Arthur Maria Rabenalt

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Arthur Maria Lothar Konrad Heinrich Friedrich Rabenalt (born June 25, 1905 in Vienna , † February 26, 1993 in Kreuth ) was a German theater director and film director . He gave up his Austrian citizenship in favor of the Germans.

Life

The son of the lawyer and notary Arthur Rabenalt and his wife Karoline, née Grabner, directed operas for the first time at the Hessian State Theater in Darmstadt when he was sixteen . He then worked as a theater director in Berlin at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm , the Volksbühne and the stands .

In Gera he became the second opera and drama director at the Reussian Theater , then senior director at the Würzburg Opera . Here he met two newly appointed people, with whom he formed a legendary theater trio, the set designer Wilhelm Reinking and the ballet master Claire Eckstein . They continued their work together in Darmstadt. 1933 were Rabenalt and Reinking, as their avant-garde experiments at the Kroll Opera the Nazis disliked by these as " Kulturbolschewisten denounced" and were banned from working. The trio was denigrated as "RabenKingStein AG for the transformation of classic operas into burlesque, grotesque films and circus acts" and disbanded obeying the pressure. From 1935 to 1936 Rabenalt was a dialogue director at the Metropol Theater .

Arthur Maria Rabenalt now worked more and more for the film. He had already gained experience here as a volunteer with Alexander Korda and G. W. Pabst . In 1932 he was also at the origin of the English dubbed version of Fritz Lang's film M was involved.

Rabenalt first created entertainment films such as Daddy , A Seventeen Year Old , A Child, a Dog, a Vagabond or A Movie Ball Experience (all in 1934). A child, a dog and a vagabond were temporarily banned, however, so that Rabenalt moved his activities from Germany to other countries and now worked in France, Italy and his home country Austria. Music and circus films became his specialty during this time. Examples of this are, for example, The Women's Paradise from 1936 or The Three Codonas from 1940.

In that year he also worked on Leni Riefenstahl's film Tiefland . Films like Achtung! Enemy hears with! from 1940 or … riding for Germany (1940/41) show that he had come to terms with the rulers in Germany during this time. Still, Arthur Maria Rabenalt later always insisted on being an apolitical director. In the post-war period he wrote about this in his book Film im Zwielicht. About the apolitical film of the Third Reich and the limitation of totalitarian claims (1958):

“The only sports film based on simple, patriotic sentiments about a tournament rider, which was made without political intention, only became a political issue through its success in neutral and occupied countries as well as at home. The result was that the film [ ‹… rides for Germany› ] was subsequently given the title of 'politically valuable', after the collapse it was counted among the most notorious Nazi films on the blacklist and the director and his main actors were banned from their profession for almost two years - this time by the Americans - helped (while the horse, Harro, who was playing along was deported by the Russians). When the emotional dynamic pressure wave subsided, the film was found to be completely harmless and apolitical, as one of the first to be removed from the Allied prohibited list and successfully shown again for the third time. "

On the part of Erwin Leiser Rabenalt was held that there could be no non-political films in Nazi Germany and that "non-political" in Rabenalt films Nazi stereotypes and values were served.

After the end of the Second World War he founded the cabaret Die Schaubude in Munich . In addition to his work as acting director of the municipal theater in Baden-Baden and as director of the Metropol-Theater in East Berlin (1947-49) he made other films for DEFA , e. B. 1948 The girl Christine . In 1952 he turned to Mandrake the fifth film adaptation of the fantastic novel mandrake. The story of a living being with Hildegard Knef in the lead role. With his writing Operetta as a task , he laid decisive basic positions for the cheerful music theater of the GDR , which he did not realize either before or after in his own films and works.

Above all, however, he created music films in the 1950s such as 1954 Der Zigeunerbaron . From the 1960s onwards, Arthur Maria Rabenalt mainly worked for television and also mainly made music and dance films. At the same time he wrote numerous texts on theater and film historical topics as well as a history of erotic theater - in 1968/69 he also directed the Theatron Eroticon in Munich .

Towards the end of the 1970s, he largely withdrew from film production. In his old age, Arthur Maria Rabenalt, whose first marriage to the opera singer Lotte Walter, the daughter of the conductor Bruno Walter , wrote from 1943 to Natascha Duchon, née. Duchonova was married, not only his memoirs and a book on Joseph Goebbels , but also several erotic novels, such as Das Sex-Terzett . This novel was indexed by the Federal Inspectorate for Media Harmful to Young People. In 1989 he was appointed honorary professor by the University of Bayreuth . Contrary to other information, his private archive did not become the property of the University of Bayreuth.

Filmography

Publications

Non-fiction

  • Mimus without a mask. About acting in film. Essay. Merkur-Verlag, Düsseldorf 1945, DNB 453893708 .
  • Human in the game. About the essence d. Acting. An essay. Ähren-Verlag, Heidelberg 1946, DNB 453893694 .
  • Operetta as a task. Essays on the operetta crisis. Quantity, Mainz 1948, DNB 958034281 .
  • Film in the twilight. About the apolitical film of the Third Reich and the limitation of totalitarian claims. Copress-Verlag, Munich 1958. (Olms-Presse, Hildesheim / New York 1979, ISBN 3-487-08155-5 )
  • The Schnulze. Capriccios on a broad subject. Kreisselmeier, Munich / Icking 1959, DNB 453893716 .
  • Dance and film. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1960, DNB 453893724 .
  • Voluptas invite. Erotic secret theater. 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Publishing house Die Schaubühne, Munich / Regensburg 1962, DNB 577346075 .
  • Theatrum sadicum. The Marquis de Sade and the theater. Lechte, Emsdetten 1963, OCLC 789068126 .
  • Mimus eroticus. Verlag für Kulturforschung, Hamburg, DNB 457871512 .
    • The erotic drama in the ancient world. 1965.
    • The Venusian drama in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. Part 1. 1965.
    • The Venusian drama in the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance. Part 2. 1965.
    • Contributions to the moral history of the erotic scenario in the twentieth century. Part 1. 1965.
    • Contributions to the moral history of the erotic scenario in the twentieth century. Part 2. 1967.
  • Theater without taboos. Voluptas invited today. Lechte, Emsdetten 1970, DNB 720130247 .
  • The theater of pleasure. Image documents of the erotic secret stages in the 18th and 19th centuries 19th century. Heyne, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-453-01608-4 .
  • Joseph Goebbels and the “Greater German” film. Herbig, Munich / Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-7766-1369-6 .
  • Collected Writings. Olms, Hildesheim / Zurich / New York.
    • Volume 1: Writings on music theater of the 20s and 30s. Opera direction. 1999, ISBN 3-487-10864-X .
    • Volume 2: Writings on music theater of the 20s and 30s. Opera direction. 2000, ISBN 3-487-11153-5 .
    • Volume 3: Writings on operetta, film, musical and dance. 2006, ISBN 3-487-13188-9 .

Fiction

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Quoted from Erwin Leiser: “Germany, awake!” Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, DNB 457400188 , p. 16.
  2. ↑ Erwin Leiser: "Germany, awake!" Propaganda in the film of the Third Reich . Rowohlt Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1968, p. 15ff.
  3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung of September 6, 2017, p. 21
  4. ↑ Decision No. 2566 (V) of June 26, 1986
personal data
SURNAME Rabenalt, Arthur Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rabenalt, Arthur Maria Lothar Konrad Heinrich Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film director
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1993
Place of death Kreuth