Franz Wolfgang Koebner

Franz Wolfgang Koebner ( pseudonyms : Franz Wolf , Peter Harris ; born as Franz Köbner on April 18, 1887 in Berlin ; † March 3, 1978 in Düsseldorf ) was a German journalist and writer . He was editor-in-chief of the journals Elegante Welt and Das Magazin as well as publisher of Die Cigarette .

Life

Franz Wolfgang Koebner came from an upper-class Jewish family. His father was Siegfried Ernst Koebner , the editor-in-chief of the Berliner National-Zeitung , his mother an actress . Franz Wolfgang Koebner had an elegant lifestyle from his youth and studied newspaper science at the University of Berlin . In 1912 he was one of the co-founders of the women's and fashion magazine The elegant world , which developed into a great sales success. In 1913 Koebner married the Hungarian singer Julia Nemeth. In the same year the enthusiastic dancer Koebner published the "Tanz-Brevier" and the ironic etiquette book Der Gentleman .

From 1918 Koebner devoted some time to the movie ; he wrote scripts and also directed some films . He published other books on dance as well as several novels . In 1924 he founded the monthly entertainment magazine Das Magazin with Robert Siodmak , of which he was editor-in-chief ; at the same time, he continued to lead the Elegant World . The magazine was also a great success, with a circulation of over 200,000 copies in 1929 .

In 1931 Koebner married for the second time. With the beginning of the Third Reich , he was banned from writing and avoided working at the Berlin Varietétheater Scala . Little reliable information is available about Koebner's life between 1933 and 1945, so that reports of an alleged stay in Spain from 1938 and Koebner's remaining in the German Reich are speculative in nature.

After the end of the Second World War , Franz Wolfgang Koebner initially lived with his family in Schwäbisch Hall . He organized fashion shows and revues and from 1948 headed the magazine Filmpost -Magazin, which appeared until 1951 . Koebner settled in Düsseldorf ; In 1949 he tried to revive the old successful titles Elegante Welt and Das Magazin . While Das Magazin quickly failed, he succeeded with the Elegant World ; the magazine appeared until it was merged with the title Madame in 1970. In 1950, Koebner was involved in the founding of the first German men's magazine, Er , of which he became editor-in-chief from 1957.

Koebner was largely blinded in a traffic accident in 1978.

Works

• Restless Nights , Berlin 1911 (under the name Franz Wolf)
• The gentleman , Berlin 1913
• Das Tanz-Brevier , Berlin 1913 (together with Robert L. Leonard)
• Traveling , Berlin 1914 (together with Stephan Krotowski)
• Globetrotter of love , Leipzig 1914
• "Infant!" , Leipzig 1916
• The woman without comedy , Leipzig 1916
• Maria Evere , Leipzig 1917
• The nun and the harlequin , Leipzig 1917
• A thousand and one women , Leipzig 1917
• Behind the scenes , Berlin 1920
• The new dance breviary , Berlin 1920
• Cocain , Berlin 1921
• Jazz and Shimmy , Berlin 1921
• The décolleté of the marquise , Berlin 1922
• If I can start my life again ... , Dresden 1925
• Charleston , Berlin 1926 (together with Otto Dely)
• The Playboy , Düsseldorf 1962, (under the name Peter Harris)

Editing

• The cigarette , Berlin 1914

Filmography (selection)

script

• 1918: The nun and the harlequin
• 1919: Hotel Esplanade
• 1919: Maria Evere
• 1920: Mermaid
• 1920: Just a movie star
• 1921: An artist marriage on Kurfürstendamm
• 1933: Artist luggage

Director

• 1923: The man without a heart
• 1923: The red rider
• 1924: The novel by Lilian Hawley
• 1926: 1000 paces Charleston
• 1933: Artist luggage
• 1933: How about starters?

literature

• Kurt Mühsam / Egon Jacobsohn: Lexicon of the film . Lichtbildbühne publishing house, Berlin 1926. pp. 95 f.

Web links

• Franz Wolfgang Koebner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Franz Wolfgang Koebner at filmportal.de
• Article about Koebner on the pages of the "Magazin"
• Full text of the work "The Gentleman" (1913)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Source: Birth certificate No. 771 of April 23, 1887, Berlin III, Landesarchiv Berlin.
2. ^ Düsseldorf registry office, death certificate no.1488