As the centerpiece for Ufa’s 25th anniversary celebration, Münchhausen offered Germans reeling from news of defeat in Stalingrad a welcome escape. Created in conjunction with the Ministry of Propaganda, the film enacts the definitive Aryan fantasy in this tale of a man who masters his own destiny and marshals the march of time. The protagonist’s legendary powers become employed in Hitler’s war effort, literally cast in the role of a wonder weapon—the illusory means by which the Ministry of Propaganda sought to reanimate a paralyzed nation. A popular vehicle and the product of a world war, Münchhausen represents one of the Third Reich’s consummate cinematic achievements.