Herbert Windt
Encyclopedia
Herbert Windt was a German
composer who became one of the most significant film score
composers of the Third Reich. He was best known for his collaborations with the director
Leni Riefenstahl
on films such as Triumph of the Will
.
In 1920 Herr Windt received a grant to study with the renowned Franz Schreker in the composer's master class at the Berlin Academy of Music. Windt joined the NSDAP in 1931. A grant by the government of the Weimar Republic
led to his opera "Andromache, which was first performed in 1932. An UFA film producer in the audience took notice of Windt's music. Windt was offered a commission to write the music for UFA's 1933 film "Morgenrot" (Red Morning), a story about a gallant World War I U-boat crew.
A student of Franz Schreker
, Windt became one of the most significant film score
composers of the Third Reich along with Wolfgang Zeller
, Michael Jary
, Franz Grothe, and Georg Haentzschel
. He composed music for several Nazi public events and radio programs. He was best known for his collaborations with Leni Riefenstahl
, the director
of Triumph of the Will
(1934
/35
), Olympia
(1938
), and Tiefland
(1945
/54
), but he also worked with directors like Wolfgang Liebeneiner
(Die Entlassung
), Georg Wilhelm Pabst
(Paracelsus
), Frank Wisbar (Die Unbekannte, Fährmann Maria, Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben?), and Gustav Ucicky
(Morgenrot).
Windt's film scores for propaganda film
s drew the attention of the sociologist Siegfried Kracauer
, who analysed the composer's works in the tracts From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film
and Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality.
Windt's grand score for the "Olympia" films, recorded by the Berlin Symphony, pioneered the epical symphonic soundtrack music familiar today by contemporary composers such as John Williams.
Despite the warm reception for his music in Nazi party circles, Herbert Windt himself fell into disfavor with the rulers of Germany in that period. He was completely cleared in the post-war de-Nazification trials.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
composer who became one of the most significant film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
composers of the Third Reich. He was best known for his collaborations with the director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
on films such as Triumph of the Will
Triumph of the Will
Triumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of...
.
Biography
Windt studied at the Sternsches Konservatorium in Berlin but left to enlist in the army at the start of World War I. Severely wounded, he spent two years in hospital, during which he began composing chamber music.In 1920 Herr Windt received a grant to study with the renowned Franz Schreker in the composer's master class at the Berlin Academy of Music. Windt joined the NSDAP in 1931. A grant by the government of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
led to his opera "Andromache, which was first performed in 1932. An UFA film producer in the audience took notice of Windt's music. Windt was offered a commission to write the music for UFA's 1933 film "Morgenrot" (Red Morning), a story about a gallant World War I U-boat crew.
A student of Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker
Franz Schreker was an Austrian composer, conductor, teacher and administrator. Primarily a composer of operas, his style is characterized by aesthetic plurality , timbral experimentation, strategies of extended tonality and...
, Windt became one of the most significant film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
composers of the Third Reich along with Wolfgang Zeller
Wolfgang Zeller
Wolfgang Zeller was a German composer noted for his complex film music.-Early life:Born in Biesenrode, Germany, Zeller was the son of a vicar. As a child, he studied violin and showed an aptitude for composition...
, Michael Jary
Michael Jary
Michael Jary was a German composer.- Early years :...
, Franz Grothe, and Georg Haentzschel
Georg Haentzschel
Georg Haentzschel was a German pianist, broadcaster, composer and arranger.Haentzschel studied at the Stern Conservatoire in Berlin and made a career which eventually left him as the last remaining representative composer from what he considered the golden age of German film music...
. He composed music for several Nazi public events and radio programs. He was best known for his collaborations with Leni Riefenstahl
Leni Riefenstahl
Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl was a German film director, actress and dancer widely noted for her aesthetics and innovations as a filmmaker. Her most famous film was Triumph des Willens , a propaganda film made at the 1934 Nuremberg congress of the Nazi Party...
, the director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
of Triumph of the Will
Triumph of the Will
Triumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of...
(1934
1934 in film
-Events:*January 26 - Samuel Goldwyn purchases the film rights to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz from the L. Frank Baum estate for $40,000.*February 19 - Bob Hope marries Dolores Reade...
/35
1935 in film
-Events:*Judy Garland signs a contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer .*Seven year old Shirley Temple wins a special Academy Award.*The Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment started in order to educate the Bantu peoples.-Top grossing films:-Academy Awards:...
), Olympia
Olympia (1938 film)
Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
(1938
1938 in film
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*January — MGM announces that Judy Garland would be cast in the role of "Dorothy" in the upcoming Wizard of Oz motion picture. Ray Bolger is cast as the "Tinman" and Buddy Ebsen is cast as the "Scarecrow". At Bolger's insistence,...
), and Tiefland
Tiefland
Tiefland may refer to:* Tiefland a 1903 opera by Eugen d'Albert* Tiefland , a 1954 film by Leni Riefenstahl...
(1945
1945 in film
The year 1945 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* Paramount Studios releases theatrical short cartoon titled The Friendly Ghost, featuring a ghost named Casper.* With Rossellini's Roma Città aperta, Italian neorealist cinema begins....
