Austrian postcard Iris Verlag, no. 6586. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Hungarian actress, dancer and singer Rose Barsony (1909-1977) appeared in 16 films from 1929 to 1938, and in one more in 1957. The soubrette was a popular star of the operettas by Paul Abraham.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

The front and rear cover of the German magazine issued by the "Association of German Advertising Professionals" - Die Reklam zeitschrift des Verbandes Deutscher Reklamefachleute EV and the 1 Januar-Heft 1926 (1 January 1926) issue produced by Verlag Francken & Lang.. The covers are striking and 'linked' in that both covers are by the noted German designer Louis Oppenheim (1879 - 1936). The front is that for the magazine itself by Oppenheim, who signed his work "LO", whilst the back is for the "Kunstanstalt Weyland" - the 'Wayland Art Institute' who are selling their services for a wide range of advertising and publicity materials as being "well thought-out modern advertising print".

The printing, making much use of both Oppenheim's bold designs and of metallic inks, was printed in Berlin by Richard Labisch & Co. Oppenheim's work included many well-known German companies and brands, such as the Railways and Henkel. He was also responsible for the design of the first coins issued by the Weimar Republic in 1919. He also worked for the typefoundry of Berthold and was commissioned to design several typefaces including "Fanfare".

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 501. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Lu L'Arronge (1902-1991) was a German film actress and producer, who between 1917 and 1920 mostly starred in her own productions, impersonating the type of the Backfisch.

According to IMDb's trivia section, "The actress Lu L'Arronge cherished early the wish to become a stage actress. Not least because her grandfather belonged to the founders of the Bühnengenossenschaft and her father's cousin was the well-known stage writer Adolf L'Arronge. But her mother didn't become friends with the thought that her daughter would become an actress and Lu L'Arronge came down a peg with her ambition. [...] When the German film industry became 'modern' during World War I and conquered a huge public, Lu's wish to become an actress returned and she knew to convince her mother." What is true about this could not be verified, but for sure between 1917 and 1920 L'Arronge had a serious film career with her own company, possibly alternated with a stage career.

While a decade ago when we uploaded this card information on Lu L'Arronge was very scarce, by August 2022 IMDb lists 15 titles between 1917 and 1920 for Lu L'Arronge, mainly produced by Franz Schmelter, who also was her regular director, starting with Die Schlange der Kleopatra (1917) and Lu'chens Verlobung am Gartentor (1917), or produced by her own company L'Arronge Film GmbH, starting with Lu's Backfischzeit (1917) and 's Lieserl vom Loisachtal (1917). In addition to L'Arronge and Schmelter himself, also Anna Müller-Lincke was a regular performer in these 'Backfisch' [teenager]- comedies. In 1918-1919 L'Arronge continued to perform in her own productions but without Schmelter directing (apart from Kitty, 1919). Often the films were based on scripts by Leonhard Haskel, such as Die weiße Maus (1919, director unknown). Occasionally, L'Arronge did a film elsewhere, at Luna (Kain. II. Im Goldrausch, Bruno Rahn & Walter Schmidthässler, 1918) or Georg Alexander's company Neue Berliner Film (Die Geisterbraut, Herbert Gerdes, 1920). In her last film, L'Arronge did only a supporting part, which may have signaled the end of her career. This was the Friedrich Zelnik film Anna Karenina (1920), starring Lya Mara and adapted from Tolstoy's novel.

Lu L'Arronge was a niece of stage writer Adolf L'Arronge (1838-1908), her father's cousin. NB Arronge is a variant for the Jewish names Aaron, Arons and Aronsohn.

Sources: www.filmportal.de, IMDB, www.cyranos.ch/smarro-e.htm

The front and rear cover of the German magazine issued by the "Association of German Advertising Professionals" - Die Reklam zeitschrift des Verbandes Deutscher Reklamefachleute EV and the 1 Januar-Heft 1926 (1 January 1926) issue produced by Verlag Francken & Lang.. The covers are striking and 'linked' in that both covers are by the noted German designer Louis Oppenheim (1879 - 1936). The front is that for the magazine itself by Oppenheim, who signed his work "LO", whilst the back is for the "Kunstanstalt Weyland" - the 'Wayland Art Institute' who are selling their services for a wide range of advertising and publicity materials as being "well thought-out modern advertising print".

The printing, making much use of both Oppenheim's bold designs and of metallic inks, was printed in Berlin by Richard Labisch & Co. Oppenheim's work included many well-known German companies and brands, such as the Railways and Henkel. He was also responsible for the design of the first coins issued by the Weimar Republic in 1919. He also worked for the typefoundry of Berthold and was commissioned to design several typefaces including "Fanfare". The thoughtful figure in this advert does in fact bear quite a resemblance to Oppenheim himself.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5655. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Lu L'Arronge (1902-1991) was a German film actress and producer, who between 1917 and 1920 mostly starred in her own productions, impersonating the type of the Backfisch.

French postcard by Europe, no. 3811. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

Blonde Austrian actress and singer Gretl Theimer (1911-1972) arrived in the German cinema with the sound film and had an impressive career in the 1930s.

Little Gretl followed ballet classes and danced in the children’s ballet of the Wiener Staatsoper. She started her career as a operetta singer on Austrian and German stages. One of the first sound films, the musical Zwei Herzen im Dreivierteltakt (1930, Géza von Bolváry) made her a popular film star. The title waltz, which she sang with co-star Walter Janssen and was composed by Robert Stolz, became one of the most popular Schlagers of 1930. To her other early films belong Ihre Majestät die Liebe (1930, Joe May), Drei Tage Mittelarrest (1930, Carl Boese), Viktoria und ihr Husar (1931, Richard Oswald) and Jeder fragt nach Erika (1931, Friedrich Zelnik/Frederic Zelnik).

Gretl Theimer became established as the spirited and attractive girl of the Wiener films and other entertainment pictures of the 1930's. In the next years she played supporting roles in well-known productions as Das Geheimnis um Johann Orth (1932, Willi Wolff), Der müde Theodor (1936, Veit Harlan), Fräulein Veronika (1936, Veit Harlan), Die ganz grossen Torheiten (1937, Carl Froelich), Der Tanz auf dem Vulkan (1938, Hans Steinhoff) and Unsterblicher Walzer (1939, E.W. Emo). After this decade her career seemed finished. During wartime she only appeared in two more films Lauter Liebe (1940, Heinz Rühmann) and Falstaff in Wien (1940, Leopold Hainisch). After the war the engagements dropped further off. In the 1950’s and 1960’s she only played small roles in films like Der Fürst von Pappenheim (1952, Hans Deppe), Die Trapp-Familie (1956, Wolfgang Liebeneiner), Italienreise - Liebe inbegriffen (1958, Wolfgang Becker) and Eine Frau für's ganze Leben (1960, Wolfgang Liebeneiner). Her last appearance was on tv in Walzertraum (1969, Fred Kraus). She died in 1972 and was buried at the Waldfriedhof in Munich. In 1991 the actress Annie Markart was buried in the same grave.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli, Wikipedia, The Androom Archives and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Austrian postcard by Iris, no. 6514. Photo: Lux Film Verleih.

German actress Marianne Winkelstern (1910-1966) became well known as a ballerina in Germany and England. In Germany she appeared in some silent films and early sound films.

For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.

German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 299/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin.

Hilde Wörner (1895-1963) was a German stage and film actress, who also worked as a filmmaker. She appeared mainly in silent films and had her own series. Her most notable film was Ernst Lubitsch’s Die Flamme (1922).

Hilde Wörner was born as Hilde Wörner-Lichtenstein.in 1895. The place of birth is unknown. At 16,Wörner began her stage career in Elberfeld (toady a part of Wuppertal). In 1912, Johannes Maurach brought them to the Stadttheater in Essen. Later followed engagements at the theatres of Oldenburg and Bremen. In the late phase of the First World War, she reached Berlin, where she succeeded Lisa Weise in the operetta ensemble of the Berliner Theater. There she was the first soubrette. Almost at the same time, Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers, director of the Oliver Filmgesellschaft, signed her for the cinema. Wörner made her film debut in the silent film Baronin Kammerjungfer/Baroness Kammerjungfer (Leo Peukert, 1917). She immediately had the status of a ‘series star’. "This is the highest thing a film diva strives for," said Wörner in 1919. She specialised in the role of youthful salon ladies at Oliver and played in several dramas and comedies. However, according to German Wikipedia, she was regarded as a mediocre actress. In 1919, Hilde Wörner founded the Filmproduktionsgesellschaft Wörner-Film in Berlin, which produced various feature films until 1923. At that time, Wörner was married to the silent film director Carl Müller-Hagen, who directed many of her films, such as the six-part series Die Berliner Range/The Berlin Range (1919-1921) and the crime costume drama Moriturus (1920) with Max Landa, as the detective, Reinhold Schünzel in the title role, and Conrad Veidt as the criminal.

In 1920, Hilde Wörner appeared in the Austrian-German production Der Graf von Cagliostro/The Count of Cagliostro (Reinhold Schünzel, 1920), in which director Reinhold Schünzel played the role of the eighteenth century Italian adventurer Alessandro Cagliostro opposite Anita Berber and Conrad Veidt. With her small film company, she produced Russian director Dimitri Buchowetzki’s historical drama Danton (1921) with Emil Jannings as Danton and Werner Krauss as Robespierre. Based on the play Danton's Death by Georg Büchner, the film tells how during his reign of terror, Robespierre orchestrates the trial and execution of several of his fellow leading French revolutionaries including Georges Danton. Wörner also performed as Desdemona in an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922), again with Emil Jannings and Werner Krauss. At the side of Pola Negri, Wörner played the second female starring role in Die Flamme/The Flame/Montmartre (Ernst Lubitsch, 1923), which she also produced. It was Ernst Lubitsch last German film before he moved to Hollywood. Then Wörner retired from the film business and continued to work in the theatre. In 1926, she returned seen in a supporting role in Rosen aus dem Süden/Roses from the south (Carl Froelich, 1926), starring Henny Porten. In 1930, she appeared in small parts in two sound films, the musical comedy Einbrecher/Burglars (Hanns Schwarz, 1930) with Willy Fritsch and Lilian Harvey, and the historical film Das Flötenkonzert von Sans-souci/The Flute Concerto of Sans-Souci (Gustav Ucicky, 1930) starring Otto Gebühr as Friedrich II (aka Frederick the Great). It was part of the popular cycle of Prussian films. It was her last film appearance. Wörner married tenor Eduard Lichtenstein and performed with him at the Metropol Theater in Berlin. After the rise of the Nazis, the Jewish Lichtenstein and his wife moved to the Netherlands where they lived in Amsterdam. In the summer of 1933, she appeared in Kabarett der Prominenten, founded by Willy Rose, She also played in Rosen’s comedy 'Der Chauffeur meiner Frau' in the Netherlands. What later happened to her is little known, but she married the Dutch conductor Jan Koetsier. In 1949, she translated for him a musical play based on Frederik van Eeden’s play 'Frans Hals/Een vrolijk geval' (Frans Hals – a cheerful case) into German. Hilde Wörner passed away in 1963. She was 67.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffie-line - German), Nederlands Muziek Instituut (Dutch and German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. 251. Photo: Zander und Labisch. Geraldine Farrar as Angela in 'Le Domino Noir' (1905).

American soprano opera singer and film actress Geraldine Farrar (1882-1967) was noted for her glamorous beauty, acting ability, and the timbre of her voice. Barely 20, she was already the toast of Berlin. Later at the Met in New York, she had a large following among young women, who were nicknamed ‘Gerry-flappers’. Farrar also starred in more than a dozen silent films from 1915 to 1920. She was married to and co-starred with Dutch matinee idol Lou Tellegen.

Alice Geraldine Farrar was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, in 1882. She was the daughter of baseball player Sidney Farrar, and his wife, Henrietta Barnes. At 5 she began studying music in Boston and by 14 was giving recitals. Later she studied voice with the American soprano Emma Thursby in New York City, in Paris, and finally with the Italian baritone Francesco Graziani in Berlin. In 1901, Farrar created a sensation at the Berlin Hofoper with her debut as Marguerite in Charles Gounod's Faust. She remained with the company for three years, during which time she continued her studies with legendary Wagnerian soprano Lilli Lehmann. She appeared in the title roles of Ambroise Thomas' Mignon and Jules Massenet's Manon, as well as Juliette in Gounod's Roméo et Juliette. Her admirers in Berlin included Crown Prince Wilhelm of Germany, with whom she is believed to have had a relationship beginning in 1903. This Berlin period was interspersed with three seasons with the Monte Carlo Opera. Highlights were Pietro Mascagni's Amica (1905), and Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto (1906) in which she appeared with Enrico Caruso. In 1906, she also made her debut at the New York Metropolitan Opera in Romeo et Juliette. The success placed her on a plateau with Caruso as a box-office magnet. The next year, she got raves for her performance as Cio-Cio-San in the Metropolitan premiere of Giacomo Puccini's Madama Butterfly in 1907. Farrar remained a member of the company until her retirement in 1922, singing 29 roles there in 672 performances. She developed a great popular following, especially among New York's young female opera-goers, who were known as Gerry-flappers. Farrar created the title roles in Puccini's Suor Angelica (1918), Umberto Giordano's Madame Sans-Gêne (1915), as well as the Goosegirl in Engelbert Humperdinck's Königskinder 1910), for which Farrar trained her own flock of geese. According to a New York Tribune review of the first performance, "at the close of the opera Miss Farrar caused 'much amusement' by appearing before the curtain with a live goose under her arm." Her biographer Elizabeth Nash: “Unlike most of the famous bel canto singers of the past who sacrificed dramatic action to tonal perfection, she was more interested in the emotional than in the purely lyrical aspects of her roles.”

