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Fascism and Festival: Comparing the Utility of the Panathenaic Games and the
Olympics of 1936
Asa Charles Leininger
HST 563: History of Fascism
15 December 2022
2
What do Jacques Derrida, Leni Riefenstahl, and the Panathenaic events from Antiquity
have in common? Surprisingly more than one might assume at first glance. So, what is this thing
that a mid-to-late 20th century French philosopher positively obsessed with deconstructing the
platonic ideal,
1
a German film director whose most notable works came to be produced by the
Nazi regime the mid 1940s,
2
and an ancient international sporting event all possess? The answer
lies with Derrida; or, rather, with one of the ideas which Derrida put to paper.
In his efforts to deconstruct the platonic ideal, which assumed that the presence of things
was closer to an objective truth than the representation of things, Derrida observed that the union
between humanity and the divine had historic gendered connotations. Since God was so often
portrayed as male, the union of humanity with God, and their subjectivity to his will, rendered
them conventionally feminine.
3
Derrida came up with a new term for this perceived feminization
of humans: phal-logocentrism.
4
The ‘phal’ in phal-logocentric (derived from phallus) does not
correspond to a literal phallus, but rather to a male presence which directs and dominates those
around him.
5
Phal-logocentrism, though it was not a term invented until long after the end of the
second great war and after the dissolution of empowered fascist regimes, is very much applicable
within the understanding of the relationship between a leader of a fascist nation and the people of
a fascist nation. Essentially, fascist nations adhere to a division of power between leaders and
1
Gert Biesta, “Chapter 1: Deconstruction, Justice, and the Vocation of Education,”
Counterpoints 323 (2009): pp. 15–37. http://www.jstor.org/stable/42980421.
2
Susan Sontag, Fascinating Fascism (New York, NY: The New York Review, 1975).
3
Clayton Crockett, “Afterword: The Sins of the Fathers—A Love Letter,” In Derrida after the
End of Writing: Political Theology and New Materialism (Fordham University Press,
2018): pp. 139–56. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1xhr741.12.
4
Crockett, Afterword: The Sins of the Fathers—A Love Letter.
5
Ibid.
3
subjects that falls in line with what could now be classified as phal-logocentrism. The leader of a
fascist regime is tasked with upholding the myth of the people as well as the voice, which cries
for the fulfillment of a perceived national myth. More than simply being a keeper of legacy, the
leader directs the people of a given fascist nation towards the fulfillment of their idealized
eutopia, the thriving of their nation at the expense of all others. As such, the leader becomes the
prick which leads a nation to the fulfillment of their base desires (by base, I am referring to a
Hobbesian conception of the base elements of human nature).
6
While the correlation between Derrida and Fascism may seem a bit clearer, time must be
taken to explain how Leni Riefenstahl and the Panathenaic games in ancient Athens fit into this
essay. In Athens, not much escapes the impending presence of the Acropolis. Indeed, when at the
Panathenaic arena, the towering hill on which the acropolis sets always remains visible.
Likewise, in Leni Riefenstahl’s two-part documentary of the 1936 Berlin Olympics titled
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations
7
and Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty,
8
not
much visually escapes the view of Adolf Hitler, who loomed over the proceedings like a hungry
vulture. Drawing on scholarship by Susan Sontag, among others, this essay will examine how the
athletic effort exerted under the watch of both the Fuhrer of the German Third Reich and the
Athenian Acropolis can be categorized as realizations of phal-logocentric dynamics in both the
mid-twentieth century and in antiquity. Indeed, this essay argues that the public contestation of
athleticism was an attempt to pleasure the phallic presence of the head of state, which in the case
of the 1936 Olympics, was Adolf Hitler, and was in the case of the Panathenaic games of
antiquity, the Acropolis itself.
6
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (S.l.: Mint Editions, 2021).
7
Leni Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938).
8
Leni Riefenstahl, Olympia Part Two: Festival of Beauty (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938).
4
There can be no doubt that fascist regimes realized their own ties with the world of
antiquity. In Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations, Leni Riefenstahl gives nothing but a
conclusive statement that the modern world which the fascist regime of Nazi Germany is
inherently linked to ancient Greece.
9
Indeed, the film starts with a literal passing on of the torch
from the statues inhabiting the dilapidated columns of Grecian buildings from antiquity to the
then-current Olympic stadium in Berlin.
10
The similarities between the Olympics of 1936 and the
Panathenaic games of the ancient world go deeper than just this, however. Not only did
Riefenstahl represent the myth which drove both the athletes of antiquity and those of 1936, she
captured the way in which the Nazi regime unified myth and the state (both of which were
elements with a palpable presence in Ancient Greece) in the form of one person who was the
leader of the state.
Much like in fascist regimes, myth played a very important part in the athleticism of
ancient Greece. It served as the basis for the ideal which would be emulated within contestation.
Likewise, its presence cast doubt on the mere mortality of athletes, allowing them to achieve a
status of a more liminal nature, balancing of the precipice of godhood and humanity.
11
As David J. Lunt states in his 2009 article, “The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece,”
published in the Journal of Sport History, the mythology of the Greeks could not be separated
from their athletic competitions.
12
Living in a culture that accepted the possibility of myth as
reality, many athletes assumed that figures like Herakles, the half-divine son of the god Zeus,
9
Leni Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations (Leni Riefenstahl, 1938).
10
Mark Golden, “War and Peace in the Ancient and Modern Olympics.” Greece & Rome 58, no.
1 (2011): pp. 1–13. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41306144.
11
David J. Lunt, “The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece,” Journal of Sport History 36, no. 3
(2009): pp. 375–92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26405220.
12
Lunt, The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece.
5
may have actually existed.
13
This was important for a number of reasons. Not only did the
possibility of a real legacy left behind by these mythic heroes inspire Grecian athletes to try and
create a similar legacy, it offered up a reality in which the same legendary feats – and the
rewards that came with them – were possibly obtained.
14
Among these rewards was divinity. Within divinity lay the real reward for the Greek
athletes: immortality.
15
The appeal of immortality, and protection against the slings and arrows –
the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to, as it were – was a massive motivator for these
people. This was something they not only likely genuinely desired for themselves, but also
something that they could leverage to increase the bounty they drew from life.
Within some of the accolades athletes could garner were kudos.
16
Kudos were honors
given to them by the people.
17
However, they also carried a more mythic quality as well. Kudos,
as much as they were honors from the people, were also honors from the gods.
18
These honors
manifested, allegedly, in the form of a bit of divine power that might protect the recipient from
harm.
19
Of course, if someone were to believe that they were the recipient of the divine energies
of a god, and already had an obsession with creating a legacy of fame won through deeds of
great physical prowess, it does not seem unreasonable that they would then try to increase the
greatness of their legacy by waging war on their neighboring enemies, sheltered from the
dangers of humanity by the divine gift they had received.
20
Thus, the myth of attaining divinity
13
Ibid.
14
Lunt, The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece.
15
Ibid.
16
Ibid.
17
Ibid.
18
Ibid.
19
Ibid.
20
Ibid.
6
fostered not only further athletic contestation, but also prompted such things as violent
expression of an individual’s pride in his own nation, as evidenced by war.
It is important that the concept of divinity and the concept of the state are not entirely
separated from each other when engaging in discourse over ancient Athens. Indeed, one of the
most important parts of Athens in the presence of the Acropolis within almost every corner of the
city. Situated at the top of one of the most central hills in the Athenian valley, the city, quite
literally, radiates outwards from the Acropolis.
21
The acropolis a site of religious importance, first being the site where a temple of Athena
Polias was erected before recorded memory.
22
As such, legends have argued that the temple had
fallen from heaven.
23
In addition to this, there were a variety of other temples and shrines to the
Goddesses Athena and Nike (the goddesses of strategy and victory, respectively).
24
Clearly it
was a site where humanity strove to connect with the divine.
More than this, the Acropolis was also a site that captured, kept, and preserved the
national legend of the Athenians. The shrines, in addition to being sites of genuine religious
ritual, also doubled as sites of cultural importance, as the myth of Athens’ inception is
intrinsically tied to the goddess Athena. Likewise, the art which populated the walls of the
structures atop the acropolis traced the national myth of the Athenian people and their violent
struggle against mystical forces like centaurs that opposed their civilization.
25
This place was
fortified, as it stood as the living legacy of all Athenians who had lived, as well as those living.
26
21
Rachel Kousser, “Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis,” The Art Bulletin 91,
no. 3 (2009): pp. 263–82. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40645507.
22
Kousser, Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis.
23
Ibid.
24
Ibid.
25
Ibid.
26
Ibid.
7
Within its cultural and religious significance, it is no wonder that the acropolis had such a
prominent location within the city of Athens. It positively dominates the horizon if one turns
away from the mountains or the bay. As such, when at a location of athletic contestation, such as
the Panathenaic stadium (the site of the Panathenaic games – a celebration much like that in
Olympia, only more explicitly Athenian), the presence of the acropolis is unavoidable. It stood as
the most paramount representation of Athenian myth, culture, and future, looming over the
proceedings of those athletes who pursued greatness.
Of course, contests of athleticism like the Panathenaic games were not only festivals and
times for individuals to prove their mettle, but also opportunities for the elites of a given state to
train for war. Indeed, Mark Golden, in “War and Peace in the Ancient and Modern Olympics,”
argues that one should not view collective sporting events in ancient Greece as a mode by which
the individual city-states would be unified.
27
If this were the case, it would be logical to presume
that such games would have the effect of reducing the overall number of bloody conflicts entered
into by city-states like Athens and Sparta.
28
However, no such reduction of fighting is apparent.
Therefore, Golden argues that it is best to look at such games for what they accomplish. They
often put elites into situations whereby they would be hardened and prepared for physical
combat, sometimes even killing their opponents in the quest for a submission.
29
Thus, athletic
games in ancient Greece were not just an opportunity for the individual to advance, but also a
concerted effort to prepare to defend the legacy of the state, of the nation. This effort that is put
forth in the endeavor of securing the legacy of the state and its mythic history, or at very least,
27
Golden, War and Peace in the Ancient and Modern Olympics.
28
Ibid.
29
Ibid.
8
honoring that legacy through representative imitation, is precisely where the Panathenaic Games
intersects with the way in which the 1936 Olympics were utilized by the Nazi regime.
It is best to understand the German’s approach to the 1936 Olympics as a reclamation of
the original intent for such athletic games. Some scholars like Michael Mackenzie dispute this,
saying that,
“The National Socialist bureaucracy hosted the Olympics on “a
lavish scale never before experienced” and turned the games into a
spectacle meant to show the world that the new Germany was—
despite the remilitarization of the Rhineland—a decent, friendly,
peace-loving nation.”
30
Now, it is not difficult to see that the final statement of this quote is said with no short amount of
sarcasm. However, Mackenzie does argue that this was the image which Nazi Germany were
interested in cultivating. Such a view fails to grasp the particularities of what the Germans were
trying to emulate when they structured the games.
Susan Sontag writes in her seminal work, “Fascinating Fascism,” that aesthetic had
wormed its way so deeply into the concerns of the leaders of the Nazi Party that the Nuremberg
Rally was set up in such a way as to make its filming more convenient, striking, and pleasing to
the eye.
31
It was not just an event. The Nazi Party had a conscious idea of what they wanted from
the rally in terms of propaganda footage, and so they structured the event in such a way so as to
make their vision possible. This concern with aesthetic was something that was not at all
unfamiliar to those experienced with fascism. Indeed, Walter Benjamin warns in “The Work of
30
Michael Mackenzie, “From Athens to Berlin: The 1936 Olympics and Leni Riefenstahl’s
Olympia.” Critical Inquiry 29, no. 2 (2003): pp. 302–36. https://doi.org/10.1086/374029.
31
Sontag, Fascinating Fascism.
9
Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” that fascism entails the aestheticization of politics.
32
What cause has anyone to doubt that if the Nazi regime would set up an entire rally in a way that
make the propagandizing of it more efficient, that they would not repeat that same action with
the Olympics?
The question then becomes, what did the Nazi party do in particular within their
formation of the 1936 Olympics. Likewise, what do the elements they choose to emphasise in
their propagandizing of the event convey about them? One might look at the fact that Riefenstahl
was reportedly given entire artistic control over the project by Hitler himself as evidence that it is
not entirely propagandistic.
