Schönfelder began his acting career at the age of 18, which he initially pursued in a touring theater and then, from 1920, in the German capital. There he, as he himself said, “worked as a comedian at no fewer than seven Berlin theaters [...]” and “I think he made a good name for himself.” He wrote his first scripts with Ernst Lubitsch and Hanns Kräly , then Paul Davidson brought him to film as an actor, where he initially took part in comic roles.
The producer Paul Heidemann employed Schönfelder as a film director from 1920. With the then very popular Ossi Oswalda as the leading actress, he soon had some box office hits. Schönfelder specialized in rather simple entertainment films such as military antics, mixed-up comedies and other comedies. The film Princess Trulala with Lilian Harvey was a great success in this genre . But with the film adaptation of the Gerhart Hauptmann drama The Beaver Fur , he also dealt with an artistically demanding subject.
↑ Erich Schönfelder. In: Hermann Treuner (Hrsg.): Filmkünstler (= We about ourselves. Vol. 1). Sibyllen-Verlag, Berlin 1928.
↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf and Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 164.
