Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright

Part One

September 8, 1934

Nuremberg, Germany

Chapter One

The air over the Nuremberg stadium radiated with patriotism. One hundred fifty thousand uniformed men, the flower of Germany’s manhood, stalwart and true, stood at attention waiting for command. But for the fluttering of the five-story banners behind the dais, all was silence.

In the tiny elevator platform on the flagpole stanchion overlooking the field, two cameras recorded the scene. While the senior cameraman panned the entire stadium with the wide-angle lens, Katja Sommer knelt beside him and captured the formations below.

Slowly, she turned the crank on the single-lens Bolex, focusing on each huge phalanx in the panorama. The Arbeitsdienst with their spades, the far-larger Sturmabteilung in brown uniforms, and the elite Schutzstaffel all in black. They had left a wide avenue down the center of the field and now they waited for command.

"Rechts UM!" One hundred fifty thousand men snapped a turn toward the center and presented arms. On the hard-packed stadium ground, three hundred thousand booted feet sent up a dull double concussion, whomp-WHOMP. An instant later, a thousand standards, topped with gilded swastikas, pivoted to salute the three celebrants who marched along the avenue: Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS; Viktor Lutze, head of the SA; and between them, Adolf Hitler, Führer of Germany.

The three leaders paced in solemn steps past the endless ranks of men, and both cameras filmed until they became tiny specks in the distance. Lowering her camera, Katja absorbed the spectacle: blocks of men as far as she could see, Germany in microcosm, paying tribute to its martyrs.

After a solemn moment, the leaders did an about-face to return along the same wide avenue and the cameras resumed filming. Still Katja heard no sound but the fluttering banners and the soft whirring of the camera mechanism. The field of men seemed a single organism harboring a vast primordial will that waited to be unleashed.

Katja was awestruck. Such manifest power had to come from something deep and wonderful. She forced away a tiny spark of doubt. Adolf Hitler, the one man who harnessed that will, had alleviated Germany’s poverty and ended its humiliation. To be sure, his Brownshirts sometimes became violent, and the boycotts of Jewish shops seemed an overreaction. But she could not forget the sight of the burning Reichstag building, proof that Germany had dangerous enemies in its own cities. Even the concentration camps in Oranienburg and Dachau seemed reasonable if they held people intent on destroying the nation. Germany had endured so many hard years, and this government had begun to deliver prosperity and hope.

Katja had felt the same euphoria the day before, when they filmed the arrival of the flags. In the dusky light, countless thousands of men had paraded in, bearing the banners of the new Germany. Filmed from above, the crimson flags seemed to pour into the stadium like the blood of a people.

Then the Führer had walked onto the field before their holiest relic, the blood flag, soaked in the gore of the men killed in the failed putsch. It bore the mystic spirit of the National Socialist movement, and in a solemn ceremony, he had touched the bloodied corner of it to each of the new standards, suffusing them with the patriotic memory of their comrades’ first sacrifices.

The military bands struck up another march, drawing her from her reverie, and she watched Hitler return to the dais.

That’s it for now, Marti announced, to Katja’s relief, and they descended to the base of the stanchion. She looked at her watch; the ceremony had taken two hours. Her back hurt from crouching the entire time, and she was cold. Marti probably was too but, as the oldest member of the camera team, he would have suffered frostbite before admitting it.

She hoped she had filmed some good material. She wanted to please not only Marti, but also the director of the whole enterprise and the bright star that illuminated Katja’s every aspiration: the amazing, brilliant, beautiful Leni Riefenstahl.

Chapter Two

Katja caught up with the senior cameraman and his young son, and together they crossed the Adolf Hitler Platz. It’s so quiet now, Katja remarked. It’s hard to believe that twenty-four hours ago, this square was bursting with people all screaming for the Führer.

Marti nodded and ruffled his son’s hair. Yes, it was pretty exciting, wasn’t it, Johannes?

I liked the soldiers, the boy said, producing an awkward imitation of the goosestep. Marti smiled with paternal pride. "He’s a little scrapper, and even though he’s only five, he can’t wait to join the Hitlerjugend. I think he likes the dagger. Frankly, my wife and I wish he’d go back to puppies."

