'Leni Riefenstahl's only significance was as a propagandist for the Third Reich'. In light of this statement, assess the significance of Leni Riefenstahl's work in Nazi propaganda until 1945

Leni Riefenstahl is most widely known for her films Triumph of the Will and Olympia. However, these works, despite being so far ahead of their time, there was and still remains much controversy surrounding them and there is a historical argument as to whether these films were propagandist in nature, or whether Riefenstahl was merely a careerist, aiming to advance her career in any way possible and as she says "What was I supposed to …

…to create something designed to have an impact on society, then the artist shares in creating that impact. Furthermore, Hinton writes that "it might be that Riefenstahl and the majority of Germans alive in 1934 could not have anticipated the war and the Holocaust that Hitler would bring about, however the devil is in the details. There was certainly enough prejudice and hatred in the party platform even then to see the darkness overshadowing the light.