Edmund Hamber

Edmund Hamber (born July 25, 1893 in Vienna , † November 28, 1940 in Buchenwald concentration camp ) was an Austrian film salesman, film producer , film distributor and cinema manager, a leading representative of social democratic film policy in his country.

Acting in film

Hamber joined his older brother Philipp's company shortly after the end of the First World War . At the beginning of the 1920s, the Hamber brothers set up a chain of cinemas that would soon become Austria's leading cinema group. At the beginning of 1925, Philipp and Edmund Hamber took part in the founding of the “Österreichische Lichtspieltheater-Allianz Hamber & Co. KG”, or “Oela” for short, with which the brothers primarily sought to organize their movie theaters and film distribution. In the same year they also took over the "Allianz-Filmfabrikations- und Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH" from the film manager Arthur Stern .

From the beginning, the social democratic party member Edmund Hamber saw both companies as an organ to support social democratic politics. As a result, Hamber began to make social democratic election and documentary films from 1923 onwards.

With the ambitious composer's film biography " Beethoven ", which premiered on February 18, 1927 in the Austrian capital, Hambers began short-lived activity as a feature film producer. For the title role in this debut, he was able to win over the Austrian star actor Fritz Kortner , who mainly works in Germany . The subsequent "Allianz" productions with Edmund Hamber's participation (all in 1927/28) were far less significant.

At the end of 1928, Edmund Hamber was entrusted with the reorganization of the “Kinobetriebsanstalt GmbH”, or Kiba for short, founded by the (politically left-wing) workers' bank . As early as 1929, Hamber left the "Allianz", which was now managed by his older brother alone and devoted himself completely and with great commercial skill to the management of the "Kiba" cinemas (as sole general director and managing director since October 1929), which was solely in Vienna (as of 1932) had six cinemas ( Scala, Apollo , Schweden-Kino, Weltspiegel-Kino, Amalien-Tonkino, Sandleiten-Ton-Kino ) as well as countless others in the Austrian province (including Linz , Ybbs an der Donau , Villach , Gmünd , Deutsch-Wagram , Straßhof , Stockerau , Liesing and Steyrermühl ).

His participation in the revue theater "Moulin Rouge" as well as lossy business decisions brought both Hambers into criticism and ultimately led to Edmund Hambers' expulsion from the Social Democratic Labor Party. After a series of serious financial failures in the various company holdings of the two Hambers, the "alliance" finally got into trouble and had to register a settlement in March 1934. Philipp and Edmund Hamber were arrested on suspicion of fraud, and in 1935 “Allianz” had to file for bankruptcy. Finally, the company's death reached the "Moulin Rouge". The Hamber brothers should never recover from these low blows.

Isolation and persecution in the Nazi state

After the “ Anschluss of Austria ” to the National Socialist German Reich in March 1938, the Jewish brothers soon found themselves in total isolation. Having lost all companies, Edmund Hamber was deported on July 16, 1938, initially to Dachau . The so-called “ protective prisoner ” No. 18127 stayed there for a good two months. On September 23, 1938, the camp administration transferred him to the Buchenwald concentration camp , where he perished a good two years later, only 23 days after his older brother, as a result of massive violence. Immediately beforehand, after the murder of his brother Philipp, Edmund Hamber had turned to the deputy commandant of Buchenwald and testified to the murder of his brother - an almost unique event in the history of Buchenwald and the first guaranteed form of resistance in this concentration camp.

The Buchenwald survivor Emil Carlebach gave in a report published in 1980 the motivation Edmund Hamber had expressed to him for this courageous step as follows: “ I know that I have to die for my testimony, but perhaps the criminals will hold back a little in the future if you have to fear a complaint, then I did not die in vain ”. Edmund Hamber was incarcerated in the cell block and also beaten to death. The other 27 witnesses, part of a work detail who had to witness the murder of Philipp Hamber, were questioned, but none of them dared to follow Edmund Hamber's steps. It was of no use to them, they too were murdered as "annoying confidants".

Filmography (as producer)

• 1926: Beethoven
• 1927: The man without a job ( The rough shirt )
• 1928: Up from the Dachstein
• 1928: Franz Schubert and his laughing Vienna

literature

• Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 156.

annotation

1. ↑ Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 157.