They arrived at the Schlageter Platz and the building that had housed most of them during the filming. A stately structure in reddish concrete, it had three wide, arched windows on the ground floor and ornamented pilasters flanking the three arches on the floor above. But Katja always focused first on the enormous sign between the floors that announced in block letters: reichsparteitag—film 1934.

I’m going to miss this place, Marti said.

I will too. Even if I did have to sleep in a dormitory and eat in a cafeteria. I learned so much.

You could sleep and eat? Lucky you. I barely remember doing either one. Another few days of that pace would have done me in.

Once inside, Katja saw that most of the other cameramen had already arrived. She immediately recognized Sepp Allgeier, the head of operations. She knew most of the others by face, but particularly liked cameramen Koehler, Vogel, and Gottschalk. All the men in the crew greeted each other with backslapping and mild ribaldry and smiled courteously toward her. They seemed exhausted, simply waiting for their director to declare the job done so they could go home.

Leni Riefenstahl was nowhere in sight. To Katja’s disappoint-ment, she’d never gotten to talk to her. In the turmoil of the week’s events, the busy director had never stayed in one place long enough for Katja to even approach her. A shame, because Riefenstahl was half the reason Katja had applied to work on the project. Of course she also wanted to learn filming, an infant industry in which she hoped to make a career. But Katja had watched Riefenstahl act in the mountain-climbing thrillers The White Hell of Pitz Palü and Storms over Montblanc, and by the time she saw The Blue Light, she was starstruck.

The door to the large conference room opened and the crowd of people in the corridor filed in. The conference table had been moved to the back and rows of chairs placed in a semicircle before a portable screen. Behind the chairs, a projector was mounted on the table, and Gottschalk stood by it with some half-dozen cans of film.

Leni Riefenstahl appeared at the front of the room. In a rumpled jacket, she was visibly tired and the face Katja knew from the movie screen was somewhat haggard. Her stylishly short hair looked as if she had run her fingers through it in lieu of combing. For all that, she was still attractive, the sort of woman men both feared and lusted after.

Katja had considered cutting her own dark brown hair in the same fashion, but decided against it, keeping it pinned in a roll at the back of her neck, the way her fiancé liked it.

Thank you all for staying an extra day, Riefenstahl said. I know you’re all anxious to leave and I promise I’ll release you in just about an hour.

During the murmurs of approval one or two people actually checked their watches.

I’ve already thanked the City of Nuremberg for the lads who built our observation towers and bridges, camera tracks, and, above all, the electric elevator on the mast in the Luitpold stadium. But that was them, and this is you. Bravo to you.

Another rumble of cheerful agreement.

Riefenstahl scratched her barely combed hair. For your information, we have 130,000 meters of film and a couple of hundred stills from Rudi Lamm and myself. I’ve had a few important scenes developed, and I edited just a little, to see what’s possible. I think we’ve done a terrific job, but you can judge for yourselves. She signaled for the light switch and the projector began to run.

An airplane emerged from the clouds and flew low over Nurem-berg, casting its cruciform shadow over the city like a benediction. Below, long columns of people marched in formation toward the stadium. Ingenious. The Führer arriving from on high, about to descend to the adoring multitudes who streamed to greet him.

Fantastic scene, someone said. How did we get that?"

We had both an airship and a small Klemm single-engine up there at the same time.

That’s the material I took from the Klemm flying alongside, Richard Koehler said. Glad you like it.

Don’t worry, Riefenstahl said. We’ll keep it, no matter what else we cut.

That’s good news. Koehler slapped his hand on his knee. Why don’t we cut the speeches? They’re all drivel.

Don’t let anyone hear you say that, Richard, Sepp Allgeier said. The propaganda ministry already has some kind of blood feud with us.

Riefenstahl declined to comment and instead called attention to the screen where the scene had jumped to the Führer’s motorcade through Nuremberg. I did some experimental splicing here, just to show what I have in mind. The camera shifted focus repeatedly, from Hitler’s car, to the crowds, to the city itself, as though its ancient edifices also welcomed him.

It works beautifully, Vogel said. I see some of my segments here, but those overheads look like they’re from Marti.

Katja smiled to herself, recognizing some of the shots she and Marti had done together to highlight the beauty of the city. Deep in Bavaria, Nuremberg was a gem, the obvious choice for a political party that claimed the soul of a people. A born Berliner, Katja did not know much about Nuremberg beyond what she had learned in school, that it was an early center of humanism, science, and painting, and that two of its famous sons were Albrecht Dürer and Johann Pachelbel. But she found its medieval look intriguing.

A good thing, because she was engaged to a young Nuremberger, Dietrich Kurtz, and would probably end up living here.

Leni Riefenstahl’s voice penetrated Katja’s thoughts. There’s a moment coming up that’s just perfect. We filmed hundreds of meters from directly behind the Führer with the sunlight delineating him. But look here, how the morning sun radiates around his head and shoulders like a halo. Fortunately, we were also filming from the front, and with a little splicing…right here…we shift to full sunlight blazing off his face. She pointed to the screen. Did you see his raised hand? Light leaps from it like something divine. Great effect. We’ll keep that and cut back on the crowd scenes.

"I hope we keep some of the crowd scenes, Rudi Lamm said, but filmed against the backdrop of the medieval buildings. The city should be part of the story."

I agree, Herr Lamm, Riefenstahl said. The propaganda min-ister seems to believe we are making a political document, but that was never my intention. It’s to be a work of art, like Nuremberg itself.

The conference room door opened abruptly and a man hurried in to take a seat. Sorry for being late, he said, but offered no excuse. Katja recognized Erich Prietschke, one of the assistants, she wasn’t sure to whom. He was tall, with blue eyes and blond hair brushed up on one side and tumbling down on the other. The film crews had worn SA uniforms to blend in with the crowd, but all the others had turned theirs in the evening before. Only Erich had kept his uniform another day, she suspected because he knew it made him look the perfectly dashing Aryan soldier.

The light went off again. This is one of the reels from the next morning. The camera eye began before an opening window then glided over the water of the canal, past ancient houses hung with long NSDAP banners, as if the swastikas were as much a part of Nuremberg’s history as its painted façades and medieval sculpture. The camera cut to the tent cities of the Arbeitsdienst and the Hitlerjugend, where the boys were just emerging.

Richard Koehler spoke up. We got those overheads from the airship. But I think Sepp got better shots from below.

We did, Sepp Allgeier said. Lots of pretty faces, naked chests. There’s some of it now. The camera panned from one shining face to another, then withdrew to show the young men shirtless and in trousers, scrubbing arms and feet under a dripping pipe.

"The Volk in its glory, Koehler commented. Attach that to the scenes of the Führer kissing children and old ladies in native costume, and no one will remember he’s not German."

Katja noticed Erich frowning at the banter. When the reel ended and the new one was threaded in, conversation resumed.

What about the Hitlerjugend scenes? someone asked.

There’s plenty of that. We had six cameras on it, Riefenstahl said. Plus, we got all the blood-flag ceremony. That’s coming up now.

The projector clattered as the scene unfolded. At screen center, Hitler strode forward holding the corner of a stained National Socialist flag borne by a soldier in Stahlhelm.

Stepping from standard to standard, Hitler touched the flag’s corner to the fabric of each banner. He took his time, solemnly clutching each swastika panel to the holy relic, passing the sacred blood-magic to the new banner, and the camera revealed each Gau name—Hessen, Paderborn, Spessart, Rhineland—as it received the Führer’s touch.

Great filming, Sepp, Marti said. The Nazis love their flags, don’t they? Did we get any good stills of them?

We did, Riefenstahl answered. Rudi and I were both on the field right after the ceremony. I got a couple of wonderful shots, of a Hitlerjugend holding a flag over his head with sunlight filtering through it.

At that moment, the door to the conference room opened again, interrupting them a second time. Annoyance briefly crossed Riefenstahl’s face, then faded. Oh, it’s you, Frederica. What is it?

"It’s the Reichsminister, Frau Riefenstahl. He just sent over a note." The young woman held out an envelope, and from where she was sitting, Katja could see the insignia of the propaganda ministry.

Don’t tell me. Dr. Goebbels is sending his congratulations, is he? Riefenstahl perused the letter, shaking her head. The same old nonsense. A reminder that it’s his prerogative to monitor the film for its ‘value to the Volk.’ He also requires that I come to his hotel this afternoon to discuss when he can review the films.

She took a breath. For godsake! It’s the party congress. Does he think I’ll smuggle in a mountain-climbing scene? She slapped the letter closed and shoved it into her pocket. What crap, she muttered. The Führer said I had carte blanche for this project, and Goebbels just hates that I’m the only person in the German art world he can’t control. She sighed. I suppose I’ll have to go and soothe his ruffled feathers.

This afternoon? Allgeier asked. Weren’t we going to have a last meal together before everyone leaves?

Oh, that’s right, I’d forgotten. Riefenstahl nodded. Well, Herr Reichsminister will just have to wait. She turned back to her secretary, who had sat down next to her. Please stay after the film showing, Frederica. I’ll write him a note that I’ll be happy to come to the ministry at his convenience, when I’m back in Berlin. That’ll irritate him, but not enough for him to do anything about it.

Riefenstahl stood up in front of the group again. All right, everyone. That’s all we’ve got for now. I’ve got a lot of editing ahead of me, to reduce those 130,000 meters to about 3,000, so count yourselves lucky to be able to stop working now. I know some of you are leaving immediately, but for those who can stay a few more hours, we’ve asked the kitchen staff to put together a final meal at two o’clock. I hope to see you there.

The departing team members gathered around to say good-bye to their boss, and Katja migrated toward the corridor. Just by the door, Frederica was conversing with Erich Prietschke, tall, blond, and in uniform, like an image on a political poster.

He bent over Frederica with one hand on the wall above her head and the other hooked on his military belt. Katja chuckled to herself. Even when he flirted, he swaggered.

Frederica, for her part, was harder to fathom. Even physically, she was a curious mixture. Under her amber, almost-blond hair, she had an oval face with a wide mouth and full, well-formed lips. Her large eyes seemed to squint back at her admirer, either with amusement or skepticism, Katja couldn’t be sure which.

Statuesque, even beautiful, she had a distinctly un-German look. The features were finely chiseled, and Katja couldn’t possibly imagine her in a dirndl dress or with a coif of twisted braids. What was it, then, that attracted Erich?

He’s really pouring it on, isn’t he? Do you think she’s falling for it?

Rudi! Katja glanced sideways to see one of her best friends on the team. Hi there. I haven’t seen you for days. What have you been doing all this time?

He pecked her on the cheek. "Working my pretty fingers to the bone. Every time Frau Riefenstahl went out for a shot, I had to go with her so we’d have both film and stills of it. I could have had my camera glued to my head and no one would have noticed the difference. Where did she assign you?"

Katja stood back to study him, trim yet muscular, like a dancer. She had liked him from the first moment she met him. His lighthearted banter and genuine warmth always cheered her. He posed, though not the way men posed—to assert authority. Rather it was as if to say, Look, I’m posing. Isn’t this fun? He was handsome in a more delicate way than Erich. His features were finer, and his brown eyelashes were as long as a girl’s.

I was Herr Kraus’s assistant. I mostly carried his equipment, but they let me film now and then, when they wanted extra coverage.

Ah, yes, I saw you up on the pole once, squashed in behind him. That can’t have been so nice. He chuckled.

She smiled along with him. It was a tight squeeze, but I didn’t think much about it. I was too intent on getting the picture. I want so much to live up to Frau Riefenstahl’s vision.

I know what you mean. I’m not thrilled about the political message, but I love what she’s doing for cinema. Cameras on the ground, cameras on tracks, cameras in dirigibles. Absolutely brilliant. You can’t help but be in awe of her.

I am, but I’ve never really talked to her. Herr Kraus engaged me. We’re both from Berlin and he knew I was studying film, so he took me on.

I’m from Berlin too. Neukölln. I live just down the street from the Alte Post, if you know that district. I got my job because I know Frederica, her secretary.