Geraldine Farrar recorded extensively for the Victor Talking Machine Company and was often featured prominently in that firm's advertisements. She was one of the first performers to make a radio broadcast, in a 1907 publicity event singing over Lee De Forest's experimental AM radio transmitter in New York City. She also starred in more than a dozen silent films from 1915 to 1920, which were filmed between opera seasons. Farrar made her debut with the title role in Cecil B. De Mille's Carmen (1915), based on the novella Carmen by Prosper Mérimée. For her role as the seductive gypsy girl, she was extensively praised. For her performance, she came in fourth place in the 1916 Screen Masterpiece contest held by Motion Picture Magazine, ahead of any other actress. DeMille directed her next in the silent romantic drama Temptation (Cecil B. DeMille, 1915), also with Theodore Roberts, and in the drama Maria Rosa (Cecil B. DeMille, 1916) with Wallace Reid. Another notable screen role was as Joan of Arc in Joan the Woman (1917). This was Cecil DeMille's first historical drama. The screenplay is based on Friedrich Schiller's 1801 play Die Jungfrau von Orleans (The Maid of Orleans). She next played the daughter of an Aztec king in the silent romance The Woman God Forgot (Cecil B. DeMille, 1917). In the film, she falls in love with a Spanish captain (Wallace Reid) whose army has come to convert the Aztecs to Christianity. Her last film for Paramount Pictures was the romance The Devil-Stone (Cecil B. DeMille, 1917), again with Wallace Reid. The film had sequences filmed in the Handschiegl Color Process, but only two of six reels are known to survive. For Goldwyn Pictures she appeared in such films as The Turn of the Wheel (Reginald Barker, 1918) with Herbert Rawlinson and Percy Marmont, the Western The Hell Cat (Reginald Barker, 1918), Shadows (Reginald Barker, 1918) and the melodrama The Stronger Vow (Reginald Barker, 1919), the latter three with Milton Sills. All four films are considered lost. She co-starred with her husband Lou Tellegen in the dramas The World and Its Woman (Frank Lloyd, 1919), Flame of the Desert (Reginald Barker, 1919), and The Woman and the Puppet (Reginald Barker, 1920). Her final film was the silent drama The Riddle: Woman (Edward José, 1920), in which her co-star was Montagu Love.

Geraldine Farrar had a seven-year love affair with the Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. It was rumored that she gave him an ultimatum that he must choose either her or his wife and children in Italy. It resulted in Toscanini's abrupt resignation as principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera in 1915. Farrar was close friends with the star tenor Enrico Caruso and there has been speculation that they too had a love affair, but no conclusive evidence of this has surfaced. In 1916, she married Dutch film actor Lou Tellegen. Their marriage was the source of considerable scandal, and it ended, as a result of her husband's numerous affairs, in a messy and very public divorce in 1923. The circumstances of the divorce were brought again to public recollection by Tellegen's bizarre 1934 suicide in Hollywood. When told of her ex-husband's death, she replied "Why should that interest me?" Farrar retired from opera in 1922 at the age of 40. Her final performance was as Leoncavallo's Zazà. By this stage, her voice was in premature decline due to overwork. Farrar quickly transitioned into concert recitals and was signed (within several weeks of announcing her opera retirement) to an appearance at Hershey Park on Memorial Day 1922. She continued to make recordings and give recitals throughout the 1920s and was briefly the intermission commentator for the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts during the 1934–1935 season. Her rather bizarre autobiography, Such Sweet Compulsion (1938), was written in alternating chapters purporting to be her own words and those of her mother, with Mrs. Farrar rather floridly recounting her daughter's many accomplishments. In 1967, Geraldine Farrar died in Ridgefield, Connecticut of heart disease aged 85, and was buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, New York. She had no children.

Sources: Andrea Suhm-Binder (Cantabile subito), Bob Hufford (Find A Grave), Wikipedia, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin, no. 9307. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Max Pallenberg in the play 'Tobias Buntschuh' (1917).

Max Pallenberg (1877-1934) was an Austrian singer, actor and comedian. He was one of the most important comedians of his time and often played under the direction of Max Reinhardt. Although Pallenberg was successful as a stage comedian, he only incidentally accepted roles in films.

Max Pallenberg was born as Max Pollack in 1877 in Vienna, Austria. Max was the son of Markus Pallenberg, who immigrated to Galicia from Vienna, and his wife Kressel (also Therese) born Korsower. Pallenberg's career started in 1904 and he played in provincial theatres and with touring companies. In 1908, he joined the then-famous Theater an der Wien as an operetta comedian and sang, inter alia, in the world premiere of Franz Lehár's operetta 'Der Graf von Luxemburg' (The Count of Luxembourg. He played in 1910-1911 at the Volkstheater in Vienna. From 1911 on, Pallenberg played in Munich at the Deutsches Theater. In 1914 he was committed by Max Reinhardt to the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. There he achieved his artistic breakthrough. Under the direction of Max Reinhardt, he played brilliant roles such as Schluck in Gerhart Hauptmann's 'Schluck and Jau' and as Peachum in the 'Dreigroschenoper' (Threepenny Opera). Soon he became one of the most famous character comedians of his time. Pallenberg's stellar role was in Erwin Piscator's dramatic adaptation of Jaroslav Hašek's novel 'Der brave Soldat Schwejk' (The Good Soldier Švejk). In 1917 he married Fritzi Massary who became one of the operetta divas of the German stage of the 1920s. His first wife was Betty Franke (1903-1917). They had one child. Pallenberg's most important roles at the Salzburg Festival include Mephisto in Faust, Argan in Mollière's 'Der eingebildet Kranke' (The Imaginary Invalid), the Devil in Jedermann (Everyman), and Truffaldino in Turandot, all directed by Max Reinhardt.

Max Pallenberg also starred in several silent and sound films. He made his film debut in the German short Der fidele Bauer - Ich hab mein Zipfelhaubn/The Merry Farmer - I have my Zipfel hood (Franz Glawatsch, 1908) with Wilhelm Binder and Luise Kartousch. In the early 1910s, he had great success in the cinema with his figure Pampulik and appeared in such Austrian films as Pampulik als Affe/Pampulik as Ape (Alexander Kolowrat, 1912), Pampulik kriegt ein Kind/Pampulik gets a child (Alexander Kolowrat, 1912) and Pampulik hat Hunger/Pampulik is hungry (Alexander Kolowrat, 1913). During World War I followed such films as Max und seine zwei Frauen/Max and his two wives (Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers, 1915) with Martha Novelly, Der rasende Roland/The Racing Roland (Heinrich Bolten-Baeckers, 1915) and Kapellmeister Pflegekind/Conductor Pflegekind (1915). After the war, he appeared in Die Nacht und der Leichnam/The Night and the Corpse (Adolf Abter, 1921) with Ria Jende. Pallenberg also appered in sound films. In Der brave Sünder/The Virtuous Sinner (Fritz Kortner, 1931), he co-starred with Heinz Rühmann. The film is based on the play The Embezzlers which was in turn based on a novel by the Soviet writer Valentin Kataev. Pallenberg had previously rejected all offers to appear in films based on his theatre appearances. He was finally convinced by the producer Arnold Pressburger to try and film one of his stage successes. The film also offered Kortner a chance to fulfil his ambitions to become a director. In the 1930s, Max Pallenberg and Fritzi Massary became the butt of the anti-Semitic propaganda of the upcoming Nazis. The Jewish couple went into exile in Austria. A year later Max died in an airplane crash near Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad) in today's Czech Republic. He had changed his ticket for the five o'clock flight against a ticket which left Prague already at three o'clock. The five o'clock flight arrived on time, Pallenberg's flight however crashed a few minutes after takeoff. He was 56. Pallenberg was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering, where his ashes are also buried.

Sources: Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 4772. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Eduard von Winterstein as Stauffacher in Wilhelm Tell/William Tell (Rudolf Dworsky, Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1923).

Eduard von Winterstein (1871-1961) was an Austrian-born film and theatre actor. His German film career spanned from the 1910s to the late 1950s, from the Wilhelminian cinema to the cinema of the GDR.

Eduard von Winterstein was born Eduard Clemens Franz Freiherr von Wangenheim in 1871 in Vienna, Austria. Winterstein's parents were the landowner Hugo von Wangenheim and his second wife, the Hungarian-born actress Aloysia (Luise) Dub. After taking acting lessons from his mother, Winterstein joined the stage in Gera in 1889, where, according to the memoirs of his youth published in 1942, he was able to experience an " undeservedly forgotten man", the actor Theodor Lobe. At the opening of the theatre in Annaberg on 2 April 1893, he played the title role in Egmont there. "I was reborn in Annaberg, I had become a completely different person. I had only really become an actor in this small town. [...] Thus the Annaberg period became one of the most beautiful in my profession," he wrote in his autobiography. At this theatre he also met the actress Minna Mengers, whom he married in 1894 at the Wartburg (their son was the actor Gustav von Wangenheim, 1895-1975). The theatre in Annaberg-Buchholz today bears the name Eduard von Winterstein Theatre. From 1895 Winterstein played at the Schillertheater, later at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. On his move, he enthused about his adopted home with the following words: "Berlin! In those days, much more than today, it was the much-longed-for paradise to which every German actor aspired with all his might. [...] Here in this city of millions, a lively theatre life flourished. The Theatre Almanac of 1895 lists twenty-four theatres in Berlin. [...] I had found temporary accommodation with my family in Großbeerenstraße. [...] I was happy that I was to make my debut in Berlin in this very role (as Tellheim in Minna von Barnhelm)."

From 1913 Winterstein also took on film roles, in which the stocky actor soon became the ideal cast of energetic respecters such as generals, judges, landowners, and directors. Unlike in the theatre, however, Winterstein's appearances in the film were usually limited to supporting parts. Yet, already his second film, Schuldig (Hans Oberländer, Messter 1913) had him in the lead. From 1915, Winterstein performed in several films starring Henny Porten, mostly as evil antagonists, such as in the two-part Die Faust des Riesen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917) and Die Claudi vom Geiserhof (Biebrach, 1917). In the late 1910s he acted in films by e.g. Rosa Porten (Die Erzkokette, 1917), Arthur Wellin (Erborgtes Glück, 1918; Pique Dame, 1918; Der Ring der drei Wünsche, 1918) all with Alexander Moissi, Richard Oswald (Der lebende Leichnam, 1918; Die Prostitution, 2. Teil - Die sich verkaufen, 1919), Robert Reinert (Opium, 1918-19), Jaap Speyer (Das Schicksal der Margarete Holberg, 1918), E.A. Dupont (Die Maske, 1919), and Rudolf Meinert (Das Kloster von Sendomir, 1919) with Ellen Richter. He had the lead in In den Krallen des Vampyrs (Wolfgang Neff, Heinz Sarnow, 1919), the two-part Der gelbe Tod (Carl Wilhelm, 1919), Nerven (Reinert, 1919), and Maria Magdalene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1919). He also was the male antagonist in a few films with Hedda Vernon, directed by Hubert Moest (Blondes Gift, 1919; Die Hexe von Norderoog, 1919; Lady Godiva, 1920; Das Frauenhaus von Brescia, 1920; Das fränkische Lied, 1922). In Ernst Lubitsch' Madame Dubarry (1919) he played count Jean Dubarry, who concocts the plan to marry Louis V's mistress Jeanne (Pola Negri) to his brother.

Winterstein remained extremely active in the early 1920s in such films as Der Reigen (Oswald, 1919-20) with Asta Nielsen, Die Tänzerin Marion (Fredric Féher, 1920), Maria Tudor (Adolf Gärtner, 1920) with Ellen Richter (many more films with Richter and Gärtner would follow), Das Martyrium (Paul Ludwig Stein, 1920) with Pola Negri, Das Haupt des Juarez (Johannes Guter, 1920) in which he had the lead, Hamlet (Svend Gade, Heinz Schall, 1920-21) with Asta Nielsen as Hamlet and Winterstein as Claudius, Die Beute der Erinnyen (Otto Rippert, 1921) with Werner Kraus, and Danton (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921) starring Emil Jannings as Danton and with Winterstein as general Westermann. In F.W. Murnau's Der brennende Acker (1921-22) he is count Rudenburg who unknowingly hires golddigger Johannes as secretary. from 1921 he also acted in the Fridericus Rex films (1922-23) , as Leopold Fürst von Anhalt-Dessau in the first and second part Sturm und Drang and Vater und Sohn, on the youth of Frederick the Great, played by Otto Gebühr. In part 3 and 4, Schicksalswende and Sanssouci, he played Fürst Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau. In addition to many supporting parts in the early 1920s, Winterstein had the male lead in Das Diadem der Zarin (Richard Löwenbein, 1922), Der Weg zu Gott (Franz Seitz Sr., 1923), Gott, Mensch und Teufel (Oskar Schubert-Stevens, 1923), In den Krallen der Schuld (Fred Rommer, 1924), Fräulein Josette - meine Frau (Gaston Ravel, 1926), Elternlos (Franz Hofer, 1927), Stolzenfels am Rhein. Napoleon in Moskau (Richard Löwenbein, 1927), Ein Tag der Rosen im August ... da hat die Garde fortgemußt (Max Mack, 1927).

When sound cinema set in, Winterstein was the school director in Der blaue Engel (Josef von Sternberg, 1929-30) with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich, while he had another supporting part opposite Jannings in Liebling der Götter (Hanns Schwarz, 1930). In Rosenmontag (Hans Steinhoff, 1930) he is the commander-in-chief of Mathias Wieman who has an adulterous affair with Lien Deyers. In the early 1930s Winterstein played in several spy and secret service films, a.o. by Harry Piel, Gerhard Lamprecht a.o., while he continued to act in many period pieces. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, he continued acting in films. As he now was of a certain age, he would often play the father of the male or female lead, e.g. Brigitte Horney's father in Der König des Montblanc (Arnold Fanck, 1933/34) or Ivan Petrovich's father in Die Korallenprinzessin (Victor Janson, 1937), or elder military, judges, commissioners, priests, and aristocrats. By the late 1930s, many parts by Winterstein were small and uncredited. Instead, he had the male lead in the rural comedy Für die Katz (Hermann Pfeiffer, 1940), as a rich farmer who has a hate-love affair with an innkeeper (Lina Carstens), which explodes when he shoots her cat who has killed his chicken. In the anti-British war propaganda film Ohm Kruger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941), Winterstein played Cronje, one of the Boer army commanders opposite Jannings as Paul Krüger. Several minor parts followed during the war years. During the National Socialist era, he was placed on the Gottbegnadeten list at the end of the war by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, so he wasn't sent to war.

