Herbert Windt
Herbert Windt (15 September 1894, Senftenberg, Brandenburg – 2 November 1965, Deisenhofen, now a part of Oberhaching, Bavaria) was a German composer who became one of the most significant film score composers of the Third Reich. He was best known for his collaborations with the director Leni Riefenstahl on films Triumph of the Will and Olympia.
Herbert Windt
- Name
- Herbert Windt
- Born
- 15 September 1894
- Died
- 2 November 1965
- Nationality
- Germany
- Occupation
- composer
- Fields
- opera
- Honours
- Iron Cross and 2nd class
- Languages
- German
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q70862 · wikipedia · Herbert Windt
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France
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Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Herbert Windt • Born — 15 September 1894 • Died — 2 November 1965 • Era — 20th century
Documentary record
Herbert Windt, born on 15 September 1894 and died on 22 November 1965, is documented in the authority records of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Both events are recorded by the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Biography
Biography
Windt studied at the Sternsches Konservatorium in Berlin but left to enlist in the army at the start of World War I. Severely wounded, he spent two years in hospital, during which he began composing chamber music. In 1920, Windt received a grant to study with the renowned Franz Schreker in the composer's master class at the Berlin Academy of Music. Windt joined the NSDAP in 1931. A grant by the government of the Weimar Republic led to his opera Andromache, which was first performed in 1932. An UFA film producer in the audience took notice of Windt's music. Windt was offered a commission to write the music for UFA's 1933 film Morgenrot (Red Morning), a story about a gallant World War I U-boat crew. Windt became one of the most significant film score composers of the Third Reich along with Wolfgang Zeller, Michael Jary, Franz Grothe, and Georg Haentzschel. He composed music for several Nazi public events and radio programs. He was best known for his collaborations with Leni Riefenstahl, the director of Triumph of the Will (1934/35), Olympia (1938), and Tiefland (1945/54), but he also worked with directors like Wolfgang Liebeneiner (Die Entlassung), Georg Wilhelm Pabst (Paracelsus), Frank Wisbar (The Unknown, Fährmann Maria, Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever?), and Gustav Ucicky (Morgenrot). Windt's film scores for propaganda films drew the attention of the sociologist Siegfried Kracauer, who analysed the composer's works in the tracts From Caligari to Hitler: A Psychological History of the German Film and Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Despite the warm reception for his music in Nazi party circles, Windt himself fell into disfavor with the rulers of Germany in that period. He was completely cleared in the post-war de-Nazification trials.
Cantata
Cantata
• Andante religioso, eine Kammersinfonie nach sechs Sonaten (premiered in 1921) (Wien: Universal-Edition, 1942)
Opera
Opera
• Andromache (1932 premiere in Berlin)
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Senftenberg.
Birth place
Oberhaching.
Death place
Film scores
• Morgenrot (1933) • Refugees (1933) • Der Sieg des Glaubens (1933) • William Tell (1934) • At the End of the World (1934) • The Riders of German East Africa (1934) • The Four Musketeers (1934) • Triumph of the Will (1935) • My Life for Maria Isabella (1935) • The Unknown (1936) • Fährmann Maria (1936) • Home Guardsman Bruggler (1936) • Olympia (1938) • The Mystery of Betty Bonn (1938) • Frau Sixta (1938) • Northern Lights (1938) • By a Silken Thread (1938) • Pour le Mérite (1938) • Cadets (1939) • Midsummer Night's Fire (1939) • Legion Condor (1939) • Friedrich Schiller – Triumph eines Genies (1940) • Feldzug in Polen (1940) • Sieg im Westen (1941) • Lightning Around Barbara (1941) • Above All Else in the World (1941) • Die Entlassung (1942) • The Red Terror (1942) • Paracelsus (1943) • The Crew of the Dora (1943) • Die Degenhardts (1944) • Anna Alt (1945) • The Woman from Last Night (1950) • Stips (1951) • Fight of the Tertia (1952) • When the Heath Dreams at Night (1952) • Christina (1953) • Tiefland (1954) • Heroism after Hours (1955) • Stalingrad: Dogs, Do You Want to Live Forever? (1958) • Heart Without Mercy (1958) • Im Namen einer Mutter (1960)
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Herbert Windt, revision 1344486283 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Information booklet for "Olympia" soundtrack album, 2002 Leni-Riefenstahl Produktion
Bibliography printed in the source article · 2
- Volker, Reimar. "Von oben sehr erwünscht" : die Filmmusik Herbert Windts im NS-Propagandafilm. Trier: WVT, Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier, 2003.
- Walter, Michael. "Die Musik des Olympiafilms von 1938". Acta Musicologica 62, no. 1 (Jan-Apr 1990): 82-113 .
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 20 August 2026.
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