Did the Nazis Discover 3D Technology?

By Katherine Clarke February 16, 2011

So much for James Cameron pioneering the 3D phenomenon. It turns out Hitler was about 70 years ahead of the curve.

While conducting research for an upcoming film project in Berlin’s Federal Archives, Australian director Phillipe Mora discovered two 1936 black and white propaganda films shot in 3D. Born out of pre-war Nazi Germany, they were created by an independent studio for Joseph Goebbel’s Third Reich propaganda ministry.

“The films are shot on 35mm – apparently with a prism in front of two lenses,” the documentary filmmaker told Variety. “The quality of the films is fantastic. The Nazis were obsessed with recording everything and every single image was controlled – it was all part of how they gained control of the country and its people.”

The films, entitled “So Real You Can Touch It” and “Six Girls Roll Into Weekend,” include close-up 3D shots of barbecued bratwurst and dolled-up studio ingénues, according to the magazine.

With this latest revelation, Mora, who unearthed Hitler home movies for his groundbreaking documentary “Swastika”(1973), has landed another scoop. He plans to include the 3D footage in upcoming project, “How the Third Reich was Recorded,” a study of how the Nazi party used images to manipulate reality.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

This year, we have stood together in strength and sorrow. Our Forward team has worked around the clock to help you find clarity amid the chaos.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO