Nazis and the Cinema [Hardcover]

Susan Tegel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2007

Before the rise of television, the cinema was a key medium of entertainment and information. The Nazi regime, which inherited the largest film industry outside Hollywood, realised this clearly, with some of the most memorable images of Hitler and his party coming from Leni Riefenstahl's film Triumph of the Will. Susan Tegel has written a comprehensive account of the films made in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945, including the notorious feature film, Jüd Suss, and the compilation documentary Der Ewige Jude. She explores in detail how the film makers were controlled and used by the regime. She also examines other less well- known films featuring Jewish characters. In such films she relates the historical context to government policies concerning the Jews. Newsreels and documentaries and their place within a cinema programme are discussed as are the two documentaries made in Theresienstadt under the SS rather than the Propaganda Ministry. She looks at the industry itself, its reorganization, funding, the interventions of the Propaganda Ministry headed by Goebbels, the compromises which people had to make, the careerism and the dangers which some faced either of unemployment or worse.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Holocaust denier Leni Reifenstahl, late German filmmaker, was really in for it from UK history professor Susan Tegel, then with University of Hertfordshire, now on the historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television editorial board.
Currently she writes the August 2007 Hembelton Continuum $34.95 illustrated hardcover, Nazis and the Cinema, focusing again on such works as Reifenstahl's infamous
paean to Hitler, "The Triumph of the Will," and drawing on a good deal of material first appearing in the Journal, written by herself and other scholars. Black and white archival photos illustrate.
Working within the largest film industry outside Hollywood at the time, German moviemakers and their anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi films, newsreels and Goebbels-controlled propaganda are examined during the 1933-1945 span of the Third Reich." -Today's Books

Todays Books puts Nazis and the Cinema title on "The A-List"

"Historically insightful into what was the largest film industry outside of Hollywood between the two world wars, Nazis and the Cinema is worth looking into for film and history buffs into what Germany presented themselves at the time as a cautionary measure, plus an irony on how film propaganda hasn't changes much since." —Outreach Connection

"Susan's book is a fascinating look at the cinema produce of the Nazis... The author is an authority on her subject... an excellent book"

The Hornsey Magazine, December 2007

"Susan Tegel, the historian who advised the legal team that was preparing to sue Leni Riefenstahl for Holocaust denial, is the latest scholar to analyze fully the role played by movies in the Third Reich. It's a testament to the field's richness that her Nazis and the Cinema covers territory left largely unexplored in the two major books on the subject, Linda Schulte-Sasse's Entertaining the Third Reich, and Eric Rentschler's Ministry of Illusion (both published in 1996)...[Tegel] emphasize[s], in a way that they do not, the manner in which Jews were represented on the German screen." — Film Comment (Jan/Feb 2008 issue)

(J. Hoberman )

"Susan Tegel's book is a brilliant pulling-together of a lot of research and thinking about film in the Nazi era"

Reviewed by Taylor Downing in History Today, 2008

Title mentioned in article about film by Bas Blokker in Spiegel, March 2008.

"It is an important volume for historians, sociologists, and film scholars alike." Cynthia J. Miller, Emerson College

"Susan Tegel deserves applause for achieving exactly what she sets out to accomplish: exploring the intersection of art and politics as well as the efficacy of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine ... Tegel's jargon-free prose makes this book a palatable choice for an upper-division course ... Posing questions rather than asserting overambitious claims, Nazis and the Cinema provides its readers with substantial cerebral nourishment" — German Studies Review (Alan Rosenfeld )

"Susan Tegel's book is a brilliant pulling-together of a lot of research and thinking about film in the Nazi era"

- Taylor Downing in History Today, 2008

"Tegel's judicious overview is the only English-language account to build on recent German micro-histories"

- The London Review of Books

"Tegel's work offers a comprehensive, accesible introduction to the cinema of the Third Reich through the lens of antisemitism"

- American Historical Review, February 2009

Title mentioned in Jewish Chronicle, 20 May 2008

“Historically insightful into what was the largest film industry outside of Hollywood between the two world wars, Nazis and the Cinema is worth looking into for film and history buffs into what Germany presented themselves at the time as a cautionary measure, plus an irony on how film propaganda hasn’t changes much since.” –Outreach Connection

"Susan Tegel, the historian who advised the legal team that was preparing to sue Leni Riefenstahl for Holocaust denial, is the latest scholar to analyze fully the role played by movies in the Third Reich. It's a testament to the field's richness that her Nazis and the Cinema covers territory left largely unexplored in the two major books on the subject, Linda Schulte-Sasse's Entertaining the Third Reich, and Eric Rentschler's Ministry of Illusion (both published in 1996)…[Tegel] emphasize[s], in a way that they do not, the manner in which Jews were represented on the German screen." — Film Comment (Jan/Feb 2008 issue)

(, )

“Susan Tegel deserves applause for achieving exactly what she sets out to accomplish: exploring the intersection of art and politics as well as the efficacy of Joseph Goebbels’ propaganda machine … Tegel’s jargon-free prose makes this book a palatable choice for an upper-division course … Posing questions rather than asserting overambitious claims, Nazis and the Cinema provides its readers with substantial cerebral nourishment” – German Studies Review (, )

Holocaust denier Leni Reifenstahl, late German filmmaker, was really in for it from UK history professor Susan Tegel, then with University of Hertfordshire, now on the historical Journal of Film, Radio, and Television editorial board.
Currently she writes the August 2007 Hambledon Continuum $34.95 illustrated hardcover, Nazis and the Cinema, focusing again on such works as Reifenstahl's infamous paean to Hitler, "The Triumph of the Will" and drawing on a good deal of material first appearing in the Journal, written by herself and other scholars. Black and white archival photos illustrate.
Working within the largest film industry outside Hollywood at the time, German moviemakers and their anti-Semitic, pro-Nazi films, newsreels and Goebbels controlled propaganda are examined during the 1933-1945 span of the Third Reich.
Todays Books puts Nazis and the Cinema on The A-List (Today's Books )

About the Author

Susan Tegel taught history for many years at the University of Hertfordshire.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Hambledon Continuum; First Edition edition (August 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1847250009
• ISBN-13: 978-1847250001
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,422,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)