Product Description

Considered lost for nearly 70 years, Victory of Faith is again available to viewing audiences. A key work in the evolution of National Socialist propaganda, it provides an ambitious record of the 1933 NS Party rally at Nuremberg. The film ran afoul of authorities, however, after the "blood purge" of 1934, which rendered Brownshirt leader Ernst Rohm, a central figure in of the 1933 rally, a non-person. Across Germany, references to Rohm were obliterated from the public record, and all prints of Victory of Faith were tracked down and destroyed. Until now, the film seemed little more than an intriguing postscript to Third Reich history. Though far from a masterwork, the film is a revelation on many counts, offering a fascinating first draft of the ideas and techniques Riefenstahl would pull off so powerfully in Truimph of the Will. In their contrasts, the two films shed much light on the early evolution of NS propaganda, its evocation of heroism and collective will! , its portrayal of the 'national people's community,' and its depiction of Hitler most of all. Where Triumph of the Will showed Hitler assupreme symbol and absolute master of the movement, the Hitler of Victory of Faith is still first among equals, a man with an unrulyforelock, a presence not yet wholly in command. Moreover, Victoryof Faith provides a revealing look at the NS movement in the firstblush of its 1933 triumphs. Here, the movement still bears themarks of its street-fighter origins; its rituals are often raw,lacking the orchestrated precision and theatrical grandeur weassociate with later stagecraft. In these and other ways, Victoryof Faith fills a gap in our understanding of the Third Reich,capturing the Hitler state at a pivotal stage in its earlydevelopment.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78088 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-11-09
• Formats: Black & White, Subtitled, NTSC
• Original language: German, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 70 minutes

Customer Reviews

The original Leni Riefenstahl documentary
I had read for many years that this film was considered lost and was surprised to see it offered on Amazon. I purchased a copy immediately and wanted to be the first to comment on it. The film is historically the first documentary effort of one of the world's foremost documentarians. It is said that she had little time to prepare for the film but the final product was nevertheless quite well executed. Apparently she had deposited a print of the film at some university in England and it was not located until shortly before her death. So unfortunately she never knew her first "rally film" had been discovered. The film is identical to Triumph of the Will in many ways except it has a rougher edge to it. Maybe what you would expect from an early Spielberg or Scorsese, i.e. genius in the making. This film apparently set the standard for all Nazi propaganda films that would follow it. The early views of Nuremberg rally sites are fascinating. The Stormtroopers are in their early uniforms and cheering Ernst Rohm who was later liquidated in the Night of the Long Knives. There is one fascinating scene where Hitler Youth Leader von Schirach actually accidentally knocks Hitler's hat from the podium, right in front of Hitler. Hitler takes it in stride. This scene must have escaped Riefenstahl's keen editing eye. There is the original trailer for the film in the features and there is also a short film "Wort und Tat" from an equally controversial director, Dr Fritz Hippler, and this is apparently his first documentary as well. If you have Triumph of the Will, you must see this film, if for no other reason than to see how Triumph of the Will turned out so well, it was a remake! That is my opinion of course, but I believe that had she not had the experience of the first film she would never have done the magnificent job she did on Triumph of the Will.

The unfilm!
In 1513, Niccolo Machiavelli wrote: "From this a general rule is drawn which never or rarely fails; that he who is the cause of another becoming powerful is ruined; because that predominancy has been brought about either by astuteness or else by force, and both are distrusted by him who has been raised to power."

Leni Riefenstahl's "Der Sieg des Glaubens" is an excellent, if unwitting, testament to this brutal truth of politics. Commissioned by Adolf Hitler in 1933, just after he assumed the chancellorship of Germany, "Victory of Faith" was meant to commemorate the Nazi "seizure of power." Aside from Hitler, it prominently features many of the men who were instrumental its victory: but none more so than SA Chief of Staff Ernst Rohm. Rohm, standing side-by-side with Hitler in many of the scenes, clearly enjoys a special status even among the Nazi elite. And this is as it should be, for without Rohm and his SA, Hitler would not have been standing on the podium at all.

