Dietrich and Riefenstahl by Karin Wieland, the story of two sexually adventurous Berlin-born girls who became respectively an icon of decadence and Hitler’s film-maker. Wieland’s book sets the arc of their two careers against the fall, rise and fall again of Germany’s fortunes, and the changing mores of Hollywood from the Thirties to the Sixties. One comes away amazed at Marlene Dietrich’s resilience and aghast at Leni Riefenstahl’s talent for self-deception.

Dietrich & Riefenstahl
Hollywood, Berlin,
and a Century in Two Lives
Norton & Company
Hardcover

“Separating fiction from the apocryphal, German political theory historian Wieland takes readers on a densely layered, whirlwind tour of Weimar Germany, 1930s Hollywood, the Third Reich, World War II, and more…. An absorbing read and a must-have for film collections. Highly recommended where Erik Larson’s In the Garden of Beasts is popular.”
— Kent Turner, School Library Journal

“In her engrossing, richly detailed debut book, Wieland, a historian of political theory at the Hamburg Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Culture, offers parallel biographies of the two women, tracing their vastly divergent trajectories…. Wieland deftly traces both lives through their many ups and downs. A sweeping, revelatory dual biography.”
— Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“The ways that two German screen luminaries embodied the growing status and ambitions of 20th-century women are chronicled in this absorbing dual biography by historian Wieland…. [An] incisive cultural analysis of the women’s impact as proto-feminists who used sex appeal, savvy, and considerable talent to pioneer new roles for women.”
— Publishers Weekly