Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Changing Mountain Discourses—A Germanophone Perspective
- 1 Conrad Gessner, “Letter to Jacob Vogel on the Admiration of Mountains” (1541) and “Description of Mount Fractus, Commonly Called Mount Pilate” (1555)
- 2 Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, The Natural History of Switzerland (1716)—Excerpts
- 3 Sophie von La Roche, Diary of a Journey through Switzerland (1787)—Excerpts
- 4 G. W. F. Hegel, Travel Diary through the Bernese Alps (1796)
- 5 Alexander von Humboldt, Failed Ascents of Antisana and Chimborazo—Two Excerpts from the Travel Diaries (1802)
- 6 Hermann von Barth, From the Northern Limestone Alps (1874)—Excerpts
- 7 Georg Simmel, “Alpine Journeys” (1895) and “On the Aesthetics of the Alps” (1911)
- 8 Eduard Pichl, “Autobiographical Sketch” (1914) and “The Alpine Association and German Purity” (1923)
- 9 Leni Riefenstahl, Struggle in Snow and Ice (1933)—Excerpts
- 10 Arnold Fanck, He Directed Glaciers, Storms, and Avalanches: A Film Pioneer Recounts (1973)—Excerpts
- 11 Hans Ertl, My Wild Thirties (1982), Chapter 7: “The Film Gets Colorized—But the Himalaya Still Looks Bleak”
- 12 Max Peintner, “The Dam” (1981)
- 13 Reinhold Messner, Westwall: The Abyss Principle (2009)—Excerpts
- Bibliography
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
9 - Leni Riefenstahl, Struggle in Snow and Ice (1933)—Excerpts
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 January 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: The Changing Mountain Discourses—A Germanophone Perspective
- 1 Conrad Gessner, “Letter to Jacob Vogel on the Admiration of Mountains” (1541) and “Description of Mount Fractus, Commonly Called Mount Pilate” (1555)
- 2 Johann Jakob Scheuchzer, The Natural History of Switzerland (1716)—Excerpts
- 3 Sophie von La Roche, Diary of a Journey through Switzerland (1787)—Excerpts
- 4 G. W. F. Hegel, Travel Diary through the Bernese Alps (1796)
- 5 Alexander von Humboldt, Failed Ascents of Antisana and Chimborazo—Two Excerpts from the Travel Diaries (1802)
- 6 Hermann von Barth, From the Northern Limestone Alps (1874)—Excerpts
- 7 Georg Simmel, “Alpine Journeys” (1895) and “On the Aesthetics of the Alps” (1911)
- 8 Eduard Pichl, “Autobiographical Sketch” (1914) and “The Alpine Association and German Purity” (1923)
- 9 Leni Riefenstahl, Struggle in Snow and Ice (1933)—Excerpts
- 10 Arnold Fanck, He Directed Glaciers, Storms, and Avalanches: A Film Pioneer Recounts (1973)—Excerpts
- 11 Hans Ertl, My Wild Thirties (1982), Chapter 7: “The Film Gets Colorized—But the Himalaya Still Looks Bleak”
- 12 Max Peintner, “The Dam” (1981)
- 13 Reinhold Messner, Westwall: The Abyss Principle (2009)—Excerpts
- Bibliography
- Notes on the Contributors
- Index
Summary
Translator’s Introduction
Yes, I love the mountains, love them passionately. I see in them symbols of struggle, dangers, the resistance of the summit; I see the cliff faces that passionately resist being climbed, the cunning deceitfulness of crusted-over cornices. I see … the great, great solitude and, time and time again, the struggle. (Leni Riefenstahl, Kampf in Schnee und Eis, 25)
Leni Riefenstahl May Seem like an odd selection for the short list of authors included in this volume, since her fame rests on her films in service of National Socialism, not on her skills as a mountaineer or writer. But for her place in mountain history, Riefenstahl demands inclusion. Her central role as an actress in Bergfilme (mountain films) and director of Nazi propaganda films, as well as aesthetic similarities between Weimarera mountain films and her later propaganda films, have served as fodder for the frequent condemnation of Bergfilme as protofascist works. Her 1933 memoir Kampf in Schnee und Eis (Struggle in Snow and Ice) describes the mountains with an emphasis on struggle, heroism, and physical hardship that matches the sentiment of the Weimar-era Bergfilme in which she played a key role. While the prose is not virtuosic, ranging from conversational and glib to pathos-laden and awkward, the text nonetheless offers an important opportunity to confront the persistently troubling relationship between Alpinism and fascism.
Kampf in Schnee und Eis was published in 1933. Riefenstahl had already acted in her last mountain film under director Arnold Fanck, to whom the book is dedicated, and had directed her own mountain film, Das blaue Licht (The Blue Light, 1932). But she had not yet sealed her reputation as Hitler’s preferred filmmaker with films such as Triumph des Willens (Triumph of the Will, 1935) and Olympia (1938). The book details her early career as a dancer, her first encounter with the Alps through Fanck’s 1924 film Der Berg des Schicksals (The Mountain of Destiny), her enthusiastic embrace of mountain sports in order to join Fanck’s filmmaking team, the complicated and physically strenuous work of filmmaking in the mountains, the process of directing her first film, as well as more reflective elements such as her ambivalence between competing career paths in dance and film.
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- Mountains and the German MindTranslations from Gessner to Messner, 1541-2009, pp. 214 - 242Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2020