Dutch postcard, no. 521. Photo: City Film. Hans Albers in 'Heut' kommt's drauf an'/Today it depends (Kurt Gerron, 1933).

Jovial, pleasantly plump Hans Albers (1891-1960) was a superstar of German cinema between 1930 and 1945. He was also one of the most popular German singers of the twentieth century. His song 'Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins' (On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight) is the unofficial anthem of Hamburg’s neighbourhood of St. Pauli, famous for its brothels, music and nightclubs.

Hans Philipp August Albers was born in the North German port city of Hamburg in 1891. He was the son of a butcher and grew up in the Hamburg district of St. Georg. He was seriously interested in acting by his late teens and took acting classes without the knowledge of his parents. He debuted as a stage actor in Bad Schwandau, followed by engagements in Frankfurt, Güstrow, Cologne and Hamburg. His first film part was in Jahreszeiten des Lebens/Seasons of Life (Franz Hofer, 1915). Albers interrupted his career to serve in World War I, where he was badly wounded. After the war ‘der blonde Hans’ started as a comedic actor in various Berlin theatres. He appeared on-stage to great acclaim with Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater. Albers' breakthrough performance was that of a waiter in Ferdinand Bruckner's play Verbrecher (Criminals). His film roles ranged from Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1924) to the title character in Rasputins Liebesabenteuer/Rasputin (Martin Berger, 1928). In Weimar Berlin, he began a relationship with half-Jewish actress Hansi Burg in 1925. She was the daughter of his acting teacher Eugen Burg. In 1944 Eugen Burg would be killed in the concentration camp Theresienstadt. Albers stopped working in theatre to distance himself from the Hitler regime, but the Nazis forced him in 1935 to end his relationship with Hansi Burg, who in 1938 emigrated to England via Switzerland. They secretly remained a couple with him even managing to send her financial support. Burg returned to Germany and Albers in 1946. Hans and Hansi would live together until his death in 1960.

After roles in over one hundred silent films, Hans Albers starred in the first German talkie, the romance Die Nacht gehört uns/The Night Belongs to Us (Carl Froelich, 1929) with Charlotte Ander. He then played big-mouthed strong man Mazeppa alongside Emil Jannings and Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930), the film which made Dietrich an international star. Albers himself shot to fame with Der Greifer/The Snatcher (Richard Eichberg, 1930) about three crooks who are planning a jewel robbery. Albers enhanced his star status with similar daredevil roles in the 1930s. He was probably at his best when teamed up with Heinz Rühmann, as in Bomben auf Monte Carlo/Bombs Over Monte Carlo (Hanns Schwarz, 1931) and Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war/The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (Karl Hartl, 1937). In the latter film Albers and Rühmann play two confidence tricksters who pretend to be the famous duo Holmes & Dr. Watson and the police, gangsters and girls believe them beyond any doubt. Another success was the comedy Quick (Robert Siodmak, 1932) in which he played a clown opposite Lilian Harvey.

Many of Hans Albers' songs from his films became huge hits and some even remain popular to this day. While Albers himself never supported the Nazi regime, he became the most popular actor of the Third Reich. Albers was paid a huge sum of money to star in Ufa's big-budgeted anniversary picture Münchhausen/The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (Josef von Baky, 1943) but was always careful not to give the impression that he was endorsing the National Socialist regime. Joseph Goebbels, Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany had commissioned this lavish production as a commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Ufa, the government-run German film association. More importantly, it was also to be a rival of the great fantasy films which had come from the Allied nations, such as The Wizard of Oz (Victor Fleming, 1939) and The Thief of Bagdad (Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan, 1940). On IMDb, Ron Oliver writes: "In that, it succeeds brilliantly and needs no comparison to any other film." In 1943 Albers also starred in another classic, Große Freiheit Nr. 7/Great Freedom No. 7 (Helmut Käutner, 1943) with Ilse Werner. The film was banned by the censorship of the Third Reich because the story was considered too 'anti-heroic' and demoralizing how German sailors and women were portrayed. The film could only be shown outside Germany. IMDb reviewer Jan Onderwater comments: "From directing till script, from acting till (Agfa colour) photography this is a brilliant film, with everyone involved giving the best of their talents. What we see is a compelling drama, well balanced, psychologically well conceived and at the same time a film that is great fun to watch over and over again. In this film, there are only people and their lives who are not up to standard Nazi definition."

