Lotte Reiniger

For three years during the 1920s, in an attic in Potsdam, a young woman crafted what is today the oldest surviving animated feature film. Equipped with scissors, cardboard, sheets of lead, glass panes and a camera, animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger filmed Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (The Adventures of Prince Achmed) using a technique of frame-by-frame silhouette animation she developed, inspired by Chinese shadow puppetry.
As the result of a number of factors—her gender, her German ethnicity, World War II and a lack of funding—Reiniger became a footnote in animation history. Yet her 60–plus films plainly show her skill and dedication to her craft. This detailed account of her life and work describes her significant contributions to animation, puppetry, Weimar cinema and modern filmmaking.

Whitney Grace is a professional writer, researcher and animation historian.

Whitney Grace
Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 288
Bibliographic Info: 45 photos, filmography, notes, bibliographies, index
Copyright Date: 2017
pISBN: 978-1-4766-6206-0
eISBN: 978-1-4766-2873-8
Imprint: McFarland

Table of Contents


Acknowledgments ix

A propos de Lotte Reiniger xi

Introduction 1

 1. Paper Fairytales 3

 2. Lengthening Shadows 13

 3. Defining the Art of Puppetry and Animation 21

 4. The Adventures of Prince Achmed 49

 5. Sound Cartoons and Miscredited Ideas 90

 6. Fanboy Hitler and the Short Life of Hansi and Schnuff 114

 7. Animated Women and Lost Love 146

 8. The Fine Line Between Animation and Puppetry 183

 9. Fine Art and Resurgent Praise 201

10. Lotte’s Legacy 229

11. Influence and Adaptation 240

Afterword 249

Appendix I: Filmography 251

Appendix II: Works Written by Reiniger 253

Chapter Notes 254

Bibliography 258

Index 267