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Yeon Kim
ENL160
Essay #1
May 6, 2018

Dialectics of Order and Chaos:

The Cult of Unity & Loss of Individuality in Triumph of the Will

In Triumph of the Will, Leni Riefenstahl illustrates the dialectically opposed elements of
chaos and order into which the individual is subjugated and absorbed by the nation state. Such
observation is accomplished through orchestration of subtle camerawork and the juxtaposition of
filmic images in Riefenstahl’s 1935 propaganda film, namely through the continuum of alternating
images of Hitler and his mass of followers. In reference to Adorno’s Dialectics of Enlightenment,
with focus on the “culture industry”, we can observe the way in which the characteristics of mass
culture in a capitalist society parallel that of fascist Germany: a homogenized audience, the logic
of domination (monopoly of capitalism/nation-state), and a system that integrates consumers and
subjects from above. The paper will then proceed to a formal analysis of the narrative in Triumph
of the Will, from which the loss of the individual in a homogenized, passive audience is
demonstrated as a result of the appropriation of dialectical dynamism between chaos and order,
leader and follower, operating within the agenda of centralized power under the guise unification.

The example set by Nazi Germany is paradigmatic of moralities championing some

variation of the ideal (or “enlightenment”) which have implemented themselves by resorting to the
same abuses that were explicitly claimed to be destroyed. Specifically, the most idealized and
absolutist moralities which allow for the least deviations, dominate their subjects through such
coercive tactics as brute force, lies, and fear as primary mobilizers of the masses. In the case of
Triumph of the Will, a more insidious tactic of dialectic manipulation, here referred to as “the cult
of unity” is observed. The film, which chronicles the Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg, can be
understood in this context by superimposing the Hegelian dialectic model of thesis, anti-thesis,
and synthesis implemented by the fascist regime. Under the agenda of the centralization of power
by the Nazi party, Hitler deployed the chaos of the economic crisis to construct the greatest threat
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to national security as the Jewish people – the thesis. The anti-thesis proffered as a repressive
police state – fascist Germany – would effectuate the synthetic solution, then, as the removal of
freedoms and the transfer of power from the many to the hands of the few. This dynamic operation,
lying beneath the surface of the sequences of images in the film, manifests explicitly as the
methods guaranteeing the ultimate goal of “unity”, “order”, and “purity” amidst the chaos and fear
of national instability. It is precisely this ideal that Hitler appropriates in order to drill citizens into
passivity and coercion – the result being a total loss of individual to the nation-state.

At this point, it is helpful to the discussion to elucidate the process and goals of dialectics
in order to understand the potency of its operation in the backdrop of fascist propaganda. If the
conception of dialectics is understood as the principle of contradiction, then the latter becomes the
principle applied in dialectics to produce motion. It was mobilization of the masses and their
assimilation to the Nazi regime which Hitler had to accomplish in order for his party to succeed in
effectuating its agenda. The particular nature in which the method is used can be understood in
parallel to Adorno and Horkheimer’s critical theory of “the culture industry”.

In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Horkheimer propose that popular culture

functions much in the same way that factories produce standardized goods, which are then used to
manipulate mass society into passivity (Adorno, 1944). Thus, the self-reinforcing mechanism of a
capitalist economy exposes the individual “in authoritarian fashion” to the same products under
apparently varying categories, which in turn endangers the freedom and creativity of the
individual. Further, they argue that “the technical antithesis between few production centers and
widely dispersed reception necessitates organization and planning by those in control” (Adorno,
p.95-6). It is clear that Adorno’s “total power of capital” (Adorno, p.94) is analogous to the total
power of the fascist regime in the sense that the monopolization of power by the state necessitates
the total integration of all its subjects into its ideology. The success, from the perspective of the
state, results in part from the fact that in the same way that “all mass culture under monopoly is
identical” (Adorno, 95), all German citizens that willingly subject themselves to the nation-state
are identical with each other and to the group as a whole – individuality and autonomy is lost and
the state is in power to sway the masses.
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Another key component to the success of monopolization is the promise of enlightenment,

or the ideal. According to Paxton, the “ingredients” of fascism are bonded by “common enemies
and common passion” for a “regenerated, energized, and purified nation” (Paxton, 207). Here the
ideal is unity and purification, and the individuals the homogenized products which propel and
reinforce the industry of fascist Germany. The collapse of reason and loss of individuality,
therefore, is a result of a pattern of domination in complex power structures between nation state
and subjects, industry and consumers. And finally, the triumph of advertising as “the compulsive
imitation by consumers of cultural commodities” (Adorno, 136) can be viewed in parallel to the
effect of propaganda which utilizes repetition and sameness in order to create the illusion of unity
among the masses as demonstrated in Triumph of the Will.