After World War II, Hans Albers matured into character parts to some public and critical acclaim, but he never again enjoyed the huge stardom of the 1930s and early 1940s. One of his better roles of this period was an ageing industry tycoon in Vor Sonnenuntergang/Before Sundown (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1956), which won the Golden Globe as Best Foreign Film of the Year. On IMDb reviewer Diger Jantzen notes: "Hans Albers' performance is heartbreaking from the start until the end and it is clearly one of his best serious performances ever." Albers' final film was the crime comedy Kein Engel ist so rein/No Angel Is That Pure (Wolfgang Becker, 1960) with Sabine Sinjen. Today he is probably more known for his music than his films, and his music is still widely-known in modern Germany, even among young people. Many of Albers' songs were humorous tales of drunken, womanizing sailors on shore leave, with double entendres such as "It hurts the first time, but with time, you get used to it" in reference to a girl falling in love for the first time. Albers' songs were often peppered with expressions in Low German, which is spoken in Northern Germany. His most famous song is by far 'Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins' (On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight) which has become the unofficial anthem of the colourful neighbourhood of St. Pauli. The Hans-Albers-Platz, one block south of the Reeperbahn, has a statue of Albers, by the German artist Jörg Immendorff. Outside of Northern Europe, however, Albers remains virtually unknown, although the image of an older man in a seaman's cap and raincoat playing accordion and singing may be recognised by many outside of Germany, even if they don't know that this image is based on Hans Albers. As a case in point, McDonald's used such an image in an American television ad campaign in 1986. In reality, Albers had no experience on the water, this being restricted to a one-day trip to Helgoland. Hans Albers died in Kempfenhausen, Bavaria, in 1960. After his death, the Wilhelmplatz, a square in St. Pauli, was named after him. In 1989, Hans Albers was the subject of a biographical docudrama, 'In Meinem Hertzen Schatz' (In My Heart's Treasure.)

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

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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3229/1, 1928-1929. Photo: M. von Bucovich (Atelier K. Schenker). Collection: Marlene Pilaete.

German actor Kurt Gerron (1897-1944) starred on stage in the original version of Bert Brecht's and Kurt Weill's Dreigroschen Oper as Tiger Brown. He also participated in the very successful films Die Drei von der Tankstelle and Der Blaue Engel. The Ufa offered him to work as a director, but in 1933, he was forced by the Nazis to leave the Ufa. He left Germany and worked as a director in the Netherlands. In 1943 he was sent to a concentration camp and was forced to direct the propaganda-pseudo-documentary Der Fuehrer schenkt den Juden eine Stadt (1944). After that, he was murdered in Auschwitz.

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German collectors card. Photo: Super film. Kurt Gerron and Marlene Dietrich in Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930).

Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992) is regarded as the first German actress to become successful in Hollywood. Throughout her long career, she constantly re-invented herself, starting as a cabaret singer, chorus girl, and film actress in 1920s Berlin, she became a Hollywood movie star in the 1930s, a World War II frontline entertainer, and finally an international stage show performer from the 1950s to the 1970s, eventually becoming one of the entertainment icons of the 20th century.

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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 163/5, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Hans Albers in Der weiße Dämon/The White Demon (Kurt Gerron, 1932).

Plot: Consul Gorre (Alfred Abel) is the head of an international gang of drug smugglers that also includes the morphine-addicted theatre director Urussev (Raoul Aslan), the Marquis d'Esquillon (Hubert von Meyerinck), section chief of the gang in Paris, and a man known only as "the Hunchback" (Peter Lorre) who is responsible for importing the narcotics from overseas. The gang of criminals travels under the guise of an internationally performing touring theatre troupe, joined as a leading lady by the young artist Gerda Gildemeister (Gerda Maurus). Gerda's brother is the "Hamburg boy" Heini Gildemeister (Hans Albers) who, after years of absence spent in South America, finally returns to his hometown by ship. On this journey home, he rescues Gorres' son after he had fallen overboard.

Back home, Heini makes a terrible discovery: Sister Gerda is only a wreck, very weak and ailing in body, mind and soul. Years of morphine abuse have taken their toll on her. She has become completely dependent and can hardly get back on her feet without this drug, also called the "white demon". Heini discovers a corresponding syringe in the pocket of Dora (Trude von Molo), a friend of Gerda's, and receives confirmation from the theatre doctor that his sister has become a dependent morphine addict through years of drug use. Heini immediately takes her to the nearest hospital. But since Gerda is supposed to travel to Paris the next day as part of a tour, the gang members are immediately on the scene and get her out of the hospital. They force Gerda to call her brother and summon him to a meeting in a pub that has a reputation as a drug bar.

When Heini appears there, the gang tries to overpower the "troublemaker", but the whole bloke of a man manages to free himself and now takes up the pursuit of the gang on his own, as the police who were informed earlier are of no real help. Heini is determined to prevent Gerda from staying in the custody of the unscrupulous dealers even one day longer. But Heini fails in this, because Gerda goes to the French capital for a singing performance with the theatre troupe, where she is held in the Marquis' house. The Marquis explains to Heini that Gerda (delirious with fever, as it turns out) has forged a bill of exchange - in the hope that Heini will finally give in so as not to let his sister go to prison. Consul Gorre, who has been in Heini's debt ever since his son was rescued on the overseas steamer, helps him to free Gerda so that Heini can immediately take her to a sanatorium. But Heini still does not know who the ostensible ally really is.

Heini Gildemeister does not let up and follows the gang of criminals. In Lisbon he manages to get "the hunchback" arrested, while Urusev, who betrayed his buddies, is shot. On the flight home with Dora and Gorre, Heini now also exposes the ominous consul as the head of the gang. With suicidal intent, he then throws himself into the Atlantic. Heini and Gerda's artist colleague Dora, with whom he has become friends in the meantime, return to Hamburg as friends for life.

Hans Albers (1891–1960) was a superstar of the German cinema between 1930 and 1945. He already had a rich career in silent film, often playing the suave crook, as in the crime and adventure films with Luciano Albertini. He was also one of the most popular German singers of the twentieth century. His song Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight) is the unofficial anthem of Hamburg’s neighbourhood of St. Pauli, famous for its brothels, music and night clubs.

Tags:   Hans Albers Der weiße Dämon The White Demon 1932 UFA Kurt Gerron drugs German Germany Ross Verlag DEutsch Deutschland Darsteller SChauspieler Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Card Carte Postale Celebrity Costume Film Film Star Movies Movie Movie Star Screen Star sound Sonore Sonoro Tonfilm 1930s morphine addiction crime gang traffic trafic

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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 613/3, 1932-1933. Photo: Ufa. Hans Albers and Gerda Maurus in Der weiße Dämon/Dope (Kurt Gerron, 1932).

Hans Albers (1891–1960) was a superstar of German cinema between 1930 and 1945. He already had a rich career in silent film, often playing the suave crook, as in the crime and adventure films with Luciano Albertini. He was also one of the most popular German singers of the twentieth century. His song Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (On the Reeperbahn at half past midnight) is the unofficial anthem of Hamburg’s neighbourhood of St. Pauli, famous for its brothels, music and night clubs.

Tags:   Hans Albers Der weiße Dämon The White Demon 1932 UFA Kurt Gerron drugs German Germany Ross Verlag DEutsch Deutschland Darsteller SChauspieler Cinema Carte Cartolina Cine Card Carte Postale Celebrity Costume Film Film Star Movies Movie Movie Star Screen Star sound Sonore Sonoro Tonfilm 1930s Gerda Maurus actress actrice attrice Darstellerin

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