Detail page - Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz

The Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation is cataloguing and researching the extensive estate of Leni Riefenstahl (1902-2003). The Art Library with its Museum of Photography, the Ethnological Museum, the Berlin State Library and the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek, which holds the films and memorabilia, are involved. Over 700 boxes of photos, films, notes, letters, manuscripts and other documents were donated to the SPK in 2018. The holdings harbourenormous research potential. At the same time, the collection poses a considerable challenge - both in terms of the scope and diversity of its content as well as from an ethical, legal and socio-political perspective. The aim is to successively catalogue the collection in sub-projects, each of which will incorporate different perspectives.

Research results on Nuba photographs online

The results of the first sub-project are now available on the multilingual website https://nuba-images.smb.museum/. The project was dedicated to the collection of more than 10,000 photographs and films that Riefenstahl took of the Nuba in Sudan in the 1960s and 70s. In recent years, it has been processed by the Ethnological Museum, the Art Library, the German Cinematheque Foundation and the Pan-Nuba Council, Sudan.

The aim of the BKM-funded project was to focus on the perspective of the members of the Nuba communities on these works. When Leni Riefenstahl took the photographs, the people photographed did not know what would happen to the images. However, they are also an enrichment for the current Nuba generations because they make their marginalised cultural heritage visible and are seen by them as important contemporary testimonies.

In a first step, all slides and a number of prints were digitised, the films reconstructed and the almost 700 ethnographic items from the estate preserved in the Ethnological Museum digitally documented. AI-based image recognition software developed at the State Library was used to sort, catalogue and compile the data records. Collaborative research with representatives of the Pan-Nuba Council, Sudanese researchers and artists formed the core of the project.

"Inside Archives" - exhibition from 22 May at the Museum of Photography

Students on the "Art in Context" master's programme at Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) have spent the last few months critically examining Riefenstahl's Nuba photographs and films. From 22 May 2026, the installations, video and photo projects as well as text and audio formats created in this project will be shown together with works by Sudanese artists at the Museum of Photography. They are also intended to familiarise the public with the difficult thematic complex of the Nuba photographs in Riefenstahl's work between the stereotypical glorification of the time and the current situation.

The exhibition will run from 22 May to 7 June 2026. The opening will take place on 21 May at 19:00.

Cataloguing and digitisation of the written legacy

Since 2022, the State Library, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), has been cataloguing 590 scripts, manuscripts and other texts, 17,000 letters and 700 life documents, among other things, and also digitising some of them. In addition, there are around 660 dedication copies from Leni Riefenstahl's private book collection. All indexing information and digitised material will be successively published in the Kalliope Union Catalogue and the Stabi's digitised collections - which can be found under the project reference "Leni Riefenstahl Estate digital". These include not only Riefenstahl's personal letters - including to Adolf Hitler - and numerous other correspondences, but also lists of film box office takings, travelogues or press reviews (with her own responses), photos, calendar entries, film documents and much more - and thus a basis for a wide variety of research questions.

Since autumn 2025, the State Library has also been jointly responsible for a project that explores the possibilities for using the estate from a legal perspective. Difficulties arise, for example, in questions of copyright or the legal succession of the production companies that Riefenstahl founded, which is claimed by several parties.

The personal rights of persons depicted or mentioned in letters, the treatment of personal data in correspondence under data protection law and the digital accessibility of anti-constitutional and other incriminated content in accordance with criminal law will also be examined. It is taking place as a sub-project of a Germany-wide, DFG-funded pilot phase. This 24-month joint project is intended to enable cultural heritage institutions to make their collections virtually accessible up to the present day and is being coordinated by the State Library. Using the Riefenstahl estate as a case study, the aim is to create handouts and practical guidelines, but also to provide impetus for a readjustment of the legal framework.

Marion Ackermann, SPK President, says: "The SPK was already aware in 2018 that it had not only taken on a ground-breaking aesthetic work with the estate, but also a special responsibility for the critical examination of this controversial figure of contemporary history. Just as important as the research into the estate is the educational work. I am therefore particularly looking forward to the pop-up exhibition "Inside Archives" by students who have been working on the Nuba photographs and films. They have re-read Riefenstahl's images in order to break their power, uncover their layers and try out new forms of storytelling in their reflections."

Achim Bonte, Director General of the State Library, says: "When it comes to cataloguing and digitising the written documents, we are challenged not only ethically, but also legally. Leni Riefenstahl specifically curated her estate in order to create an idealised image of her life and work. The online publication of the critical voices in her estate often fails due to the legal framework. We are taking up this challenge with a pioneering legal project that will considerably expand the scope for archives, libraries and museums to digitise their collections from the 20th and 21st centuries."

Moritz Wullen, Director of the Art Library, adds: "The Art Library has been preserving Leni Riefenstahl's photographic estate since 2018. Our approach is expressly not one of curatorial sovereignty. We see the estate as an open research space, which entails a special ethical responsibility. After all, this legacy is linked to histories of violence, traumas and perspectives from different social groups that still have an impact today. Including these voices and making them accessible as a task for society as a whole is not an option for us, but an obligation."

Press images and selected digital copies:

https://www.preussischer-kulturbesitz.de/newsroom/presse/pressebilder.html

https://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN1892019973&PHYSID=PHYS_0001

Further information:

https://www.spkmagazin.de/2024/das-waren-nicht-deine-nuba-leni-riefenstahl.html