Carl Froelich

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Froelich shoots The Regiment's Daughter (1908)

Carl August Hugo Froelich (born September 5, 1875 in Berlin ; † February 12, 1953 there ) was a director , cameraman , producer and a pioneer of German film.

life and work

Constructor and cameraman

From 1903 Froelich worked for Oskar Messter , one of the pioneers in German cinema, where he initially worked in the design department for cinematographic devices. As a cameraman for Messter's Wochenschau, among other things, he films the consequences of a train accident on the Berlin elevated railway on September 28, 1908, one of the greatest traffic disasters of the time. During the First World War he was used as a war correspondent.

Film director and producer

Between 1912 and 1951 he made 77 films.

1913 was Froelich with Richard Wagner be directed - debut . In 1920 he founded Froelich-Film GmbH. Numerous silent films were made, such as the Cabal and Love adaptation Luise Millerin (1921) and Mother and Child (1924). He often shot with Henny Porten , with whom he also owned a joint production company between 1926 and 1929.

In 1929 Froelich made the first German sound film: The night is ours . In 1930 Froelich took over two glass houses in Berlin-Tempelhof, which had already served as a studio in the days of the silent film , and had them converted into sound film studios. He produced numerous films in his studio, including Rolf Hansen's short film Das Schönheitsfleckchen (1936), the first German feature film in color. In 1931 he was in charge of Leontine Sagan's boarding school film, Girls in Uniform, as "artistic director" .

In 1933 Froelich was one of the recognized film artists and produced successful films with popular stars of the time, including Hans Albers , Heinz Rühmann , Ingrid Bergman and Zarah Leander .

In 1943 he shot another lavish large-scale production with the two-part series Buchholz und Neigungsehe (total playing time: over three hours). Here, after more than three decades, Froelich's last collaboration with his former house star, Porten.

Cultural politician

In 1933 Froelich joined the NSDAP and took over the management of the general association for film production and exploitation. In 1937 he was appointed professor and in 1939 president of the Reichsfilmkammer and held this office until the end of the war in 1945. The Reichsfilmkammer was a subdivision of the Reich Chamber of Culture , which, as a National Socialist professional organization, regulated access to all artistic professions. During his time as President of the Reichsfilmkammer, Carl Froelich lived in the Berlin villa at Thielallee 36 in Dahlem . The private film projection room is now run as a cinema under the name Capitol Dahlem.

In 1941 Froelich became an honorary member of the Deutsche Kinotechnische Gesellschaft (DKG), a forerunner of today's television and cinema technology society .

After the end of the war

After the war, Froelich was imprisoned and denazified in 1948 . Although he had made the second highest number of films banned by the Control Council after Veit Harlan with ten films, he was still able to produce the films Three Girls Spinning (1950) and Stips (1951) before his death . His studio had been badly damaged in the war and was no longer in use.

Filmography (selection)

(Director, unless otherwise stated)

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl Froelich  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Capitol Dahlem on Berlin.de , accessed on November 5, 2010
personal data
SURNAME Froelich, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Froelich, Carl August Hugo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film pioneer and director
DATE OF BIRTH September 5, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1953
Place of death Berlin