Lotte Reiniger: Pioneer of Film Animation

When most people are asked what the first animated movie is, they assume it’s Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. For three years (1923–1926), a young, female animation director, her husband, and four men crafted the oldest surviving animated film in a Potsdam garage attic one maddeningly frame at a time. Lotte Reiniger animated Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed, better known as The Adventures of Prince Achmed, equipped with nothing but scissors, cardboard, lead sheets, a camera, and a story inspired by One Thousand and One Arabian Nights. Lotte Reiniger was a animation and puppetry pioneer, who gifted the mediums with her silhouettes and imagination. Yet due to a number of factors: her gender, her German ethnicity, World War II, lack of funding, and many others, she became a footnote in animation and cinematic history. Yet her sixty plus filmography is evident of her passion, talent, and dedication to animated art. For the first time, Early Animation Pioneer Lotte Reiniger shares Lotte Reinger’s story in a detailed account that reveals her contribution to animation, puppetry, Weimar cinema, and modern filmmaking as well as how her silhouettes continue to snip their way into fans’ imaginations.