Michael Munn Hitler and the Nazi Cult of Celebrity

Annotation

Hitler believed himself to be as much an artist as a politician, and his rise to power owed a great deal to the creation of myth around his own personality. In his Germany politics and culture became one, the cult of celebrity nurtured and driven by Hitler and his acolyte Joseph Goebbels. In their version of Hollywood there were scandals, starlets, secret agents, premieres and the infamous 'casting couch'. But one of the actresses was a Soviet agent who held the key to killing the Fuhrer. Hitler and the Nazi Cult of Celebrity probes the correlation between art and ambition, shows how films were used as weapons, and uncovers the sexual predilections of the Nazi hierarchy. It also brings to light previously unpublished information about the 'Hitler film' Goebbels saw as 'the greatest story ever told', which was in the planning even as Hitler himself was heading for his own Wagnerian finale.