After the war, Winterstein was one of the people filmed for the 1946 newsreels Augenzeuge. From 1948 he worked for DEFA himself. initially in small parts, but from Die Jungen von Kranichsee (Arthur Pohl, 1950) he got substantial supporting parts. He starred in Die Sonnenbrucks (George C. Klaren, 1950-51) as an apolitical professor who keeps aside during the Third Reich, but is confronted with an escaped camp prisoner. His daughter helps the refugee but is killed herself. The professor, defamed by colleagues, meets the refugee at a conference in the GDR. The film won Winterstein the award for Best Actor at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Another important part Winterstein had as a village priest in Das verurteilte Dorf (Martin Hellberg, 1951-52), in which villagers protest against the removal of their town to make place for a US army base. Winterstein had the lead in Heimliche Ehen (Gustav von Wangenheim, 1955-56), also with Paul Heidemann, comedian from the silent era, and a young Armin Mueller-Stahl. In Konrad Wolf's Genesung (1955/56) Winterstein was a professor of medicine, confronted with a promising student of medicine (Wolfgang Kieling), who however has a dubious past. Winterstein's last (bit) part was in the Polish-German science-fiction film Der schweigende Stern (Kurt Maetzig, 1960). Eduard von Winterstein appeared in over 160 films.

Winterstein also scored various spoken-word records, including the ring parable from Nathan der Weise for the GDR record label Eterna even in his old age. In the period after the Second World War, Winterstein belonged to the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater. There he played the role of Nathan almost four hundred times. Winterstein consciously chose to live in the GDR, a circumstance that the GDR's cultural policy took advantage of. After his death, the Neue Deutschland devoted a special page to him, which included a text by Winterstein entitled "Wahl des Besseren" (Choosing the Better). Its concluding passage reads: "I have experienced many transformations: under three emperors, the First World War, the pseudo-democracy of the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic, the terrible twelve years of National Socialism and the complete collapse of the German Reich brought about by it, until, breathing a sigh of relief, I joined the new progressive spirit of my own free decision and will, and now proudly call myself a citizen of the German Democratic Republic, and this out of insight, reasons, choice of the better." During the 1950s Winterstein got several awards for his stage and screen work, including Best DDR actor. Winterstein is buried in the family grave at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery. Winterstein was married to actress Minna Mengers since 1894. Their son was the actor and director Gustav von Wangenheim (1895-1975).

Winterstein was on stage as an actor for a total of more than seventy years. His work is closely linked to the German theatre history of the 20th century and especially to the history of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He earned his greatest merits as a performer of roles from Lessing's plays. Winterstein stands for the concept of realistic theatre art advocated by Max Reinhardt and Otto Brahm.

Sources: Wikipedia (German), Filmportal.de, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage postcard, no. 3928. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Hungarian actress, dancer and singer Rose Barsony (1909-1977) appeared in 16 films from 1929 to 1938, and in one more in 1957. The soubrette was a popular star of the operettas by Paul Abraham.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 300/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Zander and Labisch.

Grete Weixler (ca. 1900- after 1922) was a German actress of the silent cinema. From 1914 on, she appeared in secondary roles in melodramas by directors like Carl Boese, Friedrich Zelnik, and Lupu Pick.

Grete Weixler was born into an actor’s family. Her grandfather had been successful in Hungary as an actor, Weixler's aunt lived as an artist in Vienna. Weixler's other siblings also turned to the performing arts. Best known is her elder sister, popular silent film actress Dorrit Weixler. Grete followed in her footsteps and made her film debut under the direction of Dorrit’s husband, pioneer director Franz Hofer. Possibly her first film was the silent short Fräulein Piccolo/Miss Piccolo (Franz Hofer, 1914) in which her sister starred and Ernst Lubitsch had a small role. Dorrit Weixler was the first German ‘backfish’, specialised in playing childlike young women in comedies. In contrast to her sister, Grete Weixler appeared in serious films such as the melodramas Jahreszeiten des Lebens/Seasons of Life (Franz Hofer, 1915), Geopfert .../Sacrificed… (Walter Schmidthässler, 1916), and the Charles Dickens adaptation Klein Doortje/Little Dorrit (Friedrich Zelnik, 1917) featuring Lisa Weise. Her next films included Margarete. Die Geschichte einer Gefallenen/Margarete. The story of a fallen woman (Friedrich Zelnik, 1918), featuring Lya Mara, and Verschleppt/Abducted (Carl Boese, 1919).

In 1919, Grete Weixler took over the role of Lilly in Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt, 2. Teil. Hyänen der Lust (Otto Rippert, 1919) the second part of the film Der Weg der Verdammnis/The Way of Condemnation, about the fate of two young women who fall in the hands of girl traffickers. It was one of the most controversial and successful examples of the wave of ‘Sittenfilme’, melodramas about taboo subjects, mostly sexual, which were presented as enlightenment. This film was produced by the Gesellschaft zur Bekämpfung des Mädchenhandels (Society for the Struggle Against White Slavery). Other films with Grete Weixler were Die Herrenschneiderin/The Lord's Cutler (Lupu Pick, 1919) and Die Sklavenhalter von Kansas-City/The Slaves of Kansas City (Wolfgang Neff, 1920) with a young Bela Lugosi. In addition to her work in the cinema, Weixler was also a stage actress and appeared in the Trianon-Theater in Berlin. In 1922, she made her final film Die Tochter der Verführten/The Daughter of the seduced (Jaap Speyer, 1922) in which she played the daughter of a banker who fall for a femme fatale (Mia Pankau). What happened to Grete Weixler after her retirement is not known. In 1916 her sister Dorrit, who was a morphine-dependent, had taken her own life.

Sources: Stephanie D’heil (Steffi-Line), Sophie (German), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.

Zander & Labisch phot.

Berliner Illustrierte Zeitung, 13. Oktober 1901 X. Jahrgang Nr. 41

Andere Quelle:

Am Abend des 4. Januar 1902 wurde der vor dem Kaufhaus Wertheim in der Leipziger Straße/Ecke Wilhelmstraße in Berlin patrouillierende Schutzmann Bruno Schlieske von Passanten zur Haltestelle der Straßenbahn gerufen, weil „ein kleiner alter Herr“ beim Aussteigen auf dem nassen Asphaltpflaster zu Fall gekommen wäre“. Es war Rudolf Virchow, der zu einer Sitzung der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde hatte gehen

wollen. Der Polizist kannte den alten Herrn nicht, notierte aber, daß die Umstehenden „vom Geheimrat“

gesprochen hätten. Der Schutzmann brachte den Professor mit einer Pferdedroschke in seine Wohnung in die Schellingstraße, wo er ihn in den zweiten Stock trug. Der Portier des Hauses und der Droschkenkutscher kamen hinzu, „letzterer wegen des Fahrpreises von 60 Pfennigen“, die der Geheimrat dann bezahlte. Das Angebot einen

Arzt zu rufen, lehnte der Geheimrat ab, er werde seinen Sohn Hans benachrichtigen. Eine ihm von Virchow angebotene Belohnung lehnte der Beamte ab. Diesen Bericht hat der Polizist über ein halbes Jahrhundert später noch einmal zu Protokoll gegeben. Seine „geschickte und sorgsame Hilfe“ hat Virchow sehr anerkannt.

www.laekh.de/upload/Hess._Aerzteblatt/2002/2002_09/2002_0...

German postcard by Verlag Louis Blumenthal, Berlin, no. 3233. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Alexander Moissi as the fool in 'König Lear' (King Lear).

Albanian-Austrian Alexander Moissi (1879-1935) was one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century. The attractive and charismatic women's idol also appeared in several silent and early sound films.

German postcard, no. 6673. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Iraïl Gadescov was the Russian sounding stage name of the Dutch dance pioneer Richard Vogelesang (1894-1970). In 1917, Vogelesang created a smal culture shock in The Hague by dancing on stage in a maillot, inspired by Les Ballets Russes. However, his solo dances in Egyptian or Japanes style were a success abroad. He had a remarkable international career, first in the USA and later in Germany. After the war, he had a dance school in The Hague, where the famous Dutch choreographerToer van Schayk was among his students.

Source: Wiert W. Fehling (Iraïl Gadescov, danseur célèbre) (Dutch).

German postcard. by Verlag Hermann Leiser, no. 7168. Photo: Zander and Labisch. Caption: Eduard von Winterstein as "Fuhrmann Henschel". On the back is written that the play 'Fuhrmann Henschel' by Gerhart Hauptmann, a naturalist tragedy, was performed on 8 March 1916 at the Volksbühne theater in Berlin.

Eduard von Winterstein (born 1 August 1871 in Vienna; died 22 July 1961 in Berlin, real name: Eduard Clemens Franz Freiherr von Wangenheim) was a German film and theatre actor. His German film career spanned from the 1910s to the late 1950s, from the Wilhelminian cinema to the cinema of the GDR.

German postcard by Verlag Louis Blumenthal, Berlin, no. 3439. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Eduard von Winterstein as Kent in 'King Lear'.

Eduard von Winterstein (1871 in Vienna; died 22 July 1961 in Berlin, real name: Eduard Clemens Franz Freiherr von Wangenheim) was a German film and theatre actor. His German film career spanned from the 1910s to the late 1950s, from the Wilhelminian cinema to the cinema of the GDR.

Eduard von Winterstein was born in 1871 in Vienna, Austria. Winterstein's parents were the landowner Hugo von Wangenheim and his second wife, the Hungarian-born actress Aloysia (Luise) Dub. After taking acting lessons from his mother, Winterstein joined the stage in Gera in 1889, where, according to the memoirs of his youth published in 1942, he was able to experience an " undeservedly forgotten man", the actor Theodor Lobe. At the opening of the theatre in Annaberg on 2 April 1893, he played the title role in Egmont there. "I was reborn in Annaberg, I had become a completely different person. I had only really become an actor in this small town. [...] Thus the Annaberg period became one of the most beautiful in my profession," he wrote in his autobiography. At this theatre he also met the actress Minna Mengers, whom he married in 1894 at the Wartburg (their son was the actor Gustav von Wangenheim, 1895-1975). The theatre in Annaberg-Buchholz today bears the name Eduard von Winterstein Theatre. From 1895 Winterstein played at the Schillertheater, later at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. On his move, he enthused about his adopted home with the following words: "Berlin! In those days, much more than today, it was the much-longed-for paradise to which every German actor aspired with all his might. [...] Here in this city of millions, a lively theatre life flourished. The Theatre Almanac of 1895 lists twenty-four theatres in Berlin. [...] I had found temporary accommodation with my family in Großbeerenstraße. [...] I was happy that I was to make my debut in Berlin in this very role (as Tellheim in Minna von Barnhelm)."

From 1913 Winterstein also took on film roles, in which the stocky actor soon became the ideal cast of energetic respecters such as generals, judges, landowners, and directors. Unlike in the theatre, however, Winterstein's appearances in the film were usually limited to supporting parts. Yet, already his second film, Schuldig (Hans Oberländer, Messter 1913) had him in the lead. From 1915, Winterstein performed in several films starring Henny Porten, mostly as evil antagonists, such as in the two-part Die Faust des Riesen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917) and Die Claudi vom Geiserhof (Biebrach, 1917). In the late 1910s he acted in films by e.g. Rosa Porten (Die Erzkokette, 1917), Arthur Wellin (Erborgtes Glück, 1918; Pique Dame, 1918; Der Ring der drei Wünsche, 1918) all with Alexander Moissi, Richard Oswald (Der lebende Leichnam, 1918; Die Prostitution, 2. Teil - Die sich verkaufen, 1919), Robert Reinert (Opium, 1918-19), Jaap Speyer (Das Schicksal der Margarete Holberg, 1918), E.A. Dupont (Die Maske, 1919), and Rudolf Meinert (Das Kloster von Sendomir, 1919) with Ellen Richter. He had the lead in In den Krallen des Vampyrs (Wolfgang Neff, Heinz Sarnow, 1919), the two-part Der gelbe Tod (Carl Wilhelm, 1919), Nerven (Reinert, 1919), and Maria Magdalene (Reinhold Schünzel, 1919). He also was the male antagonist in a few films with Hedda Vernon, directed by Hubert Moest (Blondes Gift, 1919; Die Hexe von Norderoog, 1919; Lady Godiva, 1920; Das Frauenhaus von Brescia, 1920; Das fränkische Lied, 1922). In Ernst Lubitsch' Madame Dubarry (1919) he played count Jean Dubarry, who concocts the plan to marry Louis V's mistress Jeanne (Pola Negri) to his brother.

Winterstein remained extremely active in the early 1920s in such films as Der Reigen (Oswald, 1919-20) with Asta Nielsen, Die Tänzerin Marion (Fredric Féher, 1920), Maria Tudor (Adolf Gärtner, 1920) with Ellen Richter (many more films with Richter and Gärtner would follow), Das Martyrium (Paul Ludwig Stein, 1920) with Pola Negri, Das Haupt des Juarez (Johannes Guter, 1920) in which he had the lead, Hamlet (Svend Gade, Heinz Schall, 1920-21) with Asta Nielsen as Hamlet and Winterstein as Claudius, Die Beute der Erinnyen (Otto Rippert, 1921) with Werner Kraus, and Danton (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921) starring Emil Jannings as Danton and with Winterstein as general Westermann. In F.W. Murnau's Der brennende Acker (1921-22) he is count Rudenburg who unknowingly hires golddigger Johannes as secretary. from 1921 he also acted in the Fridericus Rex films (1922-23) , as Leopold Fürst von Anhalt-Dessau in the first and second part Sturm und Drang and Vater und Sohn, on the youth of Frederick the Great, played by Otto Gebühr. In part 3 and 4, Schicksalswende and Sanssouci, he played Fürst Moritz von Anhalt-Dessau. In addition to many supporting parts in the early 1920s, Winterstein had the male lead in Das Diadem der Zarin (Richard Löwenbein, 1922), Der Weg zu Gott (Franz Seitz Sr., 1923), Gott, Mensch und Teufel (Oskar Schubert-Stevens, 1923), In den Krallen der Schuld (Fred Rommer, 1924), Fräulein Josette - meine Frau (Gaston Ravel, 1926), Elternlos (Franz Hofer, 1927), Stolzenfels am Rhein. Napoleon in Moskau (Richard Löwenbein, 1927), Ein Tag der Rosen im August ... da hat die Garde fortgemußt (Max Mack, 1927).