33
However, it is entirely possible that Hitler simply trusted
Riefenstahl’s artistic instincts for engaging propaganda more than he trusted Goebbels’.
Financed by the Nazi Government, the first thing that was emphasized in Riefenstahl’s
Olympia was masculine energy, rendered beautiful through the framing of film.
34
Riefenstahl, in
Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations, often utilizes slow-motion and silence to create and
audio-visual environment of awe and wonder.
35
Not only does this technique highlight the effort
being exerted by the individual athlete, almost representing them as the athletes of stone shown
at the beginning of the film, it also serves to affect the spectator’s emotional investment.
36
As a
spectator, one comes to expect the constant cheering of the crowds, the intermittent
commentating, the cuts between athletes and fans.
37
When Riefenstahl deprives the viewer of
32
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Aesthetics
(2017): pp. 66–69. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315303673-16.
33
Tom Ecker, “Olympic Pride: Nationalism at the Berlin and Beijing Games,” Harvard
International Review 36, no. 1 (2014): pp. 46–49. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43649248.
34
Hans Barkhausen, “Footnote to the History of Riefenstahl’s ‘Olympia,’” Film Quarterly 28,
no. 1 (1974): pp. 8–12. https://doi.org/10.2307/1211437.
35
Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations.
36
Ibid.
37
Ibid.
10
this auditory stimulus they have come to expect, as well as focusing the spectator’s vision on one
single figure engaged in one single action, it is hard not to watch with bated breath, as the
moment feels incredibly important. The deprivation of expected stimuli is meant to do just that:
draw us in to the action Riefenstahl wishes to highlight. And the resupplication of that expected
stimulus, when the action is complete, sounds almost deafening to the ear. The cheers are louder
than they ever have before.
38
This tactic of filmmaking is utilized in order to highlight the
importance, and the greatness of that action in which the Olympic athletes are engaged. The
athletes depicted appear as gods among men, not strained under the weight of their task, with
smooth, supple skin that glows under the light of the sun.
39
As such, these – predominantly –
men become the very likeness of beauty itself. This is one of the things that must be taken into
account when analyzing Riefenstahl’s Olympia.
The second thing that must be taken into consideration is the presence of a certain man by
the name of Adolf Hitler.
40
Interspersed with shots of athletes, there are shots of the Fuhrer of the
Third Reich, curiously always shot from below, so that he appears at an upward angle to the
camera.
41
This is a common technique used to imbue a figure on screen with power. The
semiotics are quite blatant to anyone who has lived in a hierarchical society. If one is in a
position above you, they likely have more power than you. Thus, the figure of Hitler looms over
the proceedings of the Olympics, ever present.
38
Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations.
39
Ibid.
40
Ibid.
41
Ibid.
11
What can be made of this aestheticization of athleticism and the looming presence of a
figure or place important to the state? To answer this question, it is important to turn again to
Derrida.
As Derrida so wonderfully puts it in his book, Writing and Difference, phal-logocentrism
is “the system of metaphysical oppositions.”
42
It references the relationship between dual forces
– dual centers of gravity, as it were. The contrast between antagonist and protagonist, peanut
butter and jelly, bread and toast, dogs and cats, male and female, divinity and humanity, god and
man, all fit within what Derrida sees as an imposed, manufactured reality within western
civilization.
If this sounds at all reminiscent of the relationship between God – as god is understood
by white, Anglo-Saxon protestants – and man, this is also because there is an inherent similarity.
If God exists as a creator, dedicated to directing humanity toward him, he plays an active role in
the lives of humans, whether or not humans are aware of/believe in his existence. Humans, on
the other hand, are either wittingly or unwittingly directed by God’s presence and as such may be
designated as receptive to the direction of the divine. If this all sounds gendered it is because it is
a relationship with blatant gendered differences. As is mentioned before, the ‘phal’ in phal-
logocentrism represents the party within a metaphysical relationship that is more active and less
receptive. If one follows this gendered language, one arrives at the conclusion that the opposing
characteristic to activity is receptivity. The receptive is etymologically tied to conventional
femineity. Therefore, the presence of a gendered relationship between god and man is present if
we understand their co-existence through the lens of phal-logocentrism.
