Digitisation and indexing of the Leni Riefenstahl estate Joint project of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums Berlin), the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin (National Library Berlin) - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek (Foundation German Cinematheque)

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Achim Bonte
• Subject Area: Art History ; Modern and Contemporary History ; Theatre and Media Studies
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 512444797

The film director and photographer Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003) had a decisive influence on the National Socialist visual language with her films of the Nazi Party congresses in Nuremberg and the Olympic Games in Berlin in the 1930s. Her very popular photo books and photo series on the Sudanese Nuba, which were published in many countries in the 1970s and 1980s, are part of an exoticising portrayal of the African continent and ways of life from a colonial perspective. In the course of her long life, Riefenstahl compiled an extensive archive, which also documents the activities of her company Leni Riefenstahl Produktion. She worked with this archive throughout her life and curated it in the spirit of her own life and creative narrative. In 2018, the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation received Leni Riefenstahl's estate as a donation from the sole heir. Through a cooperation agreement, the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek was also included in the donation. Subsequently, the holdings were distributed according to scholarly competences: - Written material: SBB, Manuscript and Rare Book Department - Photographs: SMB, Kunstbibliothek, Photography Collection - Ethnological objects: SMB, Ethnological Museum - Film, audio, technology, textiles, etc.: Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek In a joint project, all participating institutions intend to digitise their respective parts of the Riefenstahl estate and to make them accessible in their databases as well as in a joint online portal. A detailed and collaborative reappraisal of the Africa holdings is already being made possible by a project funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM). In a subsequent joint project (e-research technologies), a research portal is to be developed that will enable interactive networking. The processing and provision of this difficult legacy presents the project partners with a challenging ethical responsibility that requires continuous critical reflection on archive work and publication. The manuscript department of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin holds the written estate of Leni Riefenstahl. It focuses on the period after 1945 and includes scripts, notes and materials on her various film and photographic projects, her own manuscripts (for example her memoirs), her private as well as business (Leni Riefenstahl production) correspondence, numerous personal and official life documents and the collected materials on herself and her work. The project intendeds to enable systematic scholarly indexing of the works, correspondence and life documents, as well as the digitisation of rights-free objects. Thus, this collection will be made accessible to researchers and an interested public for the first time and in the long term.

• DFG Programme: Cataloguing and Digitisation (Scientific Library Services and Information Systems)
• Participating Institution: Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen