Erik Charell

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Erik Charell (born April 8, 1894 in Breslau , † July 15, 1974 in Munich ; actually Erich Karl Loewenberg ) was a German director and actor .

Life

Memorial plaque , Friedrichstrasse 107, in Berlin-Mitte

Charell studied dance and, according to his own account, was first noticed by the press in 1913 during a performance of the ballet pantomime Venetian Adventures of a Young Man by Karl Vollmöller at the Deutsches Theater (staged by Max Reinhardt ). Charell founded the Charell Ballet and successfully toured Europe with it during and after the First World War (artistic direction: Ludwig Kainer; musical director: Friedrich Holländer ). He demonstrated his acting talent in two silent films , Paul Lenis Prinz Kuckuck (1919) and Richard Oswalds Nachtgestalten (1920). In 1923 Max Reinhardt engaged Charell as Assistant Stage Manager for the New York guest appearance of Vollmöller's The Miracle . In 1924, after returning to Germany, Reinhardt offered Charell and his older brother Ludwig the management of the Great Theater in Berlin, which was part of the Reinhardt Theaters .

In 1924 Charell published his first revue . It had the title To All . It was felt to be a sensation that he managed to sign the world-famous Tiller Girls from London . This was followed in 1925 by the revues Für Dich and 1926 Von Mund zu Mund , each with internationally compiled music by Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Ralph Benatzky and others. a.

After the series of pure revues, Charell brought modernized operetta classics such as Der Mikado , Wie once im Mai , Madame Pompadour and The Merry Widow as contemporary jazz spectacles after 1926 . He then created independent operettas together with the composer Ralph Benatzky , resulting in the trilogy of historical revue operettas on which Charell's fame rests to this day: Casanova (1928), The Three Musketeers (1929) and Im Weisse Rößl (1930). The Rössl in particular was to become the most successful creation in Charell's career; in the following years he himself staged the play in London (1931), Paris (1932) and New York (1936). In doing so, independent versions were created, with newly added music, new translations, and sometimes with new instrumentations. The later film with Johannes Heesters (1952) is a Charell production.

Many later very famous actors and singers first appeared under Charell's direction, including Marlene Dietrich , Joseph Schmidt , Max Hansen and Camilla Spira . The Comedian Harmonists were also discovered by Charell for Casanova and became world famous overnight thanks to their appearance in the production at the Großes Schauspielhaus (and the presence of the international press at the premiere).

Because of his talent for splendid staging , Ufa producer Erich Pommer gave him, together with his designer Ernst Stern, the direction of the film Der Kongress tanzt , one of the first and at the same time most successful music films of the early sound film era. In 1933, Ufa broke a contract for further film projects because of Charell's Jewish descent. Three years later he was successfully sued in a German court for repayment of 26,000 Reichsmarks , which had been paid to him as an advance for an Odysseus sound film operetta project (with Hans Albers in the title role). As a revision instance, the Reichsgericht relied on a contractual clause according to which the contract would become null and void if Charell could not implement the project:

“If in No. 6 of the manuscript contract v. February 24, 1933 it is said that Charell `` should not be able to carry out his directorial activity due to illness, death or similar reason '', a change in the legal validity of the personality that has occurred from a legally recognized racial-political point of view is to be considered equal. insofar as it prevents the directorial activity from being carried out in a corresponding manner, as would death or illness. "

- RG v. June 27, 1936)

Charell had already emigrated to the USA at the time , where he had previously unsuccessfully shot the sound film operetta Caravan in Hollywood (with music by Werner Richard Heymann ): a flop that immediately ended his barely-started Hollywood career. A planned music film about the dancer Nijinsky for MGM was not realized either.

In addition to the very successful White Horse Inn production mentioned in 1936 (in the Center Theater), Charell worked at various theaters in Manhattan until 1945 , where, among other things, he brought out a musical adaptation of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night 's Dream in 1939 under the title Swingin 'the Dream (only with black actors , Sets based on motifs by Walt Disney and music by Jimmy van Heusen). After the war Charell returned to Munich , where he achieved a great success at the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz with the musical comedy Feuerwerk (music by Paul Burkhard ); the hit O mein Papa from Fireworks became internationally known. In the 1950s, Charell created a stage version of Der Kongreß tanzt in France , but it was not widely used. He also produced film adaptations of his successful pieces, in addition to the aforementioned Rössl film from 1952, Fireworks with the young Romy Schneider and Lilli Palmer .

Out of frustration with the post-war operetta scene and a failed attempt to write a second part of the Rössl together with Robert Gilbert , Charell concentrated increasingly on buying and selling art in the 1960s; together with his brother Ludwig, he owned an important collection of Toulouse-Lautrec lithographs and modern painting.

Erik Charell received the gold film tape in 1969 for “many years of outstanding work in German film” .

He died in Munich at the age of 80 and was cremated in the Ostfriedhof. An obituary reads: “28 friends gave him the last greeting in town, which was for his special love. A film producer spoke in his memory, and in honor of the charmer, who carefully and carefully managed his graceful gifts, the triumphal march from Verdi's festive opera 'Aida' rang out. ”The urn was buried in Grünwald near Munich. Charell's life partner Friedrich Zanner was appointed administrator of the estate, together with the Munich lawyer Dr. Wolf black.

The collection of Lautrec lithographs was auctioned off at Sotheby's in 1978.

The Gay Museum Berlin devoted Charell and his artistic work from July 7 to September 27, 2010 for the first time an exhibition.

On November 18, 2015 the Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin inaugurated a memorial in honor of its founders Max Reinhardt , Hans Poelzig and Erik Charell at Friedrichstrasse 107.

Films and stage works

As a performer

As a director

As a producer

literature

  • Marita Berg : “The business is right!” Erik Charell's revue operettas. In: Ulrich Tadday (Ed.): In the White Horse Inn. Between art and commerce (= music concepts. NF Vol. 133/134). Edition Text + Critique, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-88377-841-9 , pp. 59–79.
  • Kevin Clarke : In the intoxication of pleasure. Erik Charell and the unleashed revue operetta in Berlin in the 1920s. In: Kevin Clarke (Ed.): Glitter and Be Gay. The authentic operetta and its gay admirers. Männerschwarm Verlag, Hamburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-939542-13-1 , pp. 108-139.
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. P. 120 ff., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Interview with Paul Marcus in: Pem (di: Paul Marcus): Homesick for Kurfürstendamm. From Berlin's most glamorous days and nights. Blanvalet, Berlin 1952, pp. 104-120.
  2. ↑ The fictional death for non-Aryans. In: Paris daily newspaper , October 3, 1937, ZDB -ID 721303-7 .
  3. ^ Wolfgang Drews: Last greeting for Eric [sic] Charell. In: Tagesspiegel , from July 24, 1974.
  4. ↑ Erich Scheibmayr : Last home. Personalities in Munich cemeteries 1784–1984. Self-published, Munich 1985; and Erich Scheibmayr: Graves in Upper Bavaria, outside of Munich. Self-published, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-9802211-2-1 .
  5. ↑ Dora Kasan and Erik Charell in Galante Promenade , postcard, National Portrait Gallery (npg.org.uk)

Web links

Commons : Erik Charell  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Charell, Erik
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loewenberg, Erich Karl (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German director and actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw , Poland
DATE OF DEATH 15th July 1974
Place of death Munich