42
Jacques Derrida, Writing and Difference. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1978): p.
20.
12
The relationship between the state and the citizens of that state can be understood in the
same way. One party often predetermines the actions of the other. Likewise, the party engaged in
preordaining acceptable actions typically has a broader view of the collective issues of the state.
In this way, one party is closer to a state of omnipotence than the other. In the case of states and
citizens, citizens can hardly be argued to be closer to omnipotence than administrations because
of each individual’s inherent tether to subjective experience of life.
Within Fascism, one can look at the relationship between the leader and their people as
the clearest example of this dualistic metaphysical relationship. They exist in two separate
metaphysical environments: the leader in a place of omnipotence when it comes to the needs of
the people, the myth of the nation, and the direction in which the state will move in order to
resolve the tension between the two former points. The people, in return, take on a metaphysical
condition of receptivity. They are receptive to their environment, perhaps engage with their
leader by communicating their needs to that leader, and then willing to implement directions
given to them by their leader in order to resolve the issues within their lives. Thus, applying a
phal-logocentric frame of understanding to the relationship between fascist leaders and their
subjects, we can again arrive at the conclusion that the leader is a male presence, and the
followers are feminine in the face of their leader.
Through the conscious application of phal-logocentric theory, the similarities between the
relationships existing between athletes and the acropolis in the ancient Panathenaic Games and
the relationships between German athletes and Adolf Hitler in the 1936 Olympics can be better
understood.
The choice of Leni Riefenstahl to portray Adolf Hitler from below, as well as the choice
to aestheticize the effort of athletes on film, not only conjures the images of great Athenian
13
athletes engaging in great physical acts, but also serves to illustrate the dynamic between both
the Fuhrer of the Third Reich and his people and the Acropolis of Athens and its people.
43
Firstly, analyzing the similarities between Hitler and the Acropolis of Athens, it is clear
that both are of vital importance to their respective nations. Both represent the legacy of the state.
Both interpret the myth of the nation. And both were responsible for directing the people of the
state in ways that ensured the preservation of that myth. The fact that one is a person, and one is
a feat of architecture, while undoubtedly important within some discourses concerning
representation and the history of political philosophy, does not factor into the role that each
played within their respective society. Likewise, it does not largely affect the consequences that
this essay examines.
Hitler captured the spirit of a disheartened proletariat and turned it against the Weimar
Republic.
44
He argued that the modern liberal world was oppressive of the working man, of
every day German people.
45
Thus, it must be done away with. Likewise, he interpreted the myth
of the German people as a master race whose national bond to each other, as well as their genetic
‘superiority’ were things that made the Germans worthy of much more than the woes of living in
a modern, capitalist society.
46
He captured the myth of the people, and as the Fuhrer, directed
them towards his vision of the nation’s future and the security of that myth.
The Acropolis of Athens, as aforementioned, was a vital piece of Athenian culture. It
resides at the heart of the city and keeps the national myth of Athens alive through its temples,
shrines to the goddesses Athena and Nike, and its status as a location that inspired many to take
43
Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations.
44
Michael H. Kater, “Hitler in a Social Context,” Central European History 14, no. 3 (1981): pp.
243–72. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4545932.
45
Kater, Hitler in a Social Context.
46
Ibid.
14
action with the sole purpose of protecting the Athenian nation and keeping the myth alive.
47
Thus, the similarities between Hitler and the Acropolis are evident.
Secondly, analyzing the way in which athletes are portrayed in both historical accounts of
the Panhellenistic games like the Panathenaic games, it becomes clear that some notable
resemblances are present in the way Leni Riefenstahl paints athleticism with her lens in
Olympia.
48
As is previously stated, the athletes in the games like those that took place in Athens were
motivated by an immense desire to attain divinity through heroism.
49
This divinity was
something inherently tied to the religion held by the competitors, as it was often a gift from the
gods.
50
This, coupled with the fact that differing city-states had differing gods and goddesses to
which they appealed and worshipped, paints the picture of divinity being inseparable from the
nation.
