Only a few months after Erwin Leiser's Mein Kampf (1960), which was produced in Sweden, an additional compilation film arrived about the thematic nexus of National Socialism: DAS LEBEN VON ADOLF HITLER (West Germany 1961). It was directed by Paul Rotha, a famous British documentary filmmaker and film historical author from the John Grierson school with Communist sympathies; the producer of the film was concentration camp survivor Walter Koppel. The film sparked a lively debate in newspapers of the time, yet was hardly shown. Rotha’s film is, however, more than up to the standard of many other films of the time both with respect to aesthetics and content. The production and reception history of the film is also a document on the engagement with the past at the start of the 60s in East and West Germany. (ft) (14.11.)
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