When sound cinema set in, Winterstein was the school director in Der blaue Engel (Josef von Sternberg, 1929-30) with Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich, while he had another supporting part opposite Jannings in Liebling der Götter (Hanns Schwarz, 1930). In Rosenmontag (Hans Steinhoff, 1930) he is the commander-in-chief of Mathias Wieman who has an adulterous affair with Lien Deyers. In the early 1930s Winterstein played in several spy and secret service films, a.o. by Harry Piel, Gerhard Lamprecht a.o., while he continued to act in many period pieces. After the Nazi takeover in 1933, he continued acting in films. As he now was of a certain age, he would often play the father of the male or female lead, e.g. Brigitte Horney's father in Der König des Montblanc (Arnold Fanck, 1933/34) or Ivan Petrovich's father in Die Korallenprinzessin (Victor Janson, 1937), or elder military, judges, commissioners, priests, and aristocrats. By the late 1930s, many parts by Winterstein were small and uncredited. Instead, he had the male lead in the rural comedy Für die Katz (Hermann Pfeiffer, 1940), as a rich farmer who has a hate-love affair with an innkeeper (Lina Carstens), which explodes when he shoots her cat who has killed his chicken. In the anti-British war propaganda film Ohm Kruger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941), Winterstein played Cronje, one of the Boer army commanders opposite Jannings as Paul Krüger. Several minor parts followed during the war years. During the National Socialist era, he was placed on the Gottbegnadeten list at the end of the war by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda, so he wasn't sent to war.

After the war, Winterstein was one of the people filmed for the 1946 newsreels Augenzeuge. From 1948 he worked for DEFA himself. initially in small parts, but from Die Jungen von Kranichsee (Arthur Pohl, 1950) he got substantial supporting parts. He starred in Die Sonnenbrucks (George C. Klaren, 1950-51) as an apolitical professor who keeps aside during the Third Reich, but is confronted with an escaped camp prisoner. His daughter helps the refugee but is killed herself. The professor, defamed by colleagues, meets the refugee at a conference in the GDR. The film won Winterstein the award for Best Actor at the Karlovy Vary film festival. Another important part Winterstein had as a village priest in Das verurteilte Dorf (Martin Hellberg, 1951-52), in which villagers protest against the removal of their town to make place for a US army base. Winterstein had the lead in Heimliche Ehen (Gustav von Wangenheim, 1955-56), also with Paul Heidemann, comedian from the silent era, and a young Armin Mueller-Stahl. In Konrad Wolf's Genesung (1955/56) Winterstein was a professor of medicine, confronted with a promising student of medicine (Wolfgang Kieling), who however has a dubious past. Winterstein's last (bit) part was in the Polish-German science-fiction film Der schweigende Stern (Kurt Maetzig, 1960). Eduard von Winterstein appeared in over 160 films.

Winterstein also scored various spoken-word records, including the ring parable from Nathan der Weise for the GDR record label Eterna even in his old age. In the period after the Second World War, Winterstein belonged to the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater. There he played the role of Nathan almost four hundred times. Winterstein consciously chose to live in the GDR, a circumstance that the GDR's cultural policy took advantage of. After his death, the Neue Deutschland devoted a special page to him, which included a text by Winterstein entitled "Wahl des Besseren" (Choosing the Better). Its concluding passage reads: "I have experienced many transformations: under three emperors, the First World War, the pseudo-democracy of the Second Reich, the Weimar Republic, the terrible twelve years of National Socialism and the complete collapse of the German Reich brought about by it, until, breathing a sigh of relief, I joined the new progressive spirit of my own free decision and will, and now proudly call myself a citizen of the German Democratic Republic, and this out of insight, reasons, choice of the better." During the 1950s Winterstein got several awards for his stage and screen work, including Best DDR actor. Winterstein is buried in the family grave at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery. Winterstein was married to actress Minna Mengers since 1894. Their son was the actor and director Gustav von Wangenheim (1895-1975).

Winterstein was on stage as an actor for a total of more than seventy years. His work is closely linked to the German theatre history of the 20th century and especially to the history of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. He earned his greatest merits as a performer of roles from Lessing's plays. Winterstein stands for the concept of realistic theatre art advocated by Max Reinhardt and Otto Brahm.

Sources: Wikipedia (German), Filmportal.de, and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm. , no. 8751. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Gertrud Hackelberg as Thekla and Paul Hartmann as Max Piccolomini in the play 'Wallensteins Tod', performed in 1916 at the Volksbühne in Berlin. The play 'Wallenstein's Tod' (Wallenstein's Death, 1799) was the third part of Friedrich Schiller's 'Wallenstein-Trilogie'. In this drama Schiller addresses the decline of the famous general Albrecht von Wallenstein, basing it loosely on actual historical events during the Thirty Years' War.

During his long career, German stage actor Paul Hartmann (1889-1977) made over 100 films, both in the silent and the sound period. Despite his commitment to the Nazi regime, he could continue his career quite smoothly into the 1950s and 1960s.

Paul Wilhelm Constantin Hartmann was born in Fürth, Germany in 1889. He was the son of Wilhelm Hartmann, the manager of a toy-export company, and his wife Maria Hartmann-Betz. From 1907 on, he studied acting with Adalbert Czokke, and in 1908 he had his first engagement at the Stadtheater Zwickau. In the following years he played at the Bellevue-Theater in Stettin, the Stadttheater Zürich, and from November 1913 at the Deutsche Theater in Berlin under direction of the legendary Max Reinhardt. He also started to work for the cinema. He made his film debut as a jeune premier in 1915 in Zofia - Kriegs-Irrfahrten eines Kindes/Zofia – the War Odysseys of a Child (Hubert Moest, 1915) with Ernst Pittschau and Hedda Vernon. Soon followed more films like Der Trick/The Trick (Fred Sauer, 1915) with Aud Egede Nissen, Die verschleierte Dame/The Veiled Lady (Richard Oswald, 1915), Ein Blatt Papier/A Page of Paper (Joe May, 1916), Feenhände/Hands of a Fairy (Rudolf Biebrach, 1916) with Henny Porten, the Harry Deebs detective Das Geheimnis der leeren Wasserflasche/The Secret of the Empty Water Bottle (Joe May, 1917) starring Harry Liedtke, Christa Hartungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917), and Es werde Licht!/Let There Be Light! (Richard Oswald, 1918). That same year, he appeared in Der Trompetter von Säkkingen/The Trumpeter of Säckingen (Franz Porten, 1918), based on a popular opera (1884) by Viktor Nessler, which in turn was based on a romantic book by Joseph Victor von Scheffel, published in 1854. The story is set in Heidelberg and Säckingen during the 17th century, after the Thirty Years War. Law student, later trumpeter Werner Kirchhof falls in love with Margareta, a baron's daughter, but her mother wants to marry her to the cowardly Damian. Werner proves to be a hero and a compassionate pope makes him marquis of Camposanto. Then, after five years of separation nothing can prevent a happy ending. Hartmann's stage and film career suffered a short break when he was called into the military service in 1917. After that he continued his film career smoothly. In the 1920s he played romantic and melancholic characters in films like Katharina die Grosse/Catherine the Great (Reinhold Schünzel, 1920) with Lucie Höflich, Anna Boleyn/Anne Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) with Emil Jannings and Henny Porten, Schloss Vogelöd/The Haunted Castle (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1921) with Olga Tschechova, Der Roman der Christine von Herre (Ludwig Berger, 1921) with Heinrich George, Luise Millerin (Carl Froelich, 1922) with Lil Dagover, Alt-Heidelberg/The Student Prince (Hans Behrendt, 1923) with Eva May, Zur Chronik von Grieshuus/The Chronicles of the Gray House (Arthur von Gerlach, 1925) and the silent film operetta Der Rosenkavalier/The Knight Of The Rose (Robert Wiene, 1925) with Jaque Catelain. In 1924 he worked at the Theater in der Josefstadt in Wien (Vienna), and in 1925 he moved over to the Burgtheater. From 1927 he turned away from the film business and devoted his career exclusively to the Burgtheater.

With the introduction of the sound film Paul Hartmann returned to the cinema. He played tough and adamant heroes, like the constructor and captain next to Hans Albers in the deluxe German/British production F.P.1 antwortet nicht/F.P.1 Doesn't Answer (Karl Hartl, 1932), or as the self sacrificing engineer in Der Tunnel/The Tunnel (Kurt aka Curtis Bernhardt, 1933). Other popular films were Der Läufer von Marathon/The Marathon Runner (Ewald André Dupont, 1933), Salon Dora Green/The House of Dora Green (Henrik Galeen, 1933) with Alfred Abel, and Mazurka (Willi Forst, 1935) with Pola Negri. From 1935 on he was a company member of the Preußischen Staatstheater in Berlin, where he stayed till the end of WW II. In 1934 he was named Staatsschauspieler (Stage Artist of the State), and from May 1937 he was part of the UFA Art Committee. He also appeared in such propaganda films as Pour le mérite (Karl Ritter, 1938), the biography Bismarck (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1940) and Ich klage an/I Accuse (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1941). In April 1942 he became the president of the Reichstheaterkammer. His commitment to the Nazi regime did not really harm his career or his popularity after the war. After being banned from the theatre in 1945 Hartmann could only return to the stage in 1948 as Faust in a production of the Goethe play in Bonn. During the 1950s he was engaged by the Schauspielhaus in Düsseldorf, the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, and the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also returned to the cinema. The ageing star now mainly worked as a character actor in supporting roles, such as in Die Dame in Schwarz/The Lady in Black (Erich Engels, 1951) with Mady Rahl, Der grosse Zapfenstreich/The Sergeant's Daughter (George Hurdalek, 1953) with Johanna Matz, Regina Amstetten (Kurt Neumann, 1954), Die Barrings/The Barrings (Rolf Thiele, 1955) with Dieter Borsche and Nadja Tiller, Der Fuchs von Paris/The Fox of Paris (Paul May, 1957), Buddenbrooks (Alfred Weidenmann, 1959), and Rosen für den Staatsanwalt/Roses for the Prosecutor (Wolfgang Staudte, 1959). He finished his film career in the 1960s with productions like the TV-film Hermann und Dorothea (Ludwig Berger, 1961), the Heimatfilm Waldrausch (Paul May, 1962), and the international war film The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernhard Wicki, 1962), an all-star re-creation of the D-Day invasion, personally orchestrated by Darryl F. Zanuck. Hartmanns last appearance was in the TV-film Demetrius (Ludwig Berger, Heribert Wenk, 1969). In 1964 he was awarded the Filmband in Gold for his continuing and outstanding contributions to the German Film. Paul Hartmann died in 1977 in München (Munich). He was married twice. During WWI he had married a Slavic ballet dancer, who died in 1952. In 1955 he married the painter Elfriede Lieberun.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

For more cards of this series, check out our album Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2145. Photo by Zander u. Labisch, Berlin.

Lu L'Arronge (1902-1991) was a German film actress and producer, who between 1917 and 1920 mostly starred in her own productions, impersonating the type of the Backfisch.

Lu L'Arronge was born in 1902 and was a niece of stage writer Adolf L'Arronge, her father's cousin. Arronge is a variant for the Jewish names Aaron, Arons and Aronsohn. According to IMDb's trivia section: "The actress Lu L'Arronge cherished early the wish to become a stage actress. Not least because her grandfather belonged to the founders of the Bühnengenossenschaft and her father's cousin was the well-known stage writer Adolf L'Arronge." But her mother didn't accept that her daughter would become an actress and Lu L'Arronge came down a peg with her ambition. When the German film industry became 'modern' during World War I and conquered a huge public, Lu's wish to become an actress returned and she knew to convince her mother. What is true about this could not be verified, but for sure between 1917 and 1920 L'Arronge had a serious film career with her own company, possibly alternated with a stage career.

IMDb lists 15 titles between 1917 and 1920 for Lu L'Arronge, mainly produced by Franz Schmelter, who also was her regular director, starting with Die Schlange der Kleopatra (1917) and Lu'chens Verlobung am Gartentor (1917), or produced by her own company L'Arronge Film GmbH, starting with Lu's Backfischzeit (1917) and 's Lieserl vom Loisachtal (1917). In addition to L'Arronge and Schmelter himself, also Anna Müller-Lincke was a regular performer in these 'Backfisch' (teenager) comedies. In 1918-1919 L'Arronge continued to perform in her own productions but without Schmelter directing, apart from Kitty (1919). Often the films were based on scripts by Leonhard Haskel, such as Die weiße Maus (N.N, 1919). Occasionally, L'Arronge did a film elsewhere, at Luna she acted in Kain. II. Im Goldrausch (Bruno Rahn, Walter Schmidthässler, 1918) or at Georg Alexander's company Neue Berliner Film she played in Die Geisterbraut (Herbert Gerdes, 1920). Her last film was the Friedrich Zelnik film Anna Karenina (Friedrich Zelnik, 1920), starring Lya Mara and adapted from Tolstoy's novel. L'Arronge did only a supporting part, which may have signaled the end of her career.

Sources: www.filmportal.de, IMDB, www.cyranos.ch/smarro-e.htm

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 4581a. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin. Tiresias at the palace of Oedipus.

