Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces

Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht
Wehrmacht in front of audience in the film
Directed by	Leni Riefenstahl
Written by	Leni Riefenstahl
Produced by	Leni Riefenstahl
Starring	Adolf Hitler Hermann Göring Rudolf Hess Heinrich Himmler
Cinematography	Hans Ertl Walter Frentz Albert Kling Guzzi Lantschner Kurt Neubert Willy Zielke
Edited by	Leni Riefenstahl
Music by	Peter Kreuder
Production company	Reichsparteitag-Film
Distributed by	Universum Film AG
Release date	30 December 1935 (1935-12-30)
Running time	28 minutes (surviving incomplete copy)
Country	Germany
Language	German

Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces) is the third documentary directed by Leni Riefenstahl, following Der Sieg des Glaubens and Triumph des Willens. Her third film recounts the Seventh Party Rally of the Nazi Party, which occurred in Nuremberg in 1935, and focuses on the German army.

Tag der Freiheit was considered lost at the end of World War II, but an incomplete print of the film was discovered in the 1970s—the extant footage reveals Riefenstahl mainly reprising the approach she used in Triumph of the Will (1934), though certain more expressionistic sequences clearly presage the more audacious style she would adopt for Olympia (1938).

Synopsis

The film depicts a mock battle staged by German troops during the ceremonies at Nuremberg on German Armed Forces Day 1935. The camera follows the soldiers from their early-morning preparations in their tent city as they march singing to the vast parade grounds where a miniature war involving infantry, cavalry, aircraft, flak guns and the first public appearance of Germany's new forbidden tank is presented before Hitler and thousands of spectators.

The film ends with a montage of Nazi flags to the tune of the "Deutschlandlied" and a shot of German fighter biplanes flying overhead in a swastika formation.

Background

When several generals in the Wehrmacht protested over the minimal army presence in Triumph of the Will, Hitler proposed his own "artistic" compromise where Triumph would open with a camera slowly tracking down a row of all the "overlooked" generals (and placate each general's ego). According to her own testimony, Riefenstahl boldly refused his suggestion and insisted on keeping artistic control over Triumph of the Will. She did agree to return to the 1935 rally and make a film exclusively about the Wehrmacht, which became Tag der Freiheit.

External links

• Day of Freedom: Our Armed Forces at IMDb
• Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
• English translation of Hitler's speech in the film Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine