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Erwin Leiser
View on Wikipedia | You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (April 2013) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
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Erwin Leiser (May 16, 1923 – August 22, 1996)[1] was a Swedish director, writer, and actor. He is best known for his 1960 documentary film Mein Kampf, based on Nazi footage from secret archives and depicting Nazi atrocities.[2] He subsequently made other documentaries both on Nazi Germany and other topics.
Early life and education
[edit]Born and raised in Berlin, he fled to Sweden at the age of 15 to escape the Nazi Party. He graduated from the University of Lund and worked as a journalist and a drama and literary critic.[3]
Career
[edit]Leiser was born in Berlin on 16 May 1923 and fled Nazi Germany in 1938; he settled in Sweden, studied at Lund University and began his professional life as a journalist and a drama/literary critic in the 1950s.[4][5]
In 1959–60 Leiser shifted into documentary filmmaking, specialising in compilation films that used archival and newsreel footage to examine the rise of National Socialism and the role of cinema and propaganda in the Third Reich. His landmark film *Mein Kampf* (1960) drew on German- and Allied-era footage and gained international distribution, establishing his reputation as a historian-filmmaker.[6]
During the 1960s and 1970s, Leiser produced a series of further documentaries exploring Nazi Germany, the Holocaust, and the cinema of that era. In 1967 he served on the jury of the 28th Venice International Film Festival.[7] Furthermore, in 1974 he published his book *Nazi Cinema*, an English-language study of film and propaganda in Nazi Germany, based on his earlier documentary work.[8]
Leiser’s approach combined journalistic clarity with scholarly annotation: his films often included voice-over narrations, carefully selected archival visuals, and companion texts or books intended for both general audiences and specialists. His work has been cited in film-history and propaganda studies as an early and influential example of post-war documentary engagement with Nazi cinema and visual culture.[9]
Selected filmography
[edit]- *Mein Kampf* (1960)
- *Eichmann und das Dritte Reich* (1961)
- *Zum Beispiel Fritz Lang* (1968)
- *Die Mitläufer* (1985)
- *Pimpf war jeder* (1993)
- *Feindbilder* (1995)
Selected publications
[edit]- Leiser, Erwin. *A Pictorial History of Nazi Germany*. Penguin / Pelican, 1962.
- Leiser, Erwin. *Nazi Cinema*. Macmillan, 1974. ISBN 978-0020124009."Nazi Cinema – Better World Books listing". Better World Books. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
Death
[edit]Erwin Leiser was buried in Zürich's Israelitischer Friedhof Oberer Friesenberg.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ Erwin Leiser (1923–1996)
- ^ Erwin Leiser
- ^ Erwin Leiser at New York Times
- ^ "Erwin Leiser". ACMI. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ "Erwin Leiser – Biography". Filmportal.de. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ "Erwin Leiser". TCM. Archived from the original on July 30, 2021. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ "28th Venice International Film Festival (1967) – Jury". IMDb. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ Leiser, Erwin (1974). Nazi Cinema. Macmillan. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ "Nazi Cinema – Google Books preview". Google Books. Retrieved 18 October 2025.
- ^ "Zürich: Jüdischer Friedhof - Oberer Friesenberg" (in German). alemannia-judaica.de. Retrieved 2015-12-18.
External links
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