Short Synopsis
A presence in Third Reich cinema, Adolf Hitler also personally financed, ordered, and censored films and newsreels and engaged in complex relationships with their stars and directors. Here, Bill Niven offers a powerful argument for reconsidering Hitler's fascination with film as a means to further the Nazi agenda.

Full Synopsis
A presence in Third Reich cinema, Adolf Hitler also personally financed, ordered, and censored films and newsreels and engaged in complex relationships with their stars and directors. Here, Bill Niven offers a powerful argument for reconsidering Hitler's fascination with film as a means to further the Nazi agenda.

In this first English-language work to fully explore Hitler's influence on and relationship with film in Nazi Germany, the author calls on a broad array of archival sources. Arguing that Hitler was as central to the Nazi film industry as Goebbels, Niven also explores Hitler's representation in Third Reich cinema, personally and through films focusing on historical figures with whom he was associated, and how Hitler's vision for the medium went far beyond "straight propaganda." He aimed to raise documentary film to a powerful art form rivaling architecture in its ability to reach the masses.

“Bill Niven’s book is important for social and cultural historians as well as biographers of Hitler. It expertly shows how an authoritarian ruler can influence an entire people through carefully administered doses of select propaganda." ---Michael H. Kater, author of The Twisted Muse: Musicians and Their Music in the Third Reich

“Ground-breaking. Niven offers fascinating new insights into Hitler's obsessive and surprising viewing habits and how he exploited the arts of cinema and documentary to pursue his destructive political ambitions.” ---Christopher Hale, author of Hitler's Foreign Executioners: Europe's Dirty Secret

“Hitler and Film carves out new territory in a densely populated field. Written with a precision and clarity that is the hallmark of Niven’s work, the book sheds significant new light both on Hitler as Nazi ideologue, on the one hand, and film fan on the other. Extraordinary.” ---Paul Cooke, author of Contemporary German Cinema