Friedrich A. Mainz

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Friedrich August Mainz (born September 18, 1895 in Augsburg ; † July 8, 1974 in Minusio , Switzerland ) was a German film producer .

Life

Friedrich August Mainz had completed an apprenticeship in banking and studied economics after his military service (1914–17, most recently as lieutenant in the reserve). In 1923 he became an authorized officer at a bank.

In 1929 Mainz moved to the Tobis film company as commercial director , and in 1932 he founded Europa-Filmverleih . Four years later, Mainz moved to the Tobis board for a year before becoming head of distribution in 1937. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels ' anger at the “half-Jewish” director Reinhold Schünzel , whom he accused of wanting to ridicule the Nazi regime with the film “Land der Liebe” , also led to Mainz being dismissed in May 1937, his “Tobis” Schünzel's last German production had been included in their distribution program.

Thereupon Mainz left the country in order to escape foreseeable pressures from the rulers in Berlin and temporarily moved to Switzerland. At times he was in conversation as the head of the Italian branch of Tobis in Rome. Goebbels' annoyance with Mainz persisted for a long time, even after its return to the Reich, and so he was subject to various work restrictions during the Second World War. Mainz then temporarily withdrew from the film industry (and thus from Goebbels' line of fire). In 1941 Tefi-Apparatebau Dr. Daniel KG as a personally liable partner.

Mainz was only able to resume cinema work after the war. From 1948 he worked as a film importer, in 1950 he founded his own production company in Hamburg , Fama FA Mainz Film GmbH . As a producer or co-producer he was involved in several films. Even his early work Dr. Holl , a sentimental doctor's melodrama starring Dieter Borsche and Maria Schell , was a notable box-office success and received an award at the Berlin Film Festival in June 1951. With The Dreaming Mouth he established the “dream couple” OW Fischer and Schell, with the biography Canaris he achieved an extraordinary success with OE Hasse , for which he received the Golden Bowl for the best full-length feature film in the name of Fama-Film in 1955 .

In the 1960s, Mainz withdrew into private life and spent his twilight years in Locarno, Switzerland.

Filmography

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. 235.
  • 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. ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 636 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The date of death on October 2, 1970 in Bad Tölz, which can usually be read, is incorrect and is based on a mix-up that has been rumored for decades (including from the Munzinger archive). On that day, the film producer Herrmann Schwerin, husband of the actress Grethe Weiser , was killed in a traffic accident
personal data
SURNAME Mainz, Friedrich A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mainz, Friedrich August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH augsburg
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1974
Place of death Minusio , Switzerland