Günther Stapenhorst

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Günther Gustav von Stapenhorst (born June 25, 1883 in Gebweiler in Alsace , † February 2, 1976 in Munich ) was a German officer and film producer .

Life

Von Stapenhorst was the son of a high school director and attended the naval academy after high school and joined the imperial navy in 1900 . In 1916 he took part in the Battle of the Skagerrak , in 1917 he was assigned to the General Staff of the Navy. At the end of the war he was a corvette captain and had to build a new life after demobilization .

In 1919 he became a bank clerk, then an export merchant, and in 1922 a partner in a Hamburg export company. Through the export and rental of films, he came into contact with the film industry, in which he worked from 1924. He took part in Arthur Ziehms Society International Film Exchange until its bankