German photocard for the album 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst 'by Ross Verlag, no. 101. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Werner Krauss in the classic German Kammerspiel film Scherben/Shattered (Lupu Pick, 1921). The woman is Edith Posca, who plays the daughter.
German stage and film actor Werner Krauss (1884-1959) became a worldwide sensation as the demonic Dr. Caligari in the classic of the German expressionist cinema, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). He appeared in several silent masterpieces, but his magnificent film career was later overshadowed by his appearance in one of the most notorious propaganda films of the Third Reich.
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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 115/1. Photo: D.L.S. (Deutsche Licht-Spiele). Werner Krauss in Napoleon auf St. Helena/Napoleon at St. Helena (Lupu Pick, 1929).
German stage and film actor Werner Krauss (1884-1959) became a worldwide sensation as the demonic Dr. Caligari in the classic of the German expressionist cinema, Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). He appeared in several silent masterpieces, but his magnificent film career was later overshadowed by his appearance in one of the most notorious propaganda films of the Third Reich.
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German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 115/2. Photo: D.L.S. Werner Krauss in Napoleon auf St. Helena/Napoleon at St. Helena (Lupu Pick, 1929). The outfit of Krauss is that of Goethe in the famous painting Goethe in the Campagna (1787) by Tischbein.
German stage and film actor Werner Krauss (1884-1959) became a worldwide sensation as the demonic Dr. Caligari in the classic of the German expressionist cinema, Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). He appeared in several silent masterpieces, but his magnificent film career was later overshadowed by his appearance in one of the most notorious propaganda films of the Third Reich.
Werner Johannes Krauss (Krauß in German) was born in Gestungshausen, Germany, in 1884. He was the son of a clergyman. He ran away from home and joined a travelling theatre company. In Berlin he became a film actor. Among his first films were Die Pagode/The Pagoda (1914, Joe May), Nächte des Grauens/A Night of Horror (1916, Richard Oswald, Arthur Robison) with Emil Jannings, Hoffmanns Erzählungen/Tales of Hoffmann (1916, Richard Oswald) and Opium (1919, Robert Reinert) with Conrad Veidt. In 1916, he met the noted theatre director Max Reinhardt And went to work for him. Krauss had been trained to do exaggerated gestures for the stage, and the German expressionist cinema was but a short stylistic step further for him. In 1919, he became a worldwide sensation for his demonic portrayal of Dr. Caligari in Robert Wiene's Das Kabinett des Dr. Caligari/The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919). Dr. Caligari is a a sinister hypnotist who travels the carnival circuit displaying a somnambulist named Cesare (Conrad Veidt). In one tiny German town, a series of murders coincides with Caligari's visit. Krauss was just 35 at the time he appeared in the film, but his heavy makeup made him seem older. Doug Tomlinson at Film Reference: “In The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari Krauss epitomizes the German Expressionist performance aesthetic which would dominate the next decade: an obvious external expression of interiority. Throughout the central part of the film, Krauss hobbles through nightmare sets, his crippled walk an expression of a crippled mind, his dark and menacing facial and body makeup of the rot within, his sparse and erratic white hair of his overall decrepitude. His posture, rounded inward to symbolize mystery and enclosure, refuses the spectator any sympathetic identification. At the film's end, when Caligari is shown to be the head of an asylum and the film the rantings of an inmate, Krauss expressionistically softens all aspects of posture and characterization to appear the epitome of benevolence. “ Krauss’ heavy, declamatory technique was perfect for such roles as Bottom in Ein Sommernachtstraum/A Midsummer Night's Dream (1924, Hans Neumann) and Jack the Ripper in Das Wachsfigurenkabinett/The Wax Works (1924, Paul Leni) opposite Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt. He also played Iago in a 1922 adaptation of William Shakespeare's Othello (1922, Dimitri Buchowetzki). Hal Erickson writes: “Even without the benefit of sound, the 1922 German adaptation of Othello seems more operatic than Shakespearean. This may be due to the casting of Emil Jannings, to whom restraint and subtlety were strangers. Werner Krauss, of Cabinet of Dr. Caligari fame, is on hand as the duplicitous Iago. Appearing as the unfortunate Desdemona is Lea Von Lenkeffy, better known as Lya de Putti. Produced on an elaborate scale, Othello may not be true to the letter of Shakespeare, but is undeniably a smorgasbord of visual delights.” Krauss was again prominently featured in such silent masterpieces as Varieté/Jealousy (1925, Ewald André Dupont), Herr Tartüff/Tartuffe (1925, F.W. Murnau) based on the Mollière play, and Der Student von Prag/The Man Who Cheated Life (1926, Henrik Galeen). He also worked internationally. In France he appeared as the obsessed Count Muffat in Jean Renoir's version of Emile Zola's Nana (1926). Totally submissive to the demands of the exploitative Nana, he ultimately disgraces himself by barking, sitting, rolling over, and playing dead like a dog. His utterly degraded character is reflected in his lumpish posture. By 1926, Krauss had worked with F. W. Murnau, G. W. Pabst, Lupu Pick, E. A. Dupont, Richard Oswald, Paul Leni, and Jean Renoir. He was the leading German film actor of his time, but his obsessed and evil characters had become a cliché.
When Adolf Hitler came to power, Werner Krauss clutched the Nazi ideology firmly to his bosom. He only incidentally played in films such as the charming Burgtheater/Burg Theatre (1936, Willi Forst) with Olga Tschechowa. He was made an Actor of the State by Joseph Goebbels, and subsequently played the roles of two stereotypical Jewish characters – Rabbi Loew and Sekretar Levy – in Veit Harlan's notoriously antisemitic Jud Süß (1940) ), a film ordered by the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels. Hal Erickson writes in his review of the film: “Leon Feuchtwangler's novel Jud Süss was originally about a powerful ghetto businessman who believes himself to be a Jew. Süss's ruthless business practices result in the betrayal of an innocent girl, for which he is arrested and sentenced to be hanged under the anti-Jewish laws of the 18th century. While he waits to be executed, Süss discovers he is not Jewish. Rather than turn his back on the people of the ghetto with whom he'd grown up, Süss courageously refuses to declare his "Aryan" status, even though it means he will die on the gallows. The Feuchtwangler book was designed in roundabout fashion to strike a blow against anti-Semitism. But when Jud Süss was filmed in Germany at the behest of Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels in 1940, its original message was twisted and perverted into an argument in favor of "ethnic cleansing." As played by Werner Krauss, Süss is not only genuinely Jewish, but also an amalgam of every vicious caricature ever concocted by the anti-Semitic propagandists of the past two centuries. With hooked nose and greasy beard, Krauss portrays Süss as a whining, wheedling, hand-wringing subhuman rapist.” Krauss also played Shylock in an extreme production of The Merchant of Venice staged at Vienna's Burgtheater in 1943. After World War II, all associated with Jud Süss were plagued with recriminations for their participation, which drove Krauss out of the country for more than three years. Leading German democrats registered emphatic opposition to public appearances by him. In June of 1954, one of West Germany's highest decorations was ceremoniously conferred on him by West Berlin's cultural and education chief. The actor appeared in only three more films before his death. His final film was the Heimatfilm Sohn Ohne Heimat/Son Hoemland (1955, Hans Deppe). Werner Krauss died in relative obscurity in Vienna, Austria in 1959. He was married to Marie Bard who died in 1944.
Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie), Doug Tomlinson (Film Reference), katzizkidz (Find A Grave), Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
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Hungarian postcard by City fotóipar soksz, Budapest. Photo: Rex Film / Royal Film, Budapest. Johannes Riemann, Edith Posca and Rudolph Klein-Rohden in Tötet nicht mehr/Don't kill any more (Lupu Pick, 1919).
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. From 1934 on he also wrote screenplays and directed films. In 1939 he was named Actor of the State in Nazi-Germany and in 1944 he even performed for the staff of concentration camp Auschwitz.
Eugen Johannes Riemann was born in Berlin in 1888. He grew up under modest circumstances after his father's death when Johannes was only 7 months old. The boy aspired to a career as an oratory singer after he was accepted as a teenager at Berlin's Hof- und Domchor. With the choir, Johannes performed several times for the Kaiser’s family, but after his vocal change, a teacher recommended that he should turn to acting. He took acting lessons with Anna von Strantz-Führing and with Alexander Strakosch. In 1908 the 20-year-old Riemann made his debut at the Hebbel-Theater in Berlin. Next stations in his theatrical career were provincial theatres in Teplitz, Meran and Marienbad, the Volksbühne in Berlin in 1911, and the Hoftheater in Weimar in 1912. In 1916, Max Reinhardt brought him back to Berlin and made him a cast member of the Deutsches Theater. At the same time, he met film star Henny Porten who after a theatre performance helped him to land his first role in a film at her side in Gelöste Ketten/Loosed Chains (Rudolf Biebrach, 1916). He soon appeared again with the Superstar of the early silent cinema in Die Faust des Riesen/The Giant’s Fist (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).
The emphasis of Johannes Riemann’s film career lies between 1916 and 1943. Among his early silent films were the three-parter Ahasver (Robert Reinert, 1917), Schloß Einöd/The Einöd Castle (Erik Lund, 1919), and Irrlicht/Ghost Light (Erik Lund, 1919). He became known to a wider audience with his performance in the elaborate three-part history film Veritas Vincit (Joe May, 1919). In the film, he co-starred alongside director Joe May's wife Mia May in three different roles in three episodes: one situated in the Roman times, one in the Middle Ages, and one in the 20th Century. From then on, Riemann became a sought-after actor who till 1926 starred in four to ten films a year often as a charming gentleman. In the early 1920s, he repeatedly worked with director Friedrich Zelnik, for instance, for Anna Karenina (1920) as count Wronski. But he also starred in films by Dimitri Buchowetzki (Sappho, 1921), Lupu Pick (Das Panzergewolbe/Armored Vault, 1926) and Robert Wiene (Die Frau auf der Folter/Scandal in Paris,1928). Other popular films of the 1920s were Wilhelm Tell (Rudolf Dworsky, Rudolf Walther-Fein. 1923), the funny comedy of social classes, Lumpen und Seide/Rags and Silk (Richard Oswald, 1925) and Fräulein Chauffeur/Miss Chauffeur (Jaap Speyer, 1928) opposite Mady Christians. Curiously he also starred in Die Stadt ohne Juden/A City Without Jews (H.K.Breslauer, 1924), a document about the novel Die Stadt ohne Juden from Hugo Bettauer. According to the reviewer on IMDb, the film is “a great puzzle of statements of the early 1920s in a community before the big economic crises and the Holocaust”. The premiere took place on 25 July 1924 in Vienna. National socialist party members threw stink bombs into the film theaters. In the city of Linz, the film was banned. On 10 March 1925, National Socialist thug Otto Rothstock shot Hugo Bettauer, who died the next day. Rothstock was lionized as a hero. He spent 18 months in prison, but when he was released, he found himself wealthy and resumed his career as a Nazi.
Neither the advent of the sound film nor the Nazi's ascension to power did pose a problem to Johannes Riemann's career. In the early sound period, he had success with romantic comedies like Der falsche Ehemann/The Wrong Husband (Johannes Guter. 1931) and Die Liebensfiliale/The Love Branch (Carl Heinz Wolff, 1931). His first film directions were the musical romances Liebe auf Befehl/Love on Command (Ernst L. Frank, Johannes Riemann, 1931) and Ich sehne mich nach/I'm Longing for You (1934) with Camilla Horn. In the following years, he directed and wrote screenplays for more light entertainment films like Ich heirate meine Frau/I Marry My Wife (1934) starring Lil Dagover, Ave Maria (1936) - the second film-starring vehicle for legendary operatic tenor Beniamino Gigli, and Gauner im Frack/Crook in Tails (1937). Meanwhile, he appeared as an actor in films like Der Mann mit der Pranke/The Man with the Paw (Rudolf van der Noss, 1935) and Bel Ami (Willi Forst, 1939). During the Third Reich Riemann became an NSDAP member and in 1939 Adolf Hitler appointed him to the rank of Staatsschauspieler (national actor). During the war he appeared in films like Friedemann Bach (Traugott Müller, Gustaf Gründgens, 1941), Drei tolle Mädels/Three Great Girls (Giuseppe Fatigati, Hubert Marischka, 1942), Alles für Gloria/Everything For Gloria (Carl Boese, 1942) for which he also wrote the scenario, and Das Lied der Nachtigall/The Song of the Nightingale (Theo Lingen, 1943). However, around 1943 he received fewer and fewer role offers and he returned to the theatre (a.o. for the Theater am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin). In May 1944 he even performed at a party for the staff of concentration camp Auschwitz in Poland. After the end of World War II, Riemann was not able to tie on to his earlier film success. The by then almost 70-year old actor appeared mostly on stage and only occasionally in the cinema – for instance, in Der schräge Otto/Weird Otto (Géza von Cziffra, 1956) and in the Heimatfilm Zwei Bayern im Harem/Ywo Bavarians in a Harem (Joe Stöckel. 1957). His last role was in the TV film Eurydice (Harald Braun. 1957), an adaptation of the play by Jean Anouilh. Johannes Riemann died in 1959 in Konstanz, Germany.
Sources: Filmportal.de, Filmzeit.de (German), Wikipedia (German), AllMovie, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Tags: Edith Posca Edith Posca German Actress Actrice Darstellerin Schauspielerin Johannes Riemann Johannes Riemann Actor Acteur Schauspieler Darsteller Rudolph Klein-Rohden Rudolph Klein-Rohden Tötet nicht mehr European Film Star Cinema Film Movies Kino Cine Ross Vintage Postcard Silent Picture Screen Movie Filmster Star Postkarte Carte Postale Cartolina Tarjet Postal Briefkarte Ansichtskarte Postkaart Briefkaart Ansichtkaart Rex City Royal Misericordia 1919 1920
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German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K.2275. Photo: Berliner Film-Manufaktur. Friedrich Zelnik in Die Rothenburger (Lupu Pick, 1918).
Austrian actor Friedrich Zelnik or Frederic Zelnik (1885 - 1950) was also one of the most important producers-directors of the German silent cinema. Already in the early 1910’s he became a film star in Germany, but during the 1920’s he had his greatest successes there as director-producer of operetta-style costume films starring his wife, Lya Mara. A critical success was his drama Die Weber/The Weaver (1927). After 1933, he worked in Great Britain and also directed two films in the Netherlands.
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