/54
1954 in film
The year 1954 in film involved some significant events and memorable ones.-Events:*May 12 - The Marx Brothers' Zeppo Marx divorces wife Marion Benda...
), but he also worked with directors like Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Wolfgang Liebeneiner
Wolfgang Georg Louis Liebeneiner was a German actor, film director and theater director.He was born in Liebau in Prussian Silesia. In 1928, he was taught by Otto Falckenberg, the director of the Munich Kammerspiele, in acting and directing...
(Die Entlassung
Die Entlassung
Die Entlassung is a 1942 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner about the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck...
), Georg Wilhelm Pabst
Georg Wilhelm Pabst
-Biography:Pabst was born in Raudnitz, Bohemia, Austria-Hungary , the son of a railroad employee.Returning from the United States, he was in France when World War I began...
(Paracelsus
Paracelsus (film)
Paracelsus is a 1943 German drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, based on the life of Paracelsus.-Cast:* Werner Krauss - Paracelsus* Annelies Reinhold - Renata Pfefferkorn* Harry Langewisch - Pfefferkorn* Mathias Wieman - Ulrich von Hutten...
), Frank Wisbar (Die Unbekannte, Fährmann Maria, Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben?), and Gustav Ucicky
Gustav Ucicky
Gustav Ucicky was an acclaimed Austrian film director, screenwriter and cinematographer. He was one of the more successful and acclaimed directors in Austria and Germany from the 1930s through to the early 1960s...
(Morgenrot).
Windt's film scores for propaganda film
Propaganda film
The term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...
s drew the attention of the sociologist Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer
Siegfried Kracauer was a German-Jewish writer, journalist, sociologist, cultural critic, and film theorist...
, who analysed the composer's works in the tracts From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film
From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film
From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film is a book by film critic and writer Siegfried Kracauer, published in 1947. The book is considered one of the first major studies of German film between World War I and World War II...
and Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality.
Windt's grand score for the "Olympia" films, recorded by the Berlin Symphony, pioneered the epical symphonic soundtrack music familiar today by contemporary composers such as John Williams.
Despite the warm reception for his music in Nazi party circles, Herbert Windt himself fell into disfavor with the rulers of Germany in that period. He was completely cleared in the post-war de-Nazification trials.
Cantata
- Andante religioso, eine Kammersinfonie nach sechs Sonatten (premiered in 1921) (Wien: Universal-Edition, 1942)
Film scores
- Morgenrot (1933)
- FlüchtlingeFlüchtlingeFlüchtlinge is a 1933 German film depicting Volga German refugees persecuted by the Bolsheviks on the Sino-Russian border in Manchuria in 1928.The film was directed by Gustav Ucicky and starred Hans Albers, Käthe von Nagy and Eugen Klopfer...
(1933) - Der Sieg des GlaubensDer Sieg des GlaubensDer Sieg des Glaubens is the first documentary film directed by Leni Riefenstahl, who was hired despite opposition from Nazi officials that resented employing a woman — and a non-Party member too...
(1933) - Triumph des WillensTriumph of the WillTriumph of the Will is a propaganda film made by Leni Riefenstahl. It chronicles the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, which was attended by more than 700,000 Nazi supporters. The film contains excerpts from speeches given by various Nazi leaders at the Congress, including portions of...
(1934/35) - Die Unbekannte (1936)
- Fährmann Maria (1936)
- OlympiaOlympia (1938 film)Olympia is a 1938 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl documenting the 1936 Summer Olympics, held in the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, Germany. The film was released in two parts: Olympia 1. Teil — Fest der Völker and Olympia 2. Teil — Fest der Schönheit . It was the first documentary feature...
(1938) - Pour le Mérite (1938)
- Friedrich Schiller - Triumph eines Genies (1940)
- Feldzug in PolenFeldzug in PolenFeldzug in Polen is a 69 minute documentary/Nazi propaganda film depicting the 1939 invasion of Poland and directed by Fritz Hippler...
(1940) - Sieg im WestenSieg im WestenSieg im Westen is a 1941 German propaganda film.It was produced by the Oberkommando des Heeres, the German Army High Command, rather than the Propaganda Ministry of Joseph Goebbels.Robert Edwin Hertzstein, The War That Hitler Won p281 ISBN 399-11845-4 Goebbels indeed sabotaged its release in...
(1941) - Die EntlassungDie EntlassungDie Entlassung is a 1942 German film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner about the dismissal of Otto von Bismarck...
(1942) - G.P.U. (1942)
- ParacelsusParacelsus (film)Paracelsus is a 1943 German drama film directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, based on the life of Paracelsus.-Cast:* Werner Krauss - Paracelsus* Annelies Reinhold - Renata Pfefferkorn* Harry Langewisch - Pfefferkorn* Mathias Wieman - Ulrich von Hutten...
(1943) - Besatzung DoraBesatzung DoraBesatzung Dora is a 1943 German film about Luftwaffe men. It depicts a love triangle involving the two of them being overcome by their participation in battle together....
(1943) - Die Degenhardts (1944)
- Tiefland (1954)
- Hunde, wollt ihr ewig leben? (1958)
- Im Namen einer Mutter (1960)