RIEFENSTAHL, Leni

RIEFENSTAHL, Leni

Germany (1902-2003)

Last updated: December 9, 2019 at 4:02 am

Became a diver at the age of 71; released her first underwater documentary Impressionen unter Wasser (Underwater Impressions) on her 100th birthday in 2002, thus setting records for the oldest underwater cinematographer and oldest diver (Women); author of The Coral Gardens and The Wonders under Water.

—
EDITOR’S NOTE
Although Leni Riefenstahl was not a member of the Nazi Party, nor was she ever convicted for her association with the Nazi regime, she was nonetheless declared a Nazi sympathizer (Mitläufer) and thus remained a controversial person until her death in 2003. The present post is thus only meant to acknowledge the record-setting latter part of her artistic and diving careers.

Leni Riefenstahl. Video still from Impressions Under Water (Fair Use)

Who's Who

HOYOS PADILLA, Edgar Mauricio, Ph.D.

By Jeffrey Gallant

Shark researcher; co-founder and Director of Pelagios-Kakunjá A.C., a nonprofit organization that focuses on sharks and other open-water species [...]

WATERMAN, Stan

By Jeffrey Gallant

Pioneer underwater filmmaker and photographer; owned and operated a dive charter business in the Bahamas (1954-1958); co-producer and cameraman for Blue Water White Death [...]

FRAZIER, Dottie May

By Jeffrey Gallant

First female scuba instructor; first female commercial (hard-hat) diver; first female dive shop owner (Penguin); wetsuit and drysuit designer; charter member of the Long Beach Neptunes [...]

Who's Who

HILDRED, Alex

By Jeffrey Gallant

Marine archaeologist; author; researcher; Head of Research and Curator of Ordnance & Human Remains for the Mary Rose Trust; consultant; university lecturer; member of the [...]

Who's Who

BALDASARE, Fred

By Jeffrey Gallant

First person to cross the English Channel on scuba in 1962; first to dive from Sicily to the Italian mainland across the Messina Strait (June 1962); first to dive across the Øresund Strait [...]

Who's Who

MURDOCH, Frank Nash

By Jeffrey Gallant

Illustrator; impressionist; underwater painter; took part in a controlled university experiment studying the relationship between LSD and creativity. As a patient of [...]

Who's Who

FLEUSS, Henry Albert

By Jeffrey Gallant

Engineer; Master Diver for Siebe, Gorman & Co. of London; inventor of a self-contained oxygen rebreather successfully tested by remaining submerged in a water tank for one [...]

LINK, Edwin Albert

By Jeffrey Gallant

Engineer; oceanologist; pilot; industrialist; led archaeological expeditions in the Mediterranean; designed submersible decompression chambers; designed the submersible [...]

Who's Who

WESLY, Claude

By Jeffrey Gallant

Longtime crewmember and diver of the Cousteau Society; chief diver aboard the Calypso; world’s first multi-day aquanaut with Albert Falco aboard the undersea habitat Diogènes in 1962 [...]

FALCO, Albert

By Jeffrey Gallant

Longtime captain of Cousteau’s flagship Calypso; expedition leader; made his first open-circuit dives at Sormiou with the Commeinhes apparatus in 1942; world’s first multi-day [...]

Who's Who

HAWKES, Graham

By Jeffrey Gallant

President of Hawkes Ocean Technologies (HOT), inventor; engineer; designed the Deep Rover research submersibles, and the Deep Flight series of winged submersibles [...]

COUSTEAU, Jacques-Yves

By Jeffrey Gallant

Diving pioneer, visionary, and inventor; world-famous underwater explorer and advocate for the environment; prolific author and film [...]

EARLE, Sylvia, Ph.D.

By Jeffrey Gallant

Scientist; aquanaut; author; public speaker; multiple record holder including the Deepest dive in one-atmosphere suit and the Deepest solo submersible dive; led the first all-female [...]

Who's Who

ZISSOU, Steve, Capt.

By Jeffrey Gallant

Fictional oceanographer and diver from Wes Anderson's cult film The Life Aquatic; disgruntled leader of Team Zissou; Captain of the research vessel Belafonte; suffered from Crazy Eye [...]

Who's Who

BARTH, Robert A.

By Jeffrey Gallant

Retired United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer; saturation diver; helped establish U.S. Navy dive tables; joined the Naval Experimental Diving Unit (NEDU) Genesis habitat program [...]

Who's Who

DARKIN, Valeri

By Jeffrey Gallant

Former Chief Diving Officer and marine biologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences; founded the first liveaboard diving company in Russia; first professional member of [...]

Who's Who

MOLLE, Philippe

By Jeffrey Gallant

Diving instructor; author of several diving instruction manuals; architect; taught at Club Med from 1961 to 1965; managed dive clubs in France, Yugoslavia, Malta and [...]

Who's Who

PARTRIDGE, Bruce

By Jeffrey Gallant

Technical diver; computer systems designer and programmer; Chairman of Shearwater Research, a manufacturer of dive computers and rebreather electronics [...]