Leni Riefenstahl’s 1934 propaganda film Triumph of the Will contains a series of rally
footage, speeches given by Nazi leaders, the amassed SA and SS troops, and public reaction
(Triumph of the Will, 1934). Through the subtle, but calculated film techniques employed, the cult
of unity is propagated as sameness, repetition, and anonymity. Beginning with the aerial shots
which place Hitler above the skies (0:00:00-0:03:44), the viewers are immediately oriented as
subjects to a higher, omnipotent figure, establishing immediately the power dynamics between
leader and subjects. The use of shot-reverse-shot is perhaps the most powerful technique in
solidifying this perspective as the camera consistently alternates between Hitler, the symbol of
power, to the mass arrays of followers below him, only specks of dust in neat rows from his vantage
point. In the segment documenting the youth rally, Riefenstahl engages her camera in slightly low-
angle, close-up shots of German youth with their gaze directed towards the Fuhrer (0:43:49). We
are made keenly aware of this gaze as the camera shoots back to close-up or medium shots of
Hitler, who is constantly shown as larger-than-life, filling a majority of the frame (0:45:03). In
contrast, long shots and tracking shots are used almost exclusively in depicting the mass of people
so that they are seen not as individuals in gathering, but rather anonymous, faceless figures in a
sea of subjects. In particular, the tracking shots revealing a seemingly endless unfolding of soldiers
lined up with their erect flags, saluting as the camera passes becomes a literal vision of
homogeneity, repetition, sameness, and reiteration (0:50:39-0:51:32).
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The use of diegetic sound is also worth mention, as it provides further emphasis on the
power dynamism between Hitler and the people, as well as the loss of individuality in the masses.
For example, the only singular voices heard throughout the film is of Hitler and his officials during
their speeches (0:27:00-0:40:00, 1:33:00-1:44:00), with the exception of the brief roll-call in which
geographical origins were voiced, not names (0:32:35-0:33:00). In fact, the only sounds heard from
the crowd are their cheers, laughter and saluting (always directed positively at Fuhrer) – whatever
individual voice is permitted is absorbed, lost, and assimilated into a single entity, the mass.
Silence also plays a role in reinforcing division between leader and follower; when the crowd
erupts in applause, the camera sharply cuts to silence at the signal of Hitler’s all-mighty hand. He
speaks, applause, silence again. Metaphorically, this translates into the authority of Hitler which,
through the film’s soundscape, brings order to the chaos.

The motif of repetition as exemplified by tracking- and long-shots in interplay with

shout/counter-shots which firmly establish power dynamic, suggests that fascist propaganda
operates through the reinforcement of the same response, rather than the ideas of the fascist
machine itself. Through endless permutations of reiteration, the cult of unity triumphs at the
sudden death of individual thought and autonomy.

We have come to understand the dialectic method appropriated by the Nazi regime as a
way to steer popular thought into one, limited solution, and driven by the extremity of conditions,
arrive at only one means to that solution: extermination of an entire population of people. Adorno’s
critique of homogenized products/consumers in the culture industry provides a framework in
which to evaluate the repetition and sameness invoked by the visual imagery and film technique
in Triumph of the Will, which in turn, reveals the mechanics of the cult of unity to which
individuality and autonomy are subsumed, and that which emerge from order imposed on
“manufactured” chaos. Indeed, we find that the greater the gap between these dialectically opposed
elements, the greater the affirmation of its existence as well as its propagation, and thereby
illustrates the extent to which the cult of unity heralded by fascist propaganda results in the total
elimination of individualism of the subject and the deterioration of rational, autonomous morality.
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Works Cited

Triumph of the Will. (1934). [film] Germany: Leni Riefenstahl.

Adorno, T. & Horkheimer, M., 1944. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception.
In T. Adorno and M. Horkheimer. Dialectics of Enlightenment. Translated by John
Cumming. New York: herder and Herder, 1972.

Paxton, Robert O. The Anatomy of Fascism. New York: Vintage Books, 2005. Print.