Paul Wegener in Oedipus Rex, Sophocles's classic tragedy, directed by Max Reinhardt in a translation by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, first performed in 1910, first in a Summer festival in Munich and in the Fall in a circus arena Berlin. Stars were Paul Wegener as Oedipus and Tilla Durieux as Jocasta, though some considered the masses of extras performing the Thebans to be the real stars. Emily Bilski, in Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918, writes: "Oedipus was the first major theater-in-the-round production in modern times that featured masses of actors performing for a mass audience."

German postcard by Verlag Herm. Leiser, Berlin Wilm., no. 1860. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Theodor Loos in the play 'König Salomon' (King Solomon).

Theodor Loos (1883-1954) was a German stage and screen actor between the 1910s and the 1950s. He became famous for his parts in Fritz Lang’s German films.

Theodor August Konrad Loos was born in 1883 in Zwingenberg, Germany, as the son of a watchmaker and instrument manufacturer. After leaving school prematurely, he worked at an export firm for musical instruments in Leipzig and afterwards for his uncle, an art dealer in Berlin, before deciding to become an actor. From 1913 on Loos played in theaters in Leipzig, Danzig and Frankfurt am Main, before performing in Berlin. In 1913 he also played his first film part and in 1915 his first leading role in the mystery drama Der geheimnisvolle Wanderer by William Wauer. Loos played in films by renowned directors such as Richard Oswald, Stellan Rye, Robert Wiene, Otto Rippert, and Robert Reinert. Memorable silent cinema titles are Die Rache des Homunculus (Otto Rippert, 1916) with Olaf Fönss, Christa Hartungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917) with Henny Porten, Es werde Licht! II (Richard Oswald, 1917-18) with Eva Speyer, Die singende Hand (Arthur Wellin, 1918) again with Speyer, Getrennte Welten (Arthur Wellin, 1918), Die Buße des Richard Solm (Arthur Wellin, 1918) with Else Kühne and Lia Borré, Nach dem Gesetz (Willy Grunwald, 1919) with Asta Nielsen, Der Reigen (Tichard Oswald, 1919) again with Nielsen, Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921-22) with Emil Jannings, Hanneles Himmelfahrt (Urban Gad, 1922). Loos played the title role in the humoristic period piece Friedrich Schiller (Curt Goetz, 1922-23) on the adolescent years of the German playwright, shot on location in Stuttgart. The film, the debut of the film director Goetz, was previously considered lost but rediscovered in recent years and fully restored.

Loos’ finest hour, however, came when Fritz Lang had him perform the cowardly king Gunther in his two-part sequel Die Nibelungen (Fritz Lang, 1924). In the first part, Siegfrieds Tod, Gunther convinces Siegfried (Paul Richter) to conquer Brunhild (Hanna Ralph) for him, but when Brunhild discovers the fraud she urges Gunther to kill Siegfried, which he does with the help of Hagen von Tronje (Hans Adalbert Schlettow). In part two, Kriemhilds Rache, Siegfried’s wife Kriemhild (Margarethe Schön), brother of Gunther, takes revenge on the murderers of Siegfried, including her own brother. A few years after, Lang asked Loos back for the part of the secretary Joseph/Josaphat in his science-fiction film Metropolis (Fritz Lang, 1925-1926). Other late silent films with Loos were a.o. Das Lebenslied (Arthur Bergen, 1927) with Erna Morena, Luther (Hans Kyser, 1927) starring Eugen Klöpfer, Bigamie (Jaap Speyer, 1927) with Maria Jacobini, Anastasia, die falsche Zarentochter (Arthur Bergen, 1928) with Elizza La Porta and Camilla von Hollay, Ludwig der Zweite, König von Bayern (William Dieterle, 1929-30; Loos played Dr. Von Gudden), and Die stärkere Macht (Gennaro Righelli 1929) with Renée Heribel, Fritz Kortner and Alma Taylor.

Theodor Loos’ first sound film was Die grosse Sehnsucht (Stefan Szekely 1930), in which he played the lead as a film director who turns an extra (Camilla Horn) into a star. Other early sound films with Loos were Ariane (Paul Czinner 1931) with Elisabeth Bergner, Die andere Seite (Heinz Paul 1931) with Conrad Veidt, Trenck (Ernst Neubach, Heinz Paul 1932) with Hans Stüwe and Dorothea Wieck, and Acht Mädels im Boot (Erich Waschneck 1932) with Karin Hardt. Returning to Fritz Lang, Loos was police commissioner Groeber in Lang’s masterpiece M (1931) and Dr. Kramm in Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (1933). The last-mentioned film was forbidden by the nazi’s because of its hidden criticism of Hitler and the Nazi regime, so it premiered in Budapest. In the 1930s Loos played not only countless film parts but also classic theater: Shakespeare, Schiller, Hauptmann, Ibsen, Strindberg, among which over 400 times in Peer Gynt. Under the Nazi regime, he was appointed "Staatsschauspieler" [state actor], performing in a.o. Thea von Harbou’s directorial debut Elisabeth und der Narr (1934) with Hertha Thiele and Rudolf Klein-Rogge, Der Student von Prag (Artur Robison 1935; Loos was the devilish Dr. Carpis), Schlussakkord (Douglas Sirk 1936) with Maria von Tasnady and Peter Bosse, Schatten über St. Pauli (Fritz Kirchhoff 1938) with Harald Paulsen, Veit Harlan’s films Der Herrscher (1936-37) with Emil Jannings, and Jud Süß (1940) with Ferdinand Marian, and Hans Steinhoff’s films Der alte und der junge König (1934-35) with Jannings, Robert Koch (1939) with again Jannings, Rembrandt (1942; Loos played Jan Six) and Gabriel Dambrone (1943). Other titles from the war era were Herbert Maisch’s Andreas Schlüter (1941-42), in which Loos played prince-elector Frederick III, opposite Heinrich George in the title role, and Titanic (Werner Klingler, Herbert Selpin 1943) which starred Sybille Schmitz and Hans Nielsen, and in which Loos played a German scientist. During the war, Loos was head of Künstlerischen Wortsendungen [artistic verbal emissions] at the German Radio. He was also in high places in artistic and cultural boards. Loos didn’t have to serve in the war because of his parts in (propaganda-) films but his two sons did and they both died in the war. At the end of the war, Loos fled via Prague to Salzburg but was rehabilitated by the French military government in 1947. He then performed again on stage in Tübingen and Stuttgart, and also became a radio announcer. In 1954 Loos played his last film part as a minister in Rosen aus dem Süden (Franz Antel), starring Maria Holst, and in the same year, he was awarded the Grossverdienstkreuz of the Bundesrepublik. Theodor Loos died 27.06.1954 in Stuttgart. All in all, Loos played in over 170 films.

Sources: www.filmportal.de, German and English Wikipedia.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 1941. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Albert Bassermann as Dr. Karl Eckold, Lina Lossen as his wife Klara, and Max Landa as Prof. Dr. Rudolf Ormin in 'Die Stunde des Erkennens' (Komödie der Worte) by Arthur Schnitzler at the Lessing-Theater, Berlin, 1915/1916.

Albert Bassermann (1867–1952) was one of the first great German stage actors who worked for the cinema. In 1933 he fled the Nazi regime and became an Oscar-nominated stage and film actor in the US.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-W., no. 4553 a. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin. Paul Wegener in 'König Oedipus' (1910). Caption: King Oedipus.

Paul Wegener in 'Oedipus Rex', Sophocles's classic tragedy, directed by Max Reinhardt in a translation by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, first performed in 1910, first in a Summer festival in Munich and in the Fall in a circus arena Berlin. Stars were Paul Wegener as Oedipus and Tilla Durieux as Jocasta, though some considered the masses of extras performing the Thebans to be the real stars. Emily Bilski, in Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918, writes: "Oedipus was the first major theatre-in-the-round production in modern times that featured masses of actors performing for a mass audience."

Vintage German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, 427. Photo by Zander & Labisch, Berlin.

Magda Madeleine, also Maud Madeleine or Magda Mohr (1890s-after 1925) was a stage actress and film actress of the silent film era. In the mid-1910s she acted in many detective films, while in the late 1910s she had her own series at Deutsche Mutoskop & Biograph.

Vintage German postcard. 1910s. Photo by Zander & Labisch. Verlag Hermann Leiser, No. 5346. Camilla Eibenschütz as Luise in Friedrich Schiller's play Kabale und Liebe, performed in 1916 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin.

Camilla Eibenschütz (July 20, 1884 – July 12, 1958) was a German stage actress.

Camilla Eibenschütz was the first actress to play "Wendla" in Frank Wedekind's controversial Frühlings Erwachen (Spring Awakening) in Berlin in 1906. In 1907 she played Juliet in Max Reinhardt's Romeo and Juliet, opposite Alexander Moissi. She also played Ophelia, Viola, and Titania in Reinhardt's Shakespeare productions. Albert von Keller painted her as Myrrhine in Lysistrata in 1909. On Broadway, she starred in Reinhardt's pantomime Sumurun in 1912, with Leopoldine Konstantin, Emil Lind, and other European actors. She was in Blue Bird in Berlin in 1912, and in The Yellow Jacket in Berlin in 1914. Eibenschütz was known as a collector of art, to decorate her two residences, a country home at Bogensberglehen and a villa at Dahlem. Camilla Eibenschütz married twice; first, briefly, to Polish dramatist Ryszard Ordynski in 1913, and later to newspaper publisher Dr. Wolfgang Huck (1889–1966). They had a son, Andreas Michael Huck (born 1919). She died in 1958, aged 75 years. Her grave is in Offenbach am Main, with other members of the Huck family.

As far as known, Camilla Eibenschütz only acted in one film: Sodoms Ende (1913), directed by Alexander Moissi, and starring Eibenschütz, Alfred Abel and Johanna Terwin.

Source: English Wikipedia.

Vintage German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser 7170. Zander u. Labisch. Else Eckersberg as Franziska Wermelskirch in the stage play Fuhrmann Henschel by Gerhart Hauptmann, performed in 1916.

Else Eckersberg (* 5 January 1895 in Berlin; † 2 November 1989 in Neureichenau) was an actress of Max Reinhardt's theatre. She also had a film career in German silent film in the 1910s and the early 1920s.

Else was born in Berlin as the daughter of Paul Eckersberg and Antonie, née Tessel. After the early death of her father, she grew up with her grandparents and in the boarding school of the Ursulines. In her first marriage, Else Eckersberg married the lawyer Walther Eitzen in 1913. After her divorce in 1918, she married Philipp Freiherr Schey von Koromla in Berlin in 1921, from whom she divorced in 1935. In her third marriage, she married Paul Graf Yorck von Wartenburg on 5 May 1940 in Berlin. Her only child was Alexander (1927-2012) from her second marriage, who was adopted by his stepfather in 1950.

After completing her secondary education, Else Eckersberg entered the acting school of the Deutsches Theater under the direction of Max Reinhardt at the age of 15. After two years of training, she was the only girl accepted for further training alongside Gert Fricke, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Ernst Waldow, Ernst Lubitsch and Ernst Hofmann. In a private performance of Wedekind's Death and the Devil, Else was discovered in 1912 in the role of the strumpet Lisiska and engaged by Reinhardt as the youngest member of his ensemble. On 31 August 1912 she made her debut at the Deutsches Theater as Klugheit in Goethe's Faust II. Under Reinhardt's direction she also ventured an early foray into silent film, acting in Eine venezianische Nacht in the spring of 1913.

German Wikipedia downplays Eckersberg's film career but she still played in 21 films between 1913 and 1921. After her supporting part in Eine venezianische Nacht, Eckersberg started in 1914 at Union/ PAGU in a range of 9 comedies of 1914-15 in which she was paired with Ernst Matray, and in which at times also e.g. Anna Müller-Lincke and Senta Söneland performed. These were mostly directed by Richard Löwenbein, e.g. Die Erbtante (1914), Eine Lausbubengeschichte (1915), and Die bösen Buben (1915). In 1916 she created her own comedy series at Greenbaum-Film with the character Else, e.g. Elses letzter Hauslehrer (Paul Otto, 1917), Else als Detektiv (Louis Neher, 1917), and Else und ihr Vetter (Louis Neher, 1917). After an absence from the sets, Eckersberg returned in 1920-1921 for three more Else-comedies (Else, der Räuberbraut, 1920; Else, die Tochter der Exzellenz, 1920 ; Prinzesschen Else, 1921), now directed by Rudi Bach at Althoff & Co.. She also played supporting parts in Die Brüder Karamasoff (Carl Froehlich, Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1920) and Lupu Pick's Der Dummkopf (1921). After 1921 Eckersberg worked almost exclusively at the theatre where she shone mainly in glamorous, slightly capricious, fun-loving and humorous roles of women and girls.

After a guest performance in operetta, her breakthrough came in 1920 in the role of Cleopatra in Shaw's play Caesar and Cleopatra. Numerous engagements at theatres in Berlin and Vienna followed. With Reinhardt's departure from Berlin, Else Eckersberg also left the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in 1921 and played mainly comedies at various entertainment theatres in the following years. In 1924 she again enjoyed great success as Dodo in Hopwood's Unsere kleine Frau at Reinhardt's Kammerspiele and as Antoinette Hechingen in Hofmannsthal's Der Schwierige at Vienna's Theater in der Josefstadt. In the early 1930s, Eckersberg's roles as Antoinette in Hofmannsthal's Der Schwierige, Christina in Bourdet's Das schwache Geschlecht and Amanda in Coward's Intimitäten earned her acclaim from Berlin theatre critics as a female comedienne of the first rank, a ravishing clown and witty parodist.

In 1932, she starred alongside Hans Brausewetter in her self-written play Three Years and a Night, which was staged by Eugen Robert, the director of the Berlin Tribüne under the title Stichwort Feldena.

After the National Socialists seized power, Else Eckersberg withdrew more and more from the stage. The actually apolitical actress suffered from the fate of her Jewish colleagues and friends. In 1934 she played Coward's Intimacies again under Otto Falckenberg at the Munich Kammerspiele, in 1935 under Heinz Hilpert in Hauptmann's Griselda and under Gründgens the Queen in Scribe's The Glass of Water.