51
Likewise, in the act of competing for their nation, either against athletes from other,
neighboring city-states, or elsewise for the purpose of training the body to be prepared for war,
there was an explicitly nationalistic motivation for Athenian athletes to compete.
52
Riefenstahl, in Olympia, paints the displays of strength and athleticism as inherently
beautiful.
53
Like the athletes in Athens, each competitor had a nationalist motivation for being at
the 1936 Olympics. It was not only one’s self that one competed for, but also for one’s nation.
54
Susan Sontag argues that Riefenstahl’s portrayals serve the idea that the representation of the
47
Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations.
48
Kousser, Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis.
49
Lunt, The Heroic Athlete in Ancient Greece.
50
Ibid.
51
Kousser, Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis.
52
Golden, War and Peace in the Ancient and Modern Olympics.
53
Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations.
54
Ibid.
15
perfect man is found in the presentation of athleticism, of effort exerted in servitude to the leader
of the nation.
55
This, coupled with the visual adoration of servitude and egomania, seem to
render Riefenstahl’s work an aestheticization of the effort that it takes to achieve victory.
56
As
such, nationalism is inseparable from the representation of athleticism in the 1936 Olympics.
Finally, it is within this devotion to a master, represented by effort, that Sontag argues
Riefenstahl’s true colors show, and I argue that the similarity between Riefenstahl and her
Grecian influences shows. Likewise, it is here that all of these athletes fulfill the receptive role in
a phal-logocentric relationship with the ‘head’ of their state.
The similarity between the depiction of Adolf Hitler as a presence always looking down
on the proceedings of the Olympics and the fact that the Acropolis of Athens cannot help but
look down on those who might compete at the Panathenaic arena is uncanny.
57
With the
established emphasis on the fact that athletes in both cases were driven by nationalist motivators,
the presence of the head of state becomes much more important.
Within a phal-logocentric model, Hitler played the role of the male to the German
athletes, rendering them female in his presence.
58
Those Olympiads put forth effort to serve the
Fuhrer’s idea of the future of the state. Indeed, Sontag, in Fascinating Fascism, likens the
relationship between the representation of athletes and Hitler to that between a sadist and a
masochist, not only characterizing the German athletes as feminine but also submissive.
59
55
Sontag, Fascinating Fascism.
56
Ibid.
57
Riefenstahl, Olympia Part One: Festival of the Nations.
58
Derrida, Writing and Difference.
59
Sontag, Fascinating Fascism.
16
Within the similar circumstances of the Panathenaic Games, the Acropolis, perched like a
vulture over the arena, acted as a visual reminder of the state and the national myth of Athens.
60
It too, became like the master to the athletes who would submit to its will, and exert effort and
energy in order to essentially please it (the state).
As such, the conscious representation of Hitler as always being above the athletes must
be seen as an artistic choice with specific semiotic consequences. Whether it was intentional or
not is arbitrary. Like the Acropolis, that representation had the consequence of literally
representing the head of the German state as looming over the athletes, subconsciously inspiring
them to remember their duty to the state within competition.
Within this, the dynamic between the acropolis and the people of Athens may be likened
to the dynamic between Hitler and the German population in 1936 (and vice-versa). Both Hitler
and the Acropolis functioned as quasi-divine presences that dedicated to keeping the history and
myth of the nation alive.
Within revealing that both the presence of Hitler and the presence of the Acropolis during
athletic festivals in ancient Greece and 20th century Germany accomplish the same
representational function, it seems unlikely that the choice to present Hitler from below was an
unconscious one. It is my hope that this essay, through providing context for the semiotics of
Riefenstahl’s seminal sports documentary, through exploring the ways in which those semiotics
inform codified relationships, and through explaining the weight of those relationships reveals
something about the similarities between life in ancient Athens and in Nazi Germany. Likewise,
it is my sincerest desire that this essay achieves what Walter Benjamin terms as what happens to
60
Kousser, Destruction and Memory on the Athenian Acropolis.
17
art in communism. This is to say, this essay is not an attempt to aestheticize politic, but rather to
politicize art.
61
61
Benjamin, The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.
18
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