Rohm, a pudgy, scar-faced ex-army captain and political intriguer, had been instrumental in supply arms for the Nazi's failed 1923 Putsch attempt: he also served as an early commander of the SA, the Nazi Party's famed storm troopers. For a time he fell out with Hitler and worked as a mercenary in South America; but Hitler, who had difficulty keeping the SA under control, eventually realized that Rohm alone could keep the brownshirts on their leashes. He recalled Rohm, designated him the "Stabschef der SA" or chief of staff, and granted him plenary powers to reorganize the storm troops and bring them into line with the Party's (meaning Hitler's) ultimate aims.

Rohm was brilliantly successful and vastly expanded the SA into a force of some two million men. He conquered the streets and beer halls of Germany for Hitler, and was literally the bludgeon by which Hitler thrashed his way into power. For his pains, Rohm expected both he and his SA to be well compensated. And therein lay the problem.

Rohm was blunt-talking, crude, and revolutionary in his aims.
He wanted to absorb the German army into the SA and create a "National Socialist Army" under his own command -- after, of course, he had purged its officer corps of its aristocrats. He longed for the "second revolution" which would see the end of the Junkers and bring radical socialist reforms in German industry and agriculture. Finally, he was openly homosexual. For all of these reasons, Rohm made both the Nazis and the German army very nervous.

Hitler too eventually came to see his friend and comrade as a threat. The very guile and ruthlessness Rohm had shown during the Party's "time of struggle" now made him a danger to Hitler's person. And so, less than a year after Riefenstahl shot "Victory of Faith" Hitler shot Ernst Rohm. By that time he had worked himself up into believing the SA had actually been planning a putsch against him, and in a fit of rage he ordered all references to Rohm obliterated. Thus, "Victory of Faith" went on the bonfire, ultimately replaced by "Triumph of the Will" (which was filmed a year later). Only a single copy of "Victory" left "accidentally on purpose" in Britain before the war, survived. Lucky for us, because the film is a gold mine of never-before-seen visuals of many top Nazis, and a good snapshot of the pecking order of the Nazi Party prior to the Night of the Long Knives. The black-uniformed Himmler (along with Sepp Dietrich) are then nothing more than praetorian guards; they don't even get to stand on the platform!

Compared to her later "Triumph," Riefenstahl's "Victory of Faith" is somewhat crude and rough around the edges. This may reflect Leni's inexperience, or it may reflect the fact that the Nazis were not yet firmly in the saddle in Germany and their sense of pagentry was not quite fully developed. Watching Hitler and his cronies celebrate their victory, one gets the sense of an underdog team dazedly celebrating in the clubhouse after an improbable win. They stormed the castle....now what?

The answer to that question came a year later, when Rohm was in Stadelheim Prison, awaiting his execution. His mood was philisophical. "All revolutions," he told a visitor a few hours before he was shot, "devour their children."

Machiavelli couldn't have said it any better.

PERFECTION- ALL TIME MUST BUY
This truly is the holy grail for students of National Socialist Germany in particular and World War 2 generally. Long thought to have been lost to history some determined researchers managed to unearth this movie gem and have it available on DVD...Bravo.

Anyone who is anyone has Triumph of the Will in their Collection but Riefenstahl herself did not know that a copy of this movie still existed so you need to get it before they sell out.

I got my copy and finding it to be Region 1 only had to go out and buy a multi region DVD Player,(I'm based in England) despite the expense I WAS NOT DISAPPOINTED.

I could have done with this DVD whilst at University studying origins of WW2 and if your a student of history you will NEED to buy this DVD. I am no great student of film technique but again due to the rarity and the genius of Riefenstahl and her methods of movie making which are still considered amongst the best ever I would recommend those studying Film/Photographer to make sure they get a copy or at the very least get their Library to buy a copy.

All in all some may deride it as another piece of Nazi propaganda, nonetheless judge for yourself, you WILL NOT BE DISAPPINTED.