On the occasion of Gerhart Hauptmann's 80th birthday, Eckersberg, a close friend of the poet, recited Hannele's Ascension for the first time. She performed this play several times after the Second World War and showed all her acting skills in the nuanced portrayal of the various characters. In 1944, Else Eckersberg was arrested as the sister-in-law of Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, who took part in the assassination attempt of 20 July, and was kept in solitary confinement for two months. In 1958, Else Eckersberg published her memoirs under the title Diese volle Zeit (This Full Time), in which she once again illuminated the lost glory of the era of Berlin theatre before the Second World War. The following years she lived in Lyon and Bucharest due to her husband's diplomatic activities and after his retirement in Neureichenau, where she died in 1989. She was buried in Jagsthausen in the tomb of the Barons of Berlichingen, ancestors of her husband on his mother's side.

(Sources: German Wikipedia, IMDb.)

German postcard by NPG, no. 935. Photo: Elli Lisser, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sybil Smolowa or Sibyl Smolová (actually Anna Marie Josefa Smolová; * 17 September 1886 in Chlumetz an der Cidlina, Austria-Hungary; † 6 July 1972 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) was an Austrian-Czech theatre and film actress.

Among her films were I mörkrets bojor/In the Fetters of Darkness (Georg af Klercker, 1917), Im Schatten des Glücks/In the shadow of happiness (Robert Leffler, 1919), and in ther two-partner Kinder der Finsternis/Children of Darkness (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Grit Hegesa and Hans Mierendorff. Her final film was Anna und Elisabeth/Anna and Elisabeth (Frank Wisbar, 1933) with Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele.

Source: IMDb.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 281. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Caption: Johannes Riemann at the lecture table

German actor Johannes Riemann (1888-1959) appeared from World War I till the end of World War II in some 90 films, often as the gentleman who elegantly breaks a woman’s heart.

German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 8929. Photo by Zander & Labisch. Albert and Else Bassermann in the Henrik Ibsen play Baumeister Solness (1892). The German premiere of the play with Bassermann was in 1908 at the Lessing-Theater in Berlin. Bassermann would reprise it several times, including in exile in the US.

Albert Bassermann (1867–1952) was one of the first great German stage actors who worked for the cinema. In 1933 he fled the Nazi regime and became an Oscar nominated stage and film actor in the US.

Else Bassermann, née Elisabeth Sara Schiff (1878-1961) was a German stage and screen actress, who in 1908 married renowned stage actor Albert Bassermann and often performed together with him on stage. When he started to play in film, she accompanied him.

Vintage German postcard, 1910s. Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 9256. Photo Zander & Labisch. Wanda Treumann and Viggo Larsen in one of their films.

Wanda Treumann (1883–1963) belonged to the most popular stars of the German cinema before the first World War. Together with Viggo Larsen she also produced more than 80 films in the 1910s, in which she often played the female lead. As an actress, she played in nearly 90 films, but many of them were shorts.

Vintage German postcard. Photochemie, Berlin, K.1734, 1910s. Photo by Willinger, Berlin.

Vintage German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 1415. Photo by Zander & Labisch.

Emil Birron (born Emil Bleeke; 1 January 1878 – 18 January 1952) was a German stage and film actor, who peaked as film actor in the late 1910s and early 1920s..

Birron made his stage debut in 1900 at the Potsdam City Theatre. He then trained as an actor from 1900 to 1902. In 1902 he continued his stage career in Magdeburg, in 1903/1904 he played at the Kleines Theater in Berlin, from 1904 to 1907 at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna, from 1907 to 1912 he acted as a Royal Court Actor in Munich, from 1912 to 1914 he was active in Breslau where he directed the Lobe Theatre. From 1915 to 1917 he appeared at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, after which he played in Berlin.

In 1917 Birron began his career as a silent film actor, debuting in the Hella Moja vehicle Die gute Partie (Otto Rippert, 1918). He would act in some 30 films, mainly in the years 1917-1921, plus five films between 1927 and 1938. These included films with Ressel Orla (Die Sünde, Alwin Neuß 1918; Das Glück der Frau Beate, Alwin Neuß & Otto Rippert, 1918), Kitsch (Lupu Pick, 1919), Lotte Neumann (Der Weg der Grete Lessen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919)), as well as Katinka (Emil Birron, Paul Otto, 1918) with Rita Clermont, Wenn das Leben nein sagt (1919), Alkohol (Ewald André Dupont & Alfred Lind, 1920), Hundemamachen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1920) with Ossi Oswalda, etc. In all these films he had the male lead, while he also had supporting parts in e.g. Vendetta (Georg Jacoby, 1919) with Pola Negri and Harry Liedtke, and King Frederick William IV in Die Weber (Frederic Zelnik, 1927), starring Paul Wegener and William Dieterle.

Birron's theatre activities were limited to guest performances from 1922 to 1936. In the 1928/29 season Birron was stage manager at the Deutsches Stadttheater (today Mahen-Theater) in Brno. In 1936 Birron ended his activity as an actor. He was active as a stage agent and promoted young talent

Source: German Wikipedia, Filmportal, IMDb. NB IMDb writes his last name with one -r.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6754/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Atelier Zander & Labisch, Berlin.

Austrian stage and film actor Paul Hörbiger (1894-1981) belonged together with Hans Moser to the ‘primary rock’ of the Austrian cinema. His popularity was unique and was reflected in over 250 films, mostly lightweight comedies of the popular 'Wiener Film' genre.

Paul Hörbiger was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) in 1894. he was the son of Hans Hörbiger, an engineer who wrote Welteislehre on glacial cosmology. In 1902 his family returned to Vienna, while Paul attended the gymnasium (grammar school) at St. Paul's Abbey in the Lavanttal. In the First World War, he served in a mountain artillery regiment of the Austro-Hungarian Army, discharged in 1918 with the rank of an Oberleutnant. After the war, he attended shortly the Otto theater school and made his stage debut in 1919 at the city theatre of Liberec (Reichenberg). From 1920 he performed at the Neuen Deutschen Theater (New German Theatre) in Prague. In 1926, with a contract for Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin, he made his breakthrough. In the silent era, he impersonated witty and vicious characters in such films as the classic Spione/Spies (Fritz Lang, 1928) with Willy Fritsch and Lien Deyers, Schmutziges Geld/Show Life (Richard Eichberg, 1928) starring Anna May Wong, and another classic, Asphalt (Joe May, 1929) with Gustav Fröhlich.

Paul Hörbiger's film image was subsequently shaped by the sound film comedies and operettas of Géza von Bolváry and Erik Charell. This can best be seen in the warm-hearted Viennese character ‘Feschak’, and most clearly in the figure of the old Weiring in Liebelei/Flirtation (Max Ophüls, 1933). Other interesting films from this period are Der Kongress Tanzt/The Congress Dances (Erik Charell, 1931) starring Lilian Harvey, Es war einmal ein Walzer/Once There Was A Waltz (Victor Janson, 1932) starring Márta Eggerth, Quick (Robert Siodmak, 1932), Scampolo, ein Kind der Straße/Scampolo, a Child of the Streets (Hans Steinhoff, 1932) featuring Dolly Haas, Walzerkrieg/The Battle of the Walzes (Ludwig Berger, 1933) with Renate Müller, Königswalzer/The Royal Waltz (Herbert Maisch, 1935) and Kitty und die Weltkonferenz/Kitty and the World Conference (Helmut Käutner, 1939) with Hannelore Schroth. In 1935 he founded the Algefa film company together with director E.W. Emo and consul Karl Künzel.

From 1940 on, Paul Hörbiger was a member of the Viennese Burgtheater. During the war, he acted in films like Operette/Operetta (Willi Forst a.o., 1940) and Wen die Götter lieben/Whom the Gods Love (Karl Hartl, 1942) starring Hans Holt as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. These were often lightweight comedies of the Wiener Film genre, which was popular among German and Austrian audiences during the 1930s and 1940s. Hörbiger often played roles similar to those of Hans Moser: waiters, servants, cab drivers, porters as well as ballad-singers and singers during wine festivities. He also frequently plays such Austrian greats as Franz Joseph the II., Haydn, or Radetzky. The two actors complemented one another brilliantly in such films as Wiener Geschichten/Viennese Stories (Géza von Bolváry, 1940), Schwarz auf weiß/Black on White (E.W. Emo, 1943), and Schrammeln/Strum (Géza von Bolváry, 1944). Though in 1938 he had openly acclaimed the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany and smoothly continued his career in propaganda films like Wunschkonzert/Request Concert (Eduard von Borsody, 1940) or Die grosse Liebe/The Great Love (Rolf Hansen, 1942) starring Zarah Leander, he was arrested in Vienna in the late days of World War II. The Nazis accused him of high treason. The BBC already reported his death, but Hörbiger survived the war.

After the war, Paul Hörbiger remained one of the most popular German-speaking film actors. He played a small role as the intimidated doorman in the classic The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949). More demanding roles followed in Das Tor zum Paradies/The Strange Story of Brandner Kaspar (Josef von Báky, 1949), Epilog: Das Geheimnis der Orplid/Epilogue (Helmut Käutner, 1950), and Hallo Dienstmann/Hello Dienstmann (Franz Antel, 1951). Yet, soon the old stereotypical roles returned in Viennese 'swindel' films. He also starred in numerous 'Heimatfilme', again performing as the warm-hearted Viennese type and 'Heurigen' singer, often together with Hans Moser and director Franz Antel. To his best-known films of these years belong Mädchenjahre einer Königin/The Story of Vickie (Ernst Marischka, 1954) featuring Romy Schneider, Banditen der Autobahn/Bandits of the Highway (Géza von Cziffra, 1955), and Sebastian Kneip (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1958) with Carl Wery. In his later years, he focused on stage acting at the Burgtheater. He also has stage appearances in Zürich, Moscow, and New York as well as in West Germany and Israel. In 1969 he received the Filmband in Gold Award for his longtime contributions to the German cinema. He was married to actress Josepha Gettke, with whom he had four children. He was the father of actor Thomas Hörbiger, grandfather of actor Christian Tramitz and actress Mavie Hörbiger, brother of actor Attila Hörbiger and uncle of actress Christiane Hörbiger. Paul Hörbiger died in 1981 in Vienna, Austria. He was 86.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Filmportal.de, Steffi-line.de, Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard, no. 1529. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Iraïl Gadescov was the exotic stage name of the Dutch dancer Richard Vogelesang (1894-1970), who enjoyed an international career. During the 1920s he often performed together with German dancer Magda Bauer. In 1921, Gadescov danced in the German silent film Die Diktatur der Liebe. 1. Die böse Lust/The dictatorship of love I -The evil desire (Willy Zeyn, 1921), credited as Jrail Godescou.

Sources: Wiert W. Fehling (Irail Gadescov: danseur célèbre - Dutch) and IMDb.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 9303. Photo: Zander & Labisch. Paul Hartmann in Volk in Not/People in Need (Wolfgang Neff, 1925).

German stage actor Paul Hartmann (1889-1977) made over 100 films, both in the silent and the sound period. Despite his commitment to the Nazi regime, he could continue his career quite smoothly into the 1950s and 1960s.

For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage German postcard. Kunstverlag Jos. Paul Böhm, München, 200.

Vintage German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 1415. Photo by Zander & Labisch.

Emil Birron (born Emil Bleeke; 1 January 1878 – 18 January 1952) was a German stage and film actor, who peaked as film actor in the late 1910s and early 1920s..

Birron made his stage debut in 1900 at the Potsdam City Theatre. He then trained as an actor from 1900 to 1902. In 1902 he continued his stage career in Magdeburg, in 1903/1904 he played at the Kleines Theater in Berlin, from 1904 to 1907 at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna, from 1907 to 1912 he acted as a Royal Court Actor in Munich, from 1912 to 1914 he was active in Breslau where he directed the Lobe Theatre. From 1915 to 1917 he appeared at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg, after which he played in Berlin.

In 1917 Birron began his career as a silent film actor, debuting in the Hella Moja vehicle Die gute Partie (Otto Rippert, 1918). He would act in some 30 films, mainly in the years 1917-1921, plus five films between 1927 and 1938. These included films with Ressel Orla (Die Sünde, Alwin Neuß 1918; Das Glück der Frau Beate, Alwin Neuß & Otto Rippert, 1918), Kitsch (Lupu Pick, 1919), Lotte Neumann (Der Weg der Grete Lessen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919)), as well as Katinka (Emil Birron, Paul Otto, 1918) with Rita Clermont, Wenn das Leben nein sagt (1919), Alkohol (Ewald André Dupont & Alfred Lind, 1920), Hundemamachen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1920) with Ossi Oswalda, etc. In all these films he had the male lead, while he also had supporting parts in e.g. Vendetta (Georg Jacoby, 1919) with Pola Negri and Harry Liedtke, and King Frederick William IV in Die Weber (Frederic Zelnik, 1927), starring Paul Wegener and William Dieterle.

Birron's theatre activities were limited to guest performances from 1922 to 1936. In the 1928/29 season Birron was stage manager at the Deutsches Stadttheater (today Mahen-Theater) in Brno. In 1936 Birron ended his activity as an actor. He was active as a stage agent and promoted young talent

Source: German Wikipedia, Filmportal, IMDb. NB IMDb writes his last name with one -r.

German postcard, no. 4008. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

German actor Jakob Tiedtke (1875-1960) transformed from a beloved character actor to a comedy star on stage. From 1906 on, he appeared in many silent films and played in many films by Ernst Lubitsch. In the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, Jakob Tiedtke remained a well-known and popular actor on the screen.

