Vintage Books...

Riefenstahl, Leni
Kampf in Schnee und Eis
Leipzig: Hesse & Becker, 1933
113 pages (155 photographs)

Although the text is only accessible to readers of German, this book is regardless a must-have for any serious fan of Leni's films, chock full of both production stills and behind-the-scenes shots of all of her major films with Fanck (up to and including Der weiße Rausch), as well as a large portion of the book being devoted to Leni's Das blaue Licht.

Riefenstahl, Leni
Schönheit im Olympischen Kampf
Berlin: Im Deutschen Verlag, 1937
281 pages (photographs on each page)

Folio-sized, one should take off the dust-jacket (left) and reveal the impressively gorgeous, gilt-stamped, red cloth cover (right) of this truly extraordinary and genuinely historical document. Each of the full-page photographs are monumental stills from Olympia, following essentially the same sequence as the film itself, with each photo captioned in English, German, Spanish and French.

Fanck, Arnold & Hannes Schneider
Wunder des Schneeschuhs: Ein System des richtigen Skilaufens und seine Anwendung im alpinen Gelänelauf
Hamburg: Enoch, 1925
218 pages (242 photographs, plus over a thousand cinematic reproductions)

With photography and many frame enlargements/production stills by Arnold Fanck and Sepp Allgeier, this two-volume set (as originally published) is the "book of the film" of Fanck's first film of the same name, released in 1920. A second edition of the book was published in 1928, later a French version in 1930 (as Les merveilles du ski), and an English version in 1933 (as The Wonders of Ski-ing: A Method of Correct Ski-ing and its Application to Alpine Running).

Fanck, Arnold
Der Kampf mit dem Berge
Berlin: Verlag von Reimar Hobbing, 1931
143 pages (68 photographs)

Different from the other two Fanck books, above, this book is perhaps more akin to Leni's Kampf in Schnee und Eis, in that it is Fanck's reflections on filming various different pictures in the mountains.

Fanck, Arnold
Stürme über dem Montblanc: Ein Filmbildbuch — Nach dem gleichnamigen Film
Basel: Concordia Verlag Schweiz, 1931
281 pages (188 photographs)

"The book of the film."

Fanck, Arnold
Das Bilderbuch des Skiläufers
Hamburg: Gebrüder Enoch, 1932
128 pages (284 photographs)

A collection of explanatory frame enlargments presented as an introduction to the filming of movement, and celebrating the sport of skiing.

Fanck, Arnold
S.O.S. Eisberg: Mit Dr. Fanck und Ernst Udet in Grönland
München: Bruckmann, 1933
68 pages (64 photographs)

"The book of the film."

Fanck, Arnold
Er führte Regie mit Gletschern Stürmen und Lawinen
Munich/Bavaria: Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, 1973
395 pages (40 photographs/illustrations)

Fanck's autobiography, written later in his life, but which covers for the most part his career in film from 1913 to 1940. The second edition of this book, with a different cover, was called Der Weiße Rausch.

Allgeier, Sepp
Die Jagd nach dem Bild: 18 Jahre als Kameramann in Arktis und Hochgebirge
Stuttgart: J. Engelhorns Nachf., 1931
160 pages (numerous photographs)

As the title says: "The Hunt for the Picture: 18 Years as a Cameraman in the Arctic and High Mountains," written by one of Fanck's most senior cameramen who worked with him on many of his early mountain films.

Jäger, Ernst
Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitagsfilms
Munich: UFA, 1935
106 pages (74+ pages of photographs)

Although her name appears on the cover, this book (or brochure) was not written by Leni. As she explains in her autobiography:

Before the shooting began [of Olympia] I hired Ernst Jäger, former editor-in-chief of Film-Kurier, as my press chief, although I knew I'd have trouble with Goebbels. Jäger, an inveterate Social Democrat, had been expelled from the Reich Literature Chamber, partly because his wife was Jewish. I had been able to help him a year earlier when he was in financial straits: my firm commissioned him to write a brochure on the work involved in Triumph of the Will for UFA's publicity department. Jäger called the text Behind the Scenes of the Reich Party Rally Film [Hinter den Kulissen des Reichsparteitagsfilms]. My help, which was well meant, brought me numerous attacks after the war. Jäger, otherwise an excellent journalist, wrote a ludicrously overblown text, perhaps hoping that it would get him re-admitted to the Reich Literature Chamber, and unfortunately, because of all my work, I didn't read his brochure before its publication. Jäger had put it together with UFA's publicity department, which brought it out under my name.

Sorge, Ernst
Mit Flugzeug, Faltboot und Filmkamera in den Eisfjorden Grönlands
Berlin: Drei Masken Verlag, 1933
184 pages (208 photographs)

Sorge was one of two scientific advisors which joined Fanck's Universal Tonfilms expedition to Greenland, primarily in order to shoot SOS Iceberg and North Pole Ahoy. The book describes filming in the Umanak region of West Greenland, their use of trained polar bears and seals brought from the Berlin zoo, plus additional information on his own scientific investigations of Rink Glacier, the use of an airplane in studying glaciers, and an account of his party being stranded for nine days before rescue.

Udet, Ernst
Mein Fliegerleben
Berlin: Deutscher Verlag, 1935
184 pages (photographs)

The autobiography of Germany's highest-scoring ace of World War I, including reflections on his work for Fanck as a stunt pilot in Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü, Stürme über dem Montblanc, and SOS Eisberg.