Katja’s attention had wandered as she glanced again toward Erich, who still hovered over Frederica. They’d make a nice couple, don’t you think?

"Erich? He is a beauty, isn’t he? But Frederica’s much too smart for him. She doesn’t go for blond beasts like that."

How do you know what she ‘goes for’?

Rudi allowed himself a slight smirk. We were once engaged.

Really? What happened?

He waved his hand, as if brushing a fly away. Long story. Let’s just say we were well matched, but not for marriage. I love her to pieces, but we realized in time that we were much better off as best friends. What about you? Is there a Mister Sommer?

Katja chuckled. "Yes, my father. But I’m engaged to a man in the Wehrmacht. We haven’t set a date yet, and I’m not in a hurry, but I suppose it will happen eventually."

You make it sound like gray hair. You’re not in a hurry to get married?

No. I want to do so many other things first. But Dietrich, my fiancé, is patient. Brave, kind, hard working. He was on the field yesterday, with his unit, in the middle of all those other thousands. I’m sure he was wildly proud to stand there for Hitler.

‘Brave, kind, hard-working, proud to stand for Hitler.’ I guess that’s what every German woman wants in a man. Katja detected the faintest note of irony in his voice, which she didn’t know how to respond to.

Ah, Katja! Finally, I found you, someone said, and Katja turned around. Of medium height, with light-brown hair tending toward red, and the faint remainder of childhood freckles, Dietrich Kurtz looked slightly out of character in his Wehrmacht uniform, like a boy dressed up as a soldier.

Dietrich! I thought you had marched off to the train station yesterday with twenty thousand others.

I did. But before we even arrived for the rally, I applied for leave. They gave me twenty-four hours, isn’t that great? I thought I’d surprise you.

Oh, yes, it’s great, Katja said, forcing cheer into her voice. His sudden appearance reminded her of her life outside the film project and diluted the excitement of the last hour of the great adventure.

Most of the others from the camera team were leaving, and he slid his arm around her waist. Let’s go for a walk then, he suggested, guiding her toward the door.

They passed Frederica and Erich at the doorway and, for a moment, Katja locked eyes with her. Frederica’s eyes were gray-green, her glance intense before she shifted her attention back to Erich. Yes, Katja confirmed inwardly. A perfect Nazi couple.

Then Dietrich pulled her from the warm film-crew building into the cool, sobering air of the Schlageter Platz and her previous life.

Chapter Three

Dietrich looked at his watch. My father will be at work and my mother does her shopping in the middle of the day. We’ll have the house to ourselves, he said pointedly.

Katja was not enthusiastic. I shouldn’t be away too long, Dietrich. Herr Kraus might need me for something.

Oh, come on, he said with obvious disappointment. Frau Riefenstahl said herself that the work was all done. We’ve been engaged ever since last summer and you’ve never seen our house here in Nuremberg. I got leave especially to spend a few hours alone with you. It’s not the wrong time of the month, is it? I thought I knew your ‘safe’ times.

Katja was not particularly in the mood for the sex he was alluding to, even if this was a time when she couldn’t get pregnant, but it wouldn’t take long to satisfy him. His parents were genuinely good people, and she was sure the house was lovely too. So why did she feel like she was being dragged away from something? Then she reminded herself, the film project was a one-time adventure; Dietrich would be her life.

All right. We can spend an hour at your house, if you’d like, but I want to be at the supper the film team is having.

Dietrich hugged her to his chest and kissed the top of her head. You’re a very strong-willed woman, you know. That will be good when it comes time to raise the children.

Children, she repeated. Yes, I suppose so.

She walked alongside him, wondering what had brought her and Dietrich together. Perhaps because he was the first man who courted her instead of the prettier schoolgirls with their round, soft faces and pink cheeks. Her slightly angular features always made her look older than her years, and her single-mindedness about her studies made her unsociable. Dietrich’s attentions were enormously flattering, and before she knew it, she was engaged.

"We can catch the Strassenbahn right here at the Adolf Hitler Platz, and see? One’s already coming." He grasped her hand and drew her along in a gentle jog.

*

Dietrich’s family house on the Schwalbenstrasse could have been in a children’s story book. The exposed-beam construction was medieval and, even without the swastika flag, represented traditional Germany. Geranium-filled flower boxes decorated all the windows, red at the street level, pink on the floor just above, and white on the top floor. The front door was oak, with a wreath of walnut shells and dried thistle at the center.

Oh, drat. The light’s on in the kitchen. My mother’s still there. Well, maybe she’ll take the hint and leave, Dietrich said as he shoved the heavy oak door open and they entered the foyer. On a series of hooks just inside the doorway, hats and a woman’s green Loden jacket hung next to a carved walking stick.

Mutti, look who’s here! he announced, standing in the doorway of the kitchen.

A woman in her sixties looked up from where she was sitting and writing. Ach, Dietrich! she exclaimed, and hurried toward him. And Katja! How wonderful. Dietrich, I thought you had to stay with your unit after the congress.

I do. I’ve only got a few hours’ leave but look, I was able to convince Katja to come.

"That’s splendid. I was just making a list of things I need to buy at the market in the square. I’ll pick up some beef and make Tafelspitz for dinner. Your father will be so pleased. She cupped her slightly plump hand under Katya’s chin. We’ll have a nice family meal with our future daughter-in-law."

Uh, I’m afraid not, Mutti. Katja has to be back at work later this afternoon.

Yes, I’m sorry, Frau Kurtz. The team has another meeting and of course I have to be there. For the party congress, you know. It was only half a lie.

But maybe we can have some coffee before you go shopping. Dietrich’s emphasis on the word shopping made it clear that he expected her to leave them alone.

"Ja, natürlich," she responded with maternal understanding, and set about grinding the coffee beans. While Dietrich assisted his mother in preparing the ritual snack, Katja surveyed the room.

The walls and ceiling were pine supported by pine beams, and the floor was oak. But not merely the preponderance of wood gave the room its heavy Bavarian atmosphere. The table in the corner had wooden benches attached to the walls on two sides, and the tall green-tiled Kachelofen, which over-warmed the kitchen, held tiles painted with edelweiss and acorns. On the wall over the table were both a statue of the Virgin with the infant Jesus and a crucifix with the vividly painted dead one. The other wall sported three trophy heads of mountain goats. The cloying, overheated coziness hinted of mortality and guilt.

Can I help? Katja asked, but Frau Kurtz waved her away. Oh, of course not, dear. Just sit yourself down. The coffee will be ready in a moment.

Katja studied a gray stoneware pitcher and cups on the counter nearby and next to them two picture frames. One held a family portrait. Against the backdrop of a dusty curtain, Konrad Kurtz stood in a suit with stiff paternal pride next to his wife, who was seated on an ornamental chair, her long skirt draped artistically to cover her feet. Between them, in lederhosen and white shirt, a very young Dietrich posed with his hand on the arm of the chair. A paternal hand rested on his shoulder, as if to hold him in place.

The other photo, obviously more recent, was of Dietrich in his Wehrmacht uniform, posing with the same stiffness as his father. The solemnity of his expression belied the sweet, playful boy she knew was hidden inside.

Here we are, my dear. Frau Kurtz swung around with a painted porcelain coffee pot and three matching cups. Dietrich followed with a plate of small cakes. Katja braced herself for the inevitable question of when she and Dietrich would marry, but Frau Kurtz was stealthier than that. How exciting that you’ve been invited to do this wonderful film for the Führer. Did you actually get to photograph him? Frau Kurtz asked, pouring the steaming coffee into all of the cups.

Yes, several times, but I was only an assistant to one of the cameramen.

That’s exciting she repeated. I watched the parade when the Führer arrived, but it was hard to see in such a big crowd. You know how the Bavarians adore him. She served the cakes. Did you actually speak with him? I think I would have fainted.

No, he was always at a distance. But we made some nice films of Dietrich standing at attention with thousands of others on the field. If it makes the editing cut, you’ll be able to see it in the cinema.

Dietrich laughed. Yes, and you can be sure she’ll be looking for me. I’ll be the one on the right side, nine hundred rows back, eighty-seventh man from the center.

"Perhaps by the time the film is in the cinema,