Jakob Tiedtke was born Jakob Karl Heinrich Wilhelm Tiedtke in 1875 in Rixdorf near Berlin, today the district of Berlin-Neukölln. His father was a humorous writer and contributor to the richly illustrated German weekly Fliegende Blätter, Kladderadatsch, and the like. After attending the Köllnisches Gymnasium in his native city, Tiedtke graduated from the Seebach-Schule, which was affiliated with the Berlin Königliches Schauspielhaus. After completing his studies, the young actor made his debut there in 1899 as Cato in the Shakespeare tragedy 'Julius Caesar' and shortly afterwards went to the Preußisches Hoftheater, where he was a member of the ensemble until 1905. Then he followed a call from Max Reinhardt to the Deutsches Theater for eight years, where he distinguished himself as a hard-working character actor. At Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater Tiedtke became known as the "corpse bird" when he was not playing himself, he sat in the stalls so that he could step in immediately if an actor dropped out. He had all the possible roles in his head. Thus he became Reinhardt's busiest character actor, portraying mostly old men in over 100 productions, such as the medical councillor Dr. von Brausepulver in the world premiere of Frank Wedekind's children's tragedy 'Frühlings Erwachen' (1906). The transition to comedian came with increasing corpulence. Tiedtke recounts how he was once asked to stand in for an actor who had fallen ill and play old Moor, who is locked in the hunger tower by his own son.

In 1913 Jakob Tiedtke moved to the private Deutsche Künstlertheater Societät and a year later to the Lessingtheater under the direction of Victor Barnowsky. This was followed in 1915 by a three-year engagement at the famous Vienna "Burgtheater. Until 1925 Tiedtke made guest appearances at various Berlin theatres and belonged to the ensemble of the Berlin Volksbühne from 1933 to 1945. During the National Socialist era, he was a presidential advisor to the NS leader corps Kameradschaft der deutschen Künstler. After the end of World War II, Tiedtke founded the Künstlergemeinschaft Bad Ischl together with Theo Lingen, Paul Kemp, Siegfried Breuer and other fellow actors, which toured Austria for two years. Afterwards, the actor was able to perform successfully again in Munich and Berlin, and he also shone in Hamburg, among other places, at the Thalia Theater at the beginning of November 1949, where, on the occasion of his 50th stage anniversary, the comedy 'Der gute Onkel Jan' by Georges Feydeau with Tiedtke in the title role was performed in German for the first time, In addition to important theatre characters such as Iago in Shakespeare's 'Othello', Mephisto in Goethe's 'Faust', or Franz Moor in Schiller's 'Die Räuber', his brilliant roles on stage included above all interpretations in classical comedy plays and farces, Among others, Tiedtke shone as the village judge Adam in Kleist's 'Der zerbrochne Krug', as Theobald Maske in Sternheim's 'Die Hose', or as Falstaff in the Shakespeare comedy 'The Merry Wives of Windsor'. As a performer of Molière's characters, he impressed the audience as 'Der eingebildete Kranke' (Le malade imaginaire), as 'Tartuffe', and as 'Der Geizige' (L'avare), and he was equally captivating as the smear theatre director Emanuel Striese in the farce 'Der Raub der Sabinerinnen' by Franz and Paul von Schönthan or as Baron Weps in the operetta 'Der Vogelhändler' by Carl Zeller. His Berlin humour and Berlin imperturbability shaped Tiedtke's character, which he also lent to his characters on stage. He was more of a quiet comedian who cared more about the heart than the punch line. Tiedtke always wanted to play as realistically as possible, never elevating himself above his characters or presenting satirical commentary. "I don't want people to see that he is an actor! That is my creed". He avoided exaggeration, strove for moderation and naturalness, and in his private life was proud of the fact that people said to him: "If I didn't know that you were Tiedtke, I would never take you for Tiedtke!" "Ick bin normal". He was proud of that.

Jakob Tiedtke had already come into contact with the new medium of cinematography at an early age and showed his art in various silent flicks; since the end of World War 1, the actor had firmly committed himself to the EFA-Filmgesellschaft. His first screen appearances are said to date back to 1906, when he starred in one-act plays by the director and film pioneer Oskar Messter, although there is no evidence of this today. The first film with Tiedtke, however, was made in 1913 under the title Schuldig after the stage drama of the same name by Richard Voss, starring Eduard von Winterstein and produced by Messter. Two years later Tiedtke appeared alongside Paul Wegener in the latter's classic Der Golem (1915). With Wegener in the lead, he would also act in Der Rattenfänger (1918) and Der Galeerensträfling (1919). He preferred to work with director Ernst Lubitsch who gave him the nickname "Filmvater Tiedtke" (film daddy Tiedtke) and cast him in his silent productions Die Puppe (1919), Kohlhiesels Töchter (1920), Romeo und Julia im Schnee (1920), Sumurun (1920) and Die Flamme (1922). The imposing figure of the mime was used by the directors again and again for quirky and droll types, which Tiedtke always knew how to breathe life into. Other major productions in which Tiedtke was involved in the 1920s include the six-part adventure film Der Mann ohne Namen(1921) with Harry Liedtke, the Henny Porten films Die Fahrt ins Blaue (1918), Sie und die Drei (1922), Der Kaufmann von Venedig (1923), Das alte Gesetz (1923) and Kammermusik (1925), the lost Murnau film Die Austreibung (1923), the Lya Mara comedy Auf Befehl der Pompadour (1924), Ludwig Berger's Ein Walzertraum (1925), the adventure film Pietro der Korsar (1925), Die Mühle von Sanssouci (1926) starring Otto Gebühr, Gehetzte Frauen (1927) with Asta Nielsen, Die Apachen von Paris/ Paname n'est pas Paris (1927), Dr. Bessels Verwandlung (1927), Das Spreewaldmädel (1928) with Claire Rommer, the Ellen Richter film Moral (1928), and the Käthe von Nagy comedy Mascottchen (1929). In Hans Kyser's prominent historical film Luther - Ein Film der deutschen Reformation (1927), Tiedtke, alongside Eugen Klöpfer in the title role of the reformer Martin Luther, was convincing as the indulgence preacher Johann Tetzel.

Jakob Tiedtke became a well-known and popular actor on the screen, especially as an interpreter of comic roles and in the role of the older bon vivant. He remained a busy actor in the 1930s and in the talkies, and knew how to play himself into the hearts of the audience with striking supporting roles and quirky characters in popular comedy plays of the time, but also in productions of other genres. For example, he was seen as landowner and bachelor Philipp Klapproth in the farce Pension Schöller (1930), as the protagonist master tailor Titus Hasenklein in Hasenklein kann nichts dafür (1932) or as Uncle Emil in the operetta adaptation Der Vetter aus Dingsda (1934). His extensive filmography, which lists around 200 titles in the Internet Movie Database, includes successful films such as Das Flötenkonzert von Sans-souci (1930), Yorck (1931), Das Blaue vom Himmel (1932), Saison in Kairo (1933), Kleiner Mann - was nun? (1933), Schwarzer Jäger Johanna (1934), Der Doppelgänger (1934), Petersburger Nächte (1935), Die göttliche Jette (1937) and the Heinz Rühmann films So ein Flegel (1934) and Nanu, Sie kennen Korff noch nicht? (1938). In the adventure Verwehte Spuren (1938) Jakob Tiedtke acted for the first time under the direction of Veit Harlan, with whom he realised several other films in the next years such as Das unsterbliche Herz (1939). However, these also included the unspeakable hate flick Jud Süss (1940) as well as the propaganda films Der große König (1942) and Kolberg (1945).

In August 1944 propaganda minister Josef Goebbels had put Tiedtke on his so-called Gottbegnadeten-Liste, he was exempt from serving in the war.

The collaboration between Veit Harlan and Jakob Tiedtke continued after World War II, Harlan entrusted him with smaller tasks in his films Unsterbliche Geliebte (Immortal Lovers, 1951), Hanna Amon (1952) and Die blaue Stunde (The Blue Hour, 1953), which he made with his wife Kristina Söderbaum. Tiedtke's other post-war films include Das seltsame Leben des Herrn Bruggs (1951), Königin einer Nacht (1951), Keine Angst vor großen Tieren (1953), Damenwahl (1953), Der Raub der Sabinerinnen (1954), Emil und die Detektive (1954) and finally Urlaub auf Ehrenwort (1955). After that, Tiedtke slowly withdrew from acting and into private life. Until the 1950s he also worked in radio, especially for the Berlin radio station RIAS (Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor) and the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk (NWDR). After the end of the war, he was seen on stage in 1947 in the Lustspielhaus des Westens in Berlin-Friedenau together with Heli Finkenzeller and her husband Will Dohm in the comedy Götterkinder by F. D. Andam and Werner P. Zibaso. He celebrated one of his last successes at the Berlin Schillertheater with the role of the aged Theodotus in a performance of the comedy Caesar and Cleopatra by George Bernard Shaw with Walter Franck and Luitgard Im in the title roles. After the performance, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit for his life's work, and the Association for the History of Berlin appointed him an honorary member. Tiedtke was a friend and patron of the theatre critic and publicist Siegfried Jacobsohn. He also had a special artistic friendship with the playwright and author Gerhart Hauptmann. Hauptmann later (1921) wrote a play especially for Tiedtke: 'Peter Brauer', the tragicomedy of an incompetent painter. It was a weak play, but Tiedtke carried it on his broad back over a hundred dangers towards great success. The premiere took place on 1 November 1921 in the Berlin Lustspielhaus, directed by Heinz Saltenburg. Tiedtke died a few days after his 85th birthday on 30 June 1960 in his cottage in Berlin-Kladow. He had suddenly lapsed into a deep unconsciousness from which he never awoke. He was laid to rest at the Berlin cemetery Heerstraße. He left behind his wife Hanna ("Hanny") (1902-1984), who was later buried at her husband's side. As the newspaper Der Zeit wrote, in his house, "Upstairs, in the Salong with a view of the Havel, Mrs. Hanna held coffee chatter, his charming, much younger wife with her at once distinguished and sedate Baltic accent, who served her husband, as he said, as 'Souffleuse and Schofföse', because he memorised his roles with her and because she drove him to the theatre in Berlin". Tiedtke's written estate is at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. He called his memoirs written in 1951, which were never published, 'Aufrichtigkeiten eines ermüdeten Lügners' (Sincerities of a Tired Liar).

Sources: Stephanie d'Heil (Steffi-Line.de - German), Wikipedia (German), IMDb and Filmportal.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 8865. Photo Zander & Labisch. Albert Bassermann in the title role in the stage play Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Goethe. Lina Lossen plays Klärchen. The version of the play with Egmont was first performed at the Deutsches Künstler-Theater Berlin, 1915, but would be reprised with Bassermann in the 1920s in Vienna, Munich and Leipzig.

Albert Bassermann (1867–1952) was one of the first great German stage actors who worked for the cinema. In 1933 he fled the Nazi regime and became an Oscar nominated stage and film actor in the US.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3076, Photo: Stuart-Webbs-Films / Zander und Labisch.

Ernst Reicher (1885-1936) was a German stage and screen actor, director, screenwriter, and producer, famous for his Stuart Webbs detective films.

Ernst Reicher, born 19 September 1885 in Berlin, was the son of actor Emanuel Reicher (1849-1924). He attended the Landerziehungsheim Dr. Lietz in Ilsenburg, a boarding school on a pedagogical reform base, deliberately situated in the countryside. Afterward, Reicher attended the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin, led by his father. After further training in Italy and London, he debuted in 1909 at the Munich Kammerspiele. In 1910 he played in Rixdorf, in 1911 at the Neues Theater in Frankfurt, and in 1912 in Berlin, he debuted in film. Here he met director Joe May under whose direction he acted with his father in Heimat und Fremde (1913) and thus became known. Shortly thereafter, he played in the musician's biopic Richard Wagner (Carl Froehlich 1913) the part of King Ludwig II. Of Bavaria. Reicher's own directorial debut was in the 1913 film Das Werk. End of 1913 Ernst Reicher invented the character of detective Stuart Webbs. In this role he stood before the camera for twelve years and established in the German area the genre of the detective film, starting with Der geheimnisvolle Villa (Joe May, Continental Kunstfilm 1914), which had sets by future director Paul Leni. The most popular of the Stuart Webbs films at Continental was Das Panzergewölbe (Joe May, 1914), of which Lupu Pick made a remake starring Reicher in 1926. Co-actors of Reicher in those years were e.g. Max Landa, Lupu Pick, and Werner Krauss. After arguing with the Continental Art Film GmbH, Reicher and May formed their own production company in 1914 called "Stuart Webbs Film Company" and opened a studio at Berlin Weissensee. Already in 1915 May withdrew and launched his own Joe Deebs detective series with the lead Max Landa and later on Harry Liedtke.

Stuart Webbs was a gentleman-detective based on the model of Sherlock Holmes, who smartly and elegantly solved even the most difficult cases. Throughout the First World War, this fictional character was popular with German audiences. Only from 1918 Reicher turned to other topics. His most elaborate production was the epic film Das Buch Esther (Uwe Jenns Kraft, Ernst Reicher) 1919), with Stella Harf as the tile role and himself as King Ahasverus. Harf had the female lead in several of Reicher’s late 1910s films. On April 1, 1919, Reicher moved the seat of his film company to Munich. At the beginning of the twenties he suffered a serious car accident in which he had a skull fracture and a spinal fracture, causing a gap in his career between 1921 and 1923. Reicher continued to produce films with his own company till 1923 (and occasionally afterward). Apart from the gap in 1922 he steadily continued his screen acting until 1931, so the early years of German sound film. In the mid-1920s he acted in his last Stuart Webbs movies, now shot at the Munich Emelka studios and often directed by Max Obal. By the end of the decade - and the dawn of German sound cinema - Reicher's star descended. In the early 1930s, he had only small parts, his last German part being a minister in Rasputin (Adolph Trotz, 1931/1932) starring Conrad Veidt. After the Nazis took over, the Jew Reicher emigrated to Prague in 1933, where he fell into oblivion. His last, tiny role in the remake Le Golem (Julien Duvivier, 1936) was cut from the final version. On 1 May 1936, he was found dead in a Prague hotel room, "in a small narrow little room, located in a road that was far from the stages of glory". In the twenties, he was married to actress Stella Harf. His half-brother Frank Reicher (1875-1965) and his sister Hedwiga Reicher (1884-1971) have also worked as an actor.

