Since the early 1990s, the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum has preserved film materials of Lotte Reiniger’s works in its collections and made them available in both analogue and digital forms.
Lotte Reiniger turned once again to a fairytale with the expressionist silhouette film Aschenputtel. On 9 March 1923 the “Film-Kurier” stresses the film’s well-captured atmosphere with its naive romanticism and immanent humour, and praises the design of the silhouettes who grasp the essence of the fairytale perfectly. Each of them becomes a character with its individual life. The story of the king’s son who seeks the unknown beauty who has been rejected from her family has been adapted in various film versions. Lotte Reiniger’s silent film from 1922 is based on the original story by the Grimm brothers.
The English distribution version was initiated by a friend of Lotte Reiniger and Carl Koch: Eric Walter White. This export version of the film was first shown at a Film Society event in London. It continued to run in London theatres to great acclaim.
The nitrate positive print with various tints that was the main source material has been deposited in the Bundesarchiv as property of Peter Cürlis, the successor of the film’s producer Hans Cürlis.
With special thanks to Christel Strobel and Anke Mebold.

Louise Burkart