death in the service of the Nazi Party and Adolf Hitler.

Victory of Faith

“Der Sieg des Glaubens” (1933) is the first documentary film directed by Leni Riefenstahl. It documents the Fifth Nuremberg Party Congress shortly after the party came to power. The film includes Ernst Röhm, head of the SA and, at the time, the second most powerful man within the Nazi Party. Less than a year later, Röhm attempted, along with other top SA members, a military coup against the elected government of Hitler. The film “Triumph des Willens” was produced to replace this one and follows a similar script.

Shock Troop 1917

“Stoßtrupp 1917” is a 1934 German war film directed by Hans Zöberlein and starring Ludwig Schmid-Wildy, Beppo Brem and Max Zankl. It shows German soldiers fighting in the trenches during the First World War. It was based on the novel “Der Glaube an Deutschland” by Hans Zöberlein.

Triumph of the Will

“Triumph of the Will” premiered on 28 March 1935 at the Berlin Ufa Palace Theater and was an instant success. Within two months the film had earned 815,000 Reichsmark (equivalent to almost $5,000,000 US today), and Ufa considered it one of the three most profitable films of that year. It chronicles the 1934 Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts of speeches given by Adolf Hitler, Rudolf Hess and Julius Streicher. Its overriding theme is the return of Germany as a great power with Hitler as its leader.

Tag der Freiheit

“Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht” (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces) is the third documentary directed by Leni Riefenstahl, following “Der Sieg des Glaubens” and “Triumph des Willens”. Her third film recounts the Seventh Party Rally of the NSDAP, which occurred in Nuremberg in 1935, and focuses on the German army.

Olympia

“Olympia” is a 1938 German documentary film written, directed and produced by Leni Riefenstahl. It documented the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin during the Nazi period. The film was released in two parts: “Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker” (Festival of Nations) and “Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit” (Festival of Beauty). The 1936 Summer Olympics torch relay, as devised for the Games by the secretary general of the Organizing Committee, Dr. Carl Diem, is shown in the film.

Pour le Mérite

“Pour le Mérite” (title in French, translates “For Merit”) is a 1938 propaganda film produced and directed by Karl Ritter that glorifies WW1 fighter pilots as heroes of National Socialism. The film follows the story of officers of the Luftstreitkräfte (German Air Force) in the First World War who were later involved in the formation of the Luftwaffe. Pour le Mérite propagated the “stab in the back legend”, a conspiracy theory which consigns the German military defeat in World War I to an alleged treason in the homeland plotted by communists, Bolsheviks, and particularly Jews. The film chronicles the rise of the German Air Force (“Luftwaffe”) from World War I up until Adolf Hitler took power in 1933.