A Humble Man From Humble Beginnings

In Hitler’s final speech featured in Triumph of the Will, he references a time when the party only consisted of seven men. At that time, he says that it was “difficult to be a National Socialist.” This is important rhetoric for Hitler to use as he reminds the people that he is from humble beginnings. It inspires the masses to go along with the party’s ideology as it gained prominence from such a small start. He then goes on to claim that even though the group was the minority, they were the best men of the German race and have inspired great numbers of people to join them. This rhetoric of the minority becoming the strong majority is vital because the only evidence that he needs to support it is the filled hall of supporters applauding after his every sentence (whether or not it is as big as Leni Riefenstahl paints it to be.)

One other interesting aspect of the speech is that Hitler does not refer to himself. He constantly refers to the party simply as “the party” or sometimes “our party”, which tells of the importance of everyone’s support, rather than just the ideals and goals of one man. This is directly contrasted by Hess’ comments after the speech, when he claims that “The party is Hitler!” By having Hess tell of Hitler’s greatness rather than Hitler himself detailing it, Riefenstahl paints Hitler not only as a powerful, respected and revered leader but also as a humble man.