Andres Veiel and Sandra Maischberger Document the Life of Leni Riefenstahl
Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 8.5K Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
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Summary
Andres Veiel is an award-winning German filmmaker, writer, and director renowned for his incisive examinations of history, politics, memory, and moral responsibility. Trained in psychology before turning to filmmaking, Veiel’s acclaimed works include Black Box BRD, Beuys, If Not Us, Who?, and Riefenstahl. Sandra Maischberger is one of Germany’s most prominent journalists, broadcasters, and documentary producers. Best known as the longtime host of the political talk show Maischberger, she has spent more than three decades interviewing world leaders, artists, and influential public figures. Together, Maischberger and Veiel made the 2024 documentary Riefenstahl, which reexamines the life and legacy of filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, director of Triumph of the Will. Drawing on newly uncovered archival material, the film investigates Riefenstahl’s relationship to the Nazi regime, the enduring power of propaganda, and asks the difficult questions surrounding her artistic achievement, complicity, and legacy.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.2 | This is Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing from IHeart Radio. |
| 0:13.0 | Some films stand the test of time because they help shape our culture and inform our history. |
| 0:20.0 | Even if they make us profoundly uncomfortable, filmmaker |
| 0:23.4 | Lenny Riefenstahl occupies this strange space in cinema history. As the director of the |
| 0:29.8 | Nazi propaganda film, the triumph of the will, Riefenstahl's legacy remains a mystery. My guest today |
| 0:36.2 | are filmmakers Andrus Vile and Sandra Meishberger, |
| 0:39.5 | who sought to examine Lenny in their 2024 documentary, Riefenstahl. |
| 0:45.4 | Sandra Meisberger is one of Germany's most prominent journalists, broadcasters, and documentary producers. |
| 0:51.8 | Best known as the longtime host of her political talk show Meishberger, |
| 0:57.0 | Sondra has spent decades interviewing world leaders and cultural figures. |
| 1:01.9 | In 2018, she recruited, acclaimed German filmmaker Andres Vile |
| 1:06.7 | to direct the documentary on Lenny Riefenstahl. |
| 1:10.4 | Known for his explorations of history, politics, and moral complexity. |
| 1:15.6 | Vyle's award-winning films include Black Box, BRD, boys, and if not us, who? |
| 1:22.8 | Both raised and educated in Germany. |
| 1:25.1 | I wanted to know what their experiences were like growing up in post-war Germany, |
| 1:30.2 | particularly what their grade school education on Nazi Germany looked like. |
| 1:35.0 | Well, we had a lot of teachers who were somehow stuck in the Nazi time. |
| 1:41.4 | So history lessons ended in 1920, 1925, 1930. Yeah. But then there was a shift in the |
| 1:51.5 | very end, in the last years of school, in the two last years we had a young teacher. And he pushed |
| 1:57.8 | us and gave us some conscience about the concentration camps, about the Nazi past of the older teachers. |
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