Fritz Zeckendorf

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Fritz Zeckendorf , full name Friedrich Zeckendorf (born January 7, 1886 in Budapest , † probably May 1943 in Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a German screenwriter and Nazi victim .

Life

Born in Budapest, after completing his university studies with a doctorate in Dr. phil. started writing as a journalist and writer . It was only at the beginning of the age of talkies that Zeckendorf came into regular contact with cinematography and worked intensively as a screenwriter for German film in the last years of the Weimar Republic . He wrote, often in collaboration with his colleague Philipp Lothar Mayring , preferably lightweight, comedic and playful material, but occasionally also dramatic stories such as the drug and smuggler adventure " The White Demon " with Hans Albers . For a large part of these films there were also French-language versions.

With the seizure of power by the National Socialists , the career of the Jewish dial Berliner ended abruptly. In a memorandum of March 29, 1933, written by the UFA board, it says briefly: “ Mr. Correll is asked to terminate the current annual contract with Dr. To dissolve Zeckendorf, as it cannot be kept in consideration of the new circumstances ”.

After filming “ Der Stern von Valencia ” (February to April 1933), Zeckendorf received no more orders from German film. His novel for the love and crime story " The man with the paw " was no longer mentioned in the opening credits; In 1935, the Jew Zeckendorf, who had remained in Berlin, was considered a persona non grata for a long time .

Only the Jewish director Kurt Gerron , who had fled to the Netherlands and for whom Zeckendorf had often written film manuscripts until 1933, enabled him to work on the script: Zeckendorf was able to work on the filming of the Dutch-Italian joint production " Drie wenschen " / " I tre desideri " in the late spring of 1937 leave for Rome .

In the course of the last major deportations from the Reich capital Berlin, the meanwhile completely isolated in his hometown Dr. Friedrich Zeckendorf was moved from his residence in Berlin to Auschwitz on May 17, 1943 and presumably gassed in Auschwitz-Birkenau shortly after his arrival .

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. 376.

Web links

annotation

  1. ^ "On the continued employment of Jewish employees and employees" - minutes of the Ufa board meeting on March 29, 1933
personal data
SURNAME Zeckendorf, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zeckendorf, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German screenwriter and Nazi victim
DATE OF BIRTH January 7, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH uncertain: May 1943
Place of death Auschwitz concentration camp