Sources: Filmportal.de, Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-Online - German), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. 2296. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.

Sybil Smolowa or Sibyl Smolová (actually Anna Marie Josefa Smolová; * 17 September 1886 in Chlumetz an der Cidlina, Austria-Hungary; † 6 July 1972 in Prague, Czechoslovakia) was an Austrian-Czech theatre and film actress.

Among her films were I mörkrets bojor/In the Fetters of Darkness (Georg af Klercker, 1917), Im Schatten des Glücks/In the shadow of happiness (Robert Leffler, 1919), and in ther two-partner Kinder der Finsternis/Children of Darkness (Ewald André Dupont, 1922) with Grit Hegesa and Hans Mierendorff. Her final film was Anna und Elisabeth/Anna and Elisabeth (Frank Wisbar, 1933) with Dorothea Wieck and Hertha Thiele.

Source: IMDb.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser. Berlin-Wilm., no. 436. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Austrian-born stage actress Mady Christians (1892-1951) was a star of the German silent cinema and appeared in Austrian, French, British and Hollywood films too.

For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 337/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Zander & Labisch.

Ernst Lubitsch (1892-1947) was a German-American actor, screenwriter, producer, and film director. His urbane comedies of manners gave him the reputation of being Hollywood's most elegant and sophisticated director; as his prestige grew, his films were promoted as having ‘the Lubitsch touch.’ He was nominated three times for the Oscar for Best Director and in 1947, he received an Honorary Academy Award.

Ossi Oswalda (1895-1947) was one of the most popular comediennes of the German silent cinema.

For more postcards, a bio and clips check out our blog European Film Star Postcards or follow us at Tumblr or Pinterest.

German postcard by NPG, no. 941. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin.

Else Eckersberg (1895-1989) was an actress in Max Reinhardt's theatre. She also had a film career in German silent film in the 1910s.

Else Eckersberg was born in 1895 in Berlin as the daughter of Paul Eckersberg and Antonie, née Tessel. After the early death of her father, she grew up with her grandparents and in the boarding school of the Ursulines. In her first marriage, Else Eckersberg married the lawyer Walther Eitzen in 1913. After her divorce in 1918, she married Philipp Freiherr Schey von Koromla in Berlin in 1921, from whom she divorced in 1935. In her third marriage, she married Paul Graf Yorck von Wartenburg in 1940 in Berlin. Her only child was Alexander (1927-2012) from her second marriage, who was adopted by his stepfather in 1950. After completing her secondary education, Else Eckersberg entered the acting school of the Deutsches Theater under the direction of Max Reinhardt at the age of 15. After two years of training, she was the only girl accepted for further training alongside Gert Fricke, Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, Ernst Waldow, Ernst Lubitsch and Ernst Hofmann. In a private performance of Wedekind's 'Death and the Devil', Else was discovered in 1912 in the role of the strumpet Lisiska and engaged by Reinhardt as the youngest member of his ensemble. On 31 August 1912, she made her debut at the Deutsches Theater as Klugheit in Goethe's 'Faust II'. Under Reinhardt's direction, she also ventured an early foray into silent film, shooting Eine Venezianische Nacht in the spring of 1913.

German Wikipedia downplays Else Eckersberg's film career but she still played in 20 films between 1914 and 1921. In 1914 she started at Union / PAGU, in a range of 9 comedies of 1914-1915 in which she was paired with Ernst Matray, and in which at times also e.g. Anna Müller-Lincke and Senta Söneland performed. These were mostly directed by Richard Löwenbein, e.g. Die Erbtante (1914), Eine Lausbubengeschichte (1915), and Die bösen Buben (1915). In 1916 she created her own comedy series at Greenbaum-Film with the character Else, e.g. Elses letzter Hauslehrer (Paul Otto, 1917), Else als Detektiv (Louis Neher, 1917), and Else und ihr Vetter (Louis Neher, 1917). After an absence from the sets, Eckersberg returned in 1920-1921 for three more Else-comedies (Else, der Räuberbraut, 1920; Else, die Tochter der Exzellenz, 1920; Prinzesschen Else, 1921), now directed by Rudi Bach at Althoff & Co.. She also played supporting parts in Die Brüder Karamasoff (Carl Froehlich, Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1920) and Lupu Pick's Der Dummkopf (1921). After 1921 Eckersberg worked almost exclusively at the theatre where she shone mainly in glamorous, slightly capricious, fun-loving and humorous roles of women and girls. After a guest performance in operetta, Else Eckersberg's breakthrough came in 1920 in the role of Cleopatra in Shaw's play 'Caesar and Cleopatra'. Numerous engagements at theatres in Berlin and Vienna followed. With Reinhardt's departure from Berlin, Else Eckersberg also left the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in 1921 and played mainly comedies at various entertainment theatres in the following years. In 1924 she again enjoyed great success as Dodo in Hopwood's 'Unsere kleine Frau' at Reinhardt's Kammerspiele and as Antoinette Hechingen in Hofmannsthal's 'Der Schwierige' at Vienna's Theater in der Josefstadt. In the early 1930s, Eckersberg's roles as Antoinette in Hofmannsthal's 'Der Schwierige', Christina in Bourdet's 'Das schwache Geschlecht' and Amanda in Coward's 'Intimitäten' (Intimacies) earned her acclaim from Berlin theatre critics as a female comedienne of the first rank, a ravishing clown and witty parodist.

In 1932, Else Eckersberg starred alongside Hans Brausewetter in her self-written play 'Three Years and a Night', which was staged by Eugen Robert, the director of the Berlin Tribüne under the title Stichwort Feldena. After the National Socialists seized power, Else Eckersberg withdrew more and more from the stage. The actually apolitical actress suffered from the fate of her Jewish colleagues and friends. In 1934 she played Coward's 'Intimacies' again under Otto Falckenberg at the Munich Kammerspiele, in 1935 under Heinz Hilpert in Hauptmann's 'Griselda' and under Gründgens, she played the Queen in Scribe's 'The Glass of Water'. On the occasion of Gerhart Hauptmann's 80th birthday, Eckersberg, a close friend of the poet, recited 'Hannele's Ascension' for the first time. She performed this play several times after the Second World War and showed all her acting skills in the nuanced portrayal of the various characters. In 1944, Else Eckersberg was arrested as the sister-in-law of Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg, who took part in the assassination attempt of 20 July and was kept in solitary confinement for two months. In 1958, Else Eckersberg published her memoirs under the title 'Diese volle Zeit' (This Full Time), in which she once again illuminated the lost glory of the era of Berlin theatre before the Second World War. In the following years, she lived in Lyon and Bucharest due to her husband's diplomatic activities and after his retirement in Neureichenau, where she died in 1989. She was buried in Jagsthausen in the tomb of the Barons of Berlichingen, ancestors of her husband on his mother's side.

Sources: Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

Vintage German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, No. 9583. Photo by Zander & Labisch, Berlin. Lucie Höflich in the play Rose Bernd (1916) by Gerhart Hauptmann. In later years, Henny Porten acted in the film adaptation of the play.

Lucie Höflich, born Helene Lucie von Holwede, (* 20 February 1883 in Hanover; † 9 October 1956 in Berlin) was a German actress.

Her mother was Dora von Holwede (1863-1937) and her stepfather and adoptive father was Georg Höflich, an actor and director at the Berlin Schauspielhaus. Lucie Höflich began her long theatre career at the age of 16 at the Stadttheater in Bromberg and joined the Intime Theater in Nuremberg in 1901 and the Raimundtheater in Vienna the following year. In 1903, she made her debut with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. She remained there, with a few interruptions, until 1932. During this time, she was particularly convincing in Gerhart Hauptmann's naturalistic plays such as Rose Bernd and Henrik Ibsen's Nora. She also achieved general acclaim as Franziska in Minna von Barnhelm and Gretchen in Faust.

Höflich's film career began in 1913 and although she never dominated the screen as she did in the theatre, she was seen in many important supporting roles over the decades. In her first film, the Deutsche Bioscop production Gendarm Möbius (Stellan Rye, 1913), she already had the female lead opposite George Molenar. Yet, it was only after the First World War that her film career set off in films by Max Mack (Freie Liebe, 1919), Reinhold Schünzel (Maria Magdalene, 1920), Carl Wilhelm (Der langsame Tod. Die nach Liebe schmachten, 1920), and others. She played the title role in Schünzel's Katharina die Große (1920), opposite Schünzel as czar Peter III. Other major parts she had as Frau John In Die Ratten (Hanns Kobe, 1921), starring Emil Jannings, as the belligerent Duchess of Marlborough in Ludwig Berger's Ein Glas Wasser (1922-23), starring Mady Christians, as the wife of Eugen Klöpfer in Götz von Berlichingen (Hubert Moest, 1925), as the wife of Kurt Gerron in Manege (Max Reichmann, 1927-28), and as Mutter Wolff in the Hauptmann adaptation Der Biberpelz (Erich Schönfelder, 1928).

Yet, gradually, Höflich mostly played (step-)mothers, and this not only during the 1920s, e.g. the stepmother in the Cinderella variation Der verlorene Schuh (Ludwig Berger, 1923), but particularly in the German sound cinema of the 1930s and 1940s. including the Hans Albers vehicles Der weiße Dämon (Kurt Gerron, 1932) and Peer Gynt (Fritz Wendhausen, 1934), Manege (1937) by Carmine Gallone, Der Berg ruft (1937) by Luis Trenker, the two propaganda films Der Fuchs von Glenarvon/ The Fox of Glenarvon (Max W. Kimmich, 1939-40) and Ohm Krüger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941), and the postwar film Himmel ohne Sterne (Helmut Käutner), her penultimate film.

In 1933, Höflich left the Deutsches Theater for political reasons and took over the management of the Staatliche Schauspielschule Berlin. From 1936, she ran her own studio for young actors at the Berlin Volksbühne. During the National Socialist era, she was awarded the title of state actress in 1937 and continued to give guest performances as an actress until 1940, particularly at the Volksbühne and the Schillertheater. In 1944, she was on the list of those honoured by the Reich Ministry for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. After the war, she succeeded Werner Bernhardy as director of the Staatstheater Schwerin from 1947/1948 to 1950, after which she again appeared on West Berlin stages, including the Hebbel-Theater, the Schlosspark-Theater and the Schillertheater. She was a member of the 1st People's Council of the Soviet Occupation Zone.

Lucie Höflich was married to the art historian Anton Mayer from 1910 until their divorce in 1917, From this marriage came the actress Ursula Höflich (born 6 October 1911 in Berlin). She was then briefly, from 9 August 1921 to 13 June 1922, the wife of actor Emil Jannings. In April 1956, Höflich suffered a serious heart attack in Iserlohn during a guest performance at the Schlossparktheater, from which she recovered. She died in 1956 at the age of 73 in her Berlin flat and was buried at Berlin's Dahlem Cemetery. She was honoured posthumously in 1957 with the German Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as Mrs Bäumle in the feature film Anastasia, die letzte Zarentochter/ Anastasia, the Last Daughter of the Tsar (Falk Harnack, 1956), starring Lilli Palmer. It was Lucie Höflich's last film performance.

Sources: German and English Wikipedia, IMDb.

German postcard by NPG, no. 1068. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin.

Little is known about German actress Lu L'Arronge. While IMDB lists just one film: Anna Karenina (Friedrich Zelnik 1919), a film in which she only had a minor part, www.filmportal.de indicates that she formed her own company in 1919 to star in her own film Die weisse Maus, which was directed by Leonhard Haskel, and that she also played the lead in Die Geisterbraut (1919), directed by Herbert Gerdes. The latter film was produced by Georg Alexander's company Neue Berliner Film. Thomas Schaedeli indicates that after she did two smaller parts, she had leading roles in various films, but Filmportal.de suggests there were only two, both in 1919. Lu L'Arronge was a niece of stage writer Adolf L'Arronge (1838-1908), her father's cousin. NB Arronge is a variant for the Jewish names Aaron, Arons and Aronsohn.

Sources: www.filmportal.de, IMDB, www.cyranos.ch/smarro-e.htm

1909 - Dalibor by Bedřich Smetana.

Emmy Destinn 1878 - 1930] as Milada and Ernst Kraus [1863 - 1941] as Dalibor.

German postcard by Ross verlag, no. 298/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Zander & Labisch / Hella Moja Film.

During the First World War and the following years Hella Moja (1890-1951) was one of the most popular stars of the German silent cinema. There was even a Hella Moja serial and in 1918 she founded her own film company.

German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 1801A. Photo: Atelier (Albert) Zander & (Siegmund) Labisch, Berlin. M. Heinrich, Albert Bassermann and Theodor Loos in the play 'Die gutgeschnittene Ecke' by Hermann Sudermann.

Albert Bassermann (1867–1952) was one of the first great German stage actors who worked for the cinema. In 1933 he fled the Nazi regime and became an Oscar-nominated stage and film actor in the US.

Theodor Loos (1883-1954) was a German stage and screen actor between the 1910s and the 1950s. He became famous for his parts in Fritz Lang’s German films.

The photographers Albert Zander (life data unknown) and Siegmund Labisch (1863-1942) founded the first press photo agency in Germany in 1895, which existed until 1939. Labisch was deported to Theresienstadt as a Jew in 1942, where he died.

And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard by NPG, no. 1419. Photo: Zander & Labisch, Berlin.

Senta Söneland (1882-1933) was a German actress whose peaks in her film career were in the later 1910s and the early 1930s.

This weekend we visited the International Collectors Fair in Utrecht. The whole week we will post some of our new acquisitions.

On 7 May, Senta Söneland will be the subject of a post at European Film Star Postcards.

German postcard. Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, No. 1711. Photo Zander & Labisch. Albert Bassermann in the Henrik Ibsen play Baumeister Solness.

Albert Bassermann (1867–1952) was one of the first great German stage actors who worked for the cinema. In 1933 he fled the Nazi regime and became an Oscar nominated stage and film actor in the US.