With his blue eyes, blond hair and boyish laugh, he conquered German cinema audiences in the 1950s and 60s: Berlin-born Hardy Krüger made it all the way to Hollywood as an actor. But he was just as passionate a writer, pilot and globetrotter.

Countless people around the world know the pictures from Leni Riefenstahl's films, even if they have not seen them in their entirety. The work of the German director has burned itself into the collective memory. Even decades after the end of the Nazi era, she showed no remorse and presented herself as an apolitical, naive follower of the Nazi criminal regime. Her artistic service for the cinema was always recognized. But book author Nina Gladitz shows after decades of research that Hitler's favorite filmmaker was not only a follower, but also a perpetrator during the Third Reich, who instrumentalized other filmmakers such as the brilliant cinematographer Willy Zielke in order to gain fame for herself.

West Germany underwent a period of rapid and extraordinary growth after the Second World War with rising wages and living standards. This economic miracle is often credited to Economics Minister Ludwig Erhard and the hard work of ordinary Germans. But on closer inspection, some hard truths and injustices from the Nazi era casts a shadow on this postwar rosy picture.