Alfred Rosenthal

Alfred "Aros" Rosenthal (born April 24, 1888 in Düsseldorf , † August 23, 1942 in Riga-Skirotava ) was a German film journalist and film lobbyist .

Live and act

He was born in Düsseldorf to a family of butchers and between the ages of 12 and 15 he attended the Israelitische Erziehungsanstalt zu Ahlem near Hanover . He remained connected to this throughout his life. Later he attended the academy of the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf .

In 1908, at the age of 20, he joined the editorial team of the first German film magazine Der Kinematograph , for which he reported in 1910 from Constantinople on the development of film in Turkey , Serbia , Hungary and Bulgaria . In addition, he published articles from 1913 in the magazine Bild und Film - magazine for photography and cinematography and the two volumes Des Handwerksmannes Lust und Leid as well as From a great time in the Volkskunst-Bücherei series .

Between 1913 and 1914, after passing the teacher examination, he was briefly active in the school service in Constantinople. However, he returned to the editorial office of the Kinematograph in Düsseldorf , where he introduced the first scientific film section. In addition, he became co-founder and chairman of the Provincial Association of Rhineland-Westphalia of the Association for the Safeguarding of Common Interests of Cinematography and Related Industries in Berlin eV From mid-1916 he ran the Brussels branch of the Film-Export Gesellschaft from Düsseldorf together with the critic Lorenz Pieper .

First World War

During the First World War , Alfred Rosenthal entered the service of the Imperial Army as a private in the 7th Company of Fusilier Regiment 39. On August 16, 1916, he was seriously injured in Verdun , but was still writing articles for the cinematograph from his sickbed .

After the war he developed into a very busy multifunctional in matters of film. He was a delegate of the Rheinisch-Westfälischer Filmverleiher-Verband in Berlin as well as the press spokesman for the Bioscop-Concerns / Rheinische Lichtbild AG. In 1919 he was one of the founders and editors of the magazine The Black Bear. News from the world of film and was an author for the magazine Film und Brettl .

The successful 1920s

On October 15, 1920, Alfred Rosenthal married the 27-year-old Gertrud Franck in Düsseldorf and then moved with her to Berlin . There he founded Deutsche Film-Zeitungsdienst GmbH and Radio-Film AG , of which he became chairman of the supervisory board. Towards the end of 1920 he became the head of the film department at the August Scherl publishing house . There he introduced the first film supplement in a German daily newspaper, the Mondays-appearing Film-Echo in the Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger . He was also responsible for the magazines Sport in the picture and export a week , and the later film world renamed film magazine was conceived by him. Together with Ala-Werbung AG , he published the handbook for the international film press , a standard work that is still valid today.

From 1923 on he became the editor-in-chief of Der Kinematograph , modernizing its appearance and placing the focus on film criticism. From then on he wrote the film-political leading article in the cinematograph every week . While he wrote his reviews as a film critic, especially in the film echo , he was the first cinematographer to appear as an author in the major publications of the industry. The newspaper belonged to the anti-democratic Hugenberg group , a stirrup holder for the National Socialists.

Around 1932 Rosenthal published several editions of the illustrated film books of the Berlin Scherl Verlag under his pseudonym "Aros" , including: Renate Müller . Your becoming and work . ( Illustrated film books , Vol. 5, Berlin: Scherl).

The escape from anti-Semitism

Due to the worsening domestic political situation in Germany at the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1930s, Alfred Rosenthal was increasingly attacked personally in the right-wing press by anti-Semitic authors. The last edition of the Kinematograph under the responsibility of Alfred Rosenthal appeared on March 31, 1933. Alfred Rosenthal was dismissed as a Jew. The magazine was brought into line with the rest of the press after the creation of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda .

After March 31, 1933, Alfred Rosenthal emigrated to Paris with his wife and son . Gertrud Rosenthal and her son managed to emigrate to the USA in the mid-1930s . In 1935 Alfred Rosenthal was in Vienna to set up an Austrian film bank. There he was allegedly caught with a check fraud, without a job or income. In 1937 he was deported from Austria to Prague . From there he made attempts to emigrate to England , all of which failed because of a lack of money and employment opportunities.

Assassination by the SS

Rosenthal was on 20 August 1942 the ghetto of Theresienstadt to Riga deported where he female immediately after arrival with the other 598 and 398 male Jews deported by the SS was brought to the execution sites and murdered. He was buried in a mass grave with the other victims.

Works

• Cultural-historical considerations for people of the world . Vahlen, Berlin 1932
• Renate Müller: Your becoming u. Work . Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Käthe von Nagy: The story e. Career with obstacles. Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Lucie English: The story e. successful career. Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Fritz Kampers: An actor's life . Scherl Berlin 1932. under the pyeudonym Aros
• Greta Garbo: Her way from Stockholm to Hollywood . Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Gustav Fröhlich: Man and artist . Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Marlene Dietrich: An interesting artist's fate . Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Lil Dagover: The career e. beautiful woman . Scherl, Berlin 1932, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Harry Liedtke: A life for film. Scherl, Berlin 1931, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Lilian Harvey: A cross-section through her becoming a. Work . Scherl, Berlin 1931, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Willy Fritsch: The story e. happy career . Scherl, Berlin 1931, under the pyeudonym Aros
• Hans Albers: How he is u. how he became. Scherl, Berlin 1931, under the pyeudonym Aros
• The German photo book: Yesterday's film problems and today . Editorial guideline: Alfred Rosenthal, ed. Heinrich Pfeiffer, Scherl, Berlin 1924
• Handbook of the international film press: A reference book on publication possibilities in d. Trade press with leading personalities d. Film industry . Ala, Berlin around 1921

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alfred Rosenthal: The cinema in the Orient . In: The Cinematograph . No. 190, August 17, 1910, pp. 89ff.
2. ↑ Ulrike Oppelt: Film and Propaganda in the First World War: Propaganda as media reality in topical and documentary films . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 978-3-515-08029-3 , p. 158.
3. ↑ See Reichs-Kino-Adressbuch , ed. with the participation of the Image and Film Office, Berlin 1918/19, p. 369: Rosenthal, Alfred, Writer (Bioscop Group), Cologne a.Rh., Breitestr. 58-60; Private address: Vorgebirgestr. 47
4. ↑ Handbook of the international film press. A reference book about publication possibilities in the trade press, in daily newspapers and illustrated papers all over the world with guide for import and export with the participation of leading personalities of the film industry edited by Alfred Rosenthal , ed. v. of the ALA, Berlin 1921
5. ^ Pioneer of film journalism: The cinematograph . In the January 2007 program of the German Film Museum . 2007, p. 7.
6. ↑ Aros arrested for fraudulent checks . In: Pariser Tageblatt No. 715 v. November 27, 1935, p. 2
7. ^ Christian Dirks: Hugenberg's best man . In: Irene Stratenwerth, Hermann Simon (Ed.): Pioneers in Celluloid. Jews in the early film world . 1st edition. Henschel Verlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-89487-471-1 .