Schonheit im Olympischen Kampf by Leni Riefenstahl, First Edition

Schonheit im Olympischen Kampf by Leni Riefenstahl

First Edition, First Printing, 1937

This is a rare first edition, first printing of Riefentahl’s controversial masterpiece “Schonheit im Olympischen Kampf” published by Im Deutschen Verlag, Berlin in 1937. The book is a classic monument to the athletes of the 1936 Olympics (the Jesse Owens Olympics) and contains still photographs of Riefenstahl’s filming of her motion picture Olympia which is considered one of the finest sports documentaries ever produced. Each of the full page photographs is captioned in English, German, Spanish, and French. Writing in The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century, David Levi Strauss states, “These are such exquisite, such transcendentally beautiful images of athletes, that one almost forgets their context. And it’s all Greek temples and hardbodies until page 54, when the German team enters the stadium in their immaculate white uniforms, their right arms raised in slaute across the page to Der Fuhrer…it took over one and a half years to produce Riefentahl’s masterpiece.”

Featuring 273 spectacular gravure plates and measuring approximately 12” x 9.5”, the book is bound in orange cloth covered boards stamped in gilt with a photographically illustrated dust jacket. The condition of the book is Near Fine+ with a small bump to the upper right edge that also creates a small crease to the tip of the right hand corner of some of the pages. The plates are in incredible condition. There is no foxing and the images are exceptionally bright. The dust jacket is Very Good+ with some loss to the upper right and back left edges. There are also a few minor closed tears. Overall, this is a highly collectible copy of an important photobook that is rarely found in this condition.

Cited in “The Book of 101 Books: Seminal Photographic Books of the Twentieth Century”

Photographs of the dust jacket, the book cover, and photographs contained in the book appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by running your mouse over the thumbnail. You can also click on the thumbnail to open a separate window where the picture is viewable.