# Who gets the royalties from propaganda films nowadays?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [June 25, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187 "2003-06-25T00:57:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/1 "2003-06-25T00:57:35Z")
The thread on female directors brought up the subject of Triumph of the Will (obviously enough).
This lead me to wonder, if I were to buy the new special edition DVD release, who gets the money? Did/does Reifenstahl own the rights to her work? The same question goes for other works that are “dodgey”, for example Mein Kampf, Birth of a Nation etc.
There are various films and books that I would like to watch or read for their artistic merit, or historical value etc, but I do not wish to put cash in coffers that I do not approve of. If that makes sense…
Anyone know the answer to this?
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/2 "2003-06-25T02:38:10Z")
I cannot speak about Triumph of the Will, but it is well-known where royalties for Mein Kampf goes.
Hitler’s property was forfitted to the State. In this case (IIRC) the Staat in question is Bavaria. It holds the copyright to MK in all nations outside of the USA. Permission to reprint the complete work it is rarely given. Citations are allowed only in academic works.
The US rights were sold by ol’ AH himself to an American firm that still holds them. They have been ver responsible about it, although they do allow complete reprints. They have never tried to make any serious money off the book.
In any case, the copyright will be up in another ten years or so. Then all the nutter will be able to print their own versions.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/3 "2003-06-25T13:55:03Z")
Any propaganda films made by the U.S. Army or other government agency are in public domain. This is because no work made by the government can be copyrighted.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/4 "2003-06-25T16:55:52Z")
As for Triumph of the Will (I hope we’re talkign about the same film - that Nazi thing about the 1936 Olympics?), the director, Leni Riefenstahl, is still alive; she turned 100 last August. I don’t know, however, if she’s actually still receiving royalties for it.
The website [riefenstahl.com](http://riefenstahl.com) mentions on [this](http://www.leni-riefenstahl.com/Leni%20Riefenstahl-Einfuehrung.htm) German-speaking subpage that copyright to her footage are owned by Riefenstahl alone and that the makers of the site had to obtain permission from her.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/5 "2003-06-25T19:01:32Z")
I googled up [another](http://www.schikaneder.at/update/kino/filme/meinkampf.html) German-speaking page delaing with the legal consequences of a Swedish documentary on the Nazi era released in 1959. This film used Triumph of the Will material a lot which they had purchased from the (socialist) East German national archives. Riefenstahl, living in West Germany, sued them for royalties.
The producers argued that, since TotW had been produced for the NSDAP (it’s about the Party Congress, not the Olympics as I said in my earlier post), it had become property of the two divided German nations as legal successors of the Reich and the Party. In 1969, finally, the supreme civil court of West Germany rejected Riefenstahl’s claims.
The site adds, however, that according to agreements with the distribution company, Riefenstahl still has the right to decide who may show TotW in public and who not, but the details of that deal have not been published.
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### Author:  [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)
#### Post date: [June 25, 2003, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/6 "2003-06-25T20:59:52Z")
As for “Birth of a Nation” strictly speaking it’s not propoganda, it’s just a commercial film. The proceeds went to D.W. Griffith and his successors.
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### Author:  [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)
#### Post date: [June 26, 2003, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-gets-the-royalties-from-propaganda-films-nowadays/184187/7 "2003-06-26T00:02:57Z")
I’m not usually one to trust any version of Riefenstahl’s autobiography, but she claims that, as of 1963, the US Department of Justice recognised her US rights in regard to _Triumph of the Will_, _Olympia_, _The Blue Light_ (her pre-war fiction film) and _Tiefland_ (the one made during and after the war). Apparently, this was only partially successful and piracy continued. She implies that the successful (I actually, unconciously, initially typed “final” there) solution was “to make small changes in my films; for instance, to supply English subtitles, and then apply for a new copyright.” In keeping with the general “everybody’s unfair to poor Leni” tone of the book, she goes on:
> [@](#):
>
> This was a possibility, but it required a great deal of work and money. Changes had to be made in five films and also new prints produced, since, in order to obtain the certification for the new copyright, I would have to supply a print containing all the changes indicated in the application. Nevertheless, I decided to go ahead.
I presume she’s counting the two parts of _Olympia_ as distinct films here.
See _Leni Riefenstahl: A Memoir_ (St. Martins, 1993, p567-9, 620-1).