Friedrich Kohner

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Friedrich Kohner , after emigrating Frederick Kohner (born September 25, 1905 in Teplitz-Schönau , Austria-Hungary ; died July 7, 1986 in Brentwood , United States ) was an Austro-American writer and screenwriter .

Life

Kohner studied literary history in Vienna and Paris and received his doctorate in Vienna with the thesis Film is Poetry . He then worked as a publicist and film critic for the Prager Tagblatt and the Berliner Tageblatt . In 1929/30 Kohner was briefly a film correspondent for German newspapers in Hollywood . He used his stay there to make a miniature appearance in Lewis Milestone's legendary anti-war film In the West, Nothing New .

Back in Berlin, Kohner began actively working in German film in 1930, starting with the comedy Affair - a production on which the young Billy Wilder also worked as a screenwriter - where he served as assistant director to István Székély . In 1932/33 Friedrich supplied three films by his brother, Universal producer Paul Kohner , with scripts, often in collaboration with other authors. Then the Jew Kohner got into isolation. Robert Siodmak , the director who had fled to Paris in the meantime, enabled him to work on the script for his French production La crise est finie in 1934 . In the Third Reich , Kohner only took part - unnamed - in a screenplay for Viktoria in 1935 , the adaptation of a novel by Knut Hamsun . In July 1936, Kohner managed to emigrate to the USA with his wife Fritzi and their four-year-old daughter Ruth. In Hollywood he Americanized himself in Frederick Kohner and took part, mostly unnamed, in scripts and designed cinematic treatments. For the story participation in the 1938 directed Deanna Durbin comedy Mad About Music , Kohner received an Oscar nomination the following year . As a result, he received sporadic offers from 1939 to write regular film scripts, including the novel of a dancer with Loretta Young and Conrad Veidt . The majority of his American activity was still limited to the drafting of film stories.

In 1954 Kohner returned temporarily to Germany and received two scripts from the Federal Republic of Germany. Kohner wrote the template for the song pleasure game Liebe, Tanz und 1000 Schlager with Peter Alexander and Caterina Valente , shot in 1955 .

Kohner's greatest success was his youth novel Gidget, the Little Girl with Big Ideas . He tells of the surfing adventures, loves, worries and needs of a carefree teenager on the beach in Malibu in the late 1950s. He was inspired by his second daughter, Katherine Klara, who was born in Los Angeles in January 1941 , or Kathy for short. In 1959 and 1961, respectively, two cinema films were made based on this novel - the first, very successful, was awarded in Germany under the title April discovered the men - and in 1965/66 a television series. In 1961, Kohner was directly involved in the script for the second feature film, four years later he was only available as a consultant for the series.

With Kiki of Montparnasse , Kohner published another novel in 1967. It was published in 1978 under the title Kiki vom Montparnasse by Molden Verlag for the German market.

In 1984 Kohner supported his brother Walter and his wife Hanna in writing their love story together, which largely relates to Hanna Kohner's war experiences.

Works (selection)

  • Gidget . New York: Putnam's, 1957
    • April discovers the men . Würzburg: Zettner, 1959
  • Cher papa . New York: Putnam's, 1959
    • April discovers love . Würzburg: Zettner, 1962
  • The Continental Kick . New York: Bantam, 1962
    • Maiden voyage . Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1963
  • The Affairs of Gidget . New York: Bantam, 1963
    • April and her affairs . Munich: Heyne, 1967
  • Gidget goes Rome . New York: Bantam, 1963
    • April discovers Rome . Munich: Droemer Knaur, 1963
  • Gidget in Love . New York: Dell, 1965
    • April discovers herself . Munich: Heyne, 1968
  • Gidget goes Parisienne . New York: Dell, 1966
    • April discovers Paris . Munich: Heyne, 1968

Filmography

only scripts or script participation

literature

  • Christian Cargnelli, Michael Omasta (ed.): Departure into the Unknown. Austrian filmmakers in emigration before 1945. , p. 69, Wespennest Verlag, Vienna 1993
  • 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. 585.
  • Ursula Seeber (Hrsg.): Small allies: expelled Austrian children's and youth literature . Vienna: Picus, 1998 ISBN 3-85452-276-2 , pp. 136f.
  • Hanna and Walter Kohner with Frederick: Hanna and Walter: A Love Story . New York 1984, ISBN 0-394-52164-1

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kohner, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kohner, Frederick (in the USA)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-American screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 25, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Teplitz-Schönau , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH July 7, 1986
Place of death Brentwood , United States