Recently the producers of the public television program History Detectives obtained a collection of lms an American G.I. had liberated from a pile of rubble in 1945. Among the canisters, one was labeled “The Führer in Bayreuth” and this attracted the lmmakers’ attention. Inside was a reel of footage showing Hitler arriving at the Festival in his Mercedes-Benz, passing by crowds in the swastika-decorated streets of the town, and going in and out of the SS-guarded Festspielhaus along with Winifred Wagner (the composer’s daughter-in-law). The “history detectives” contacted scholars in Film and German History-myself included-to determine whether these images were worthy of further examination. The consensus was that while the record of Hitler’s visits to the annual festival is well known, this was rare motion picture evidence of the pomp and circumstance surrounding performances of Wagner’s music during the Third Reich. So the producers decided to develop an episode exploring connections between Hitler, National Socialism, Wagner, and his music. But the investigation took a surprising twist. In the end, the case focused not on the Wagner-Hitler trail, but on who it was that had carried a camera to Bayreuth and lmed the activities of the Führer. Indeed, the outcome of this whodunit would not surprise mystery buffs: the cook did it. Apparently Hitler’s long time chef, Arthur Kannenberg, was also an amateur lmmaker who shot the Nazi leader in several formal and informal settings. So instead of examining the controversial issues of Wagnerism and National Socialism, the program remained-like the camera wielding cook himself-outside the Festival Hall and relatively indifferent to the mysterious drama of Nazi aesthetics and politics unfolding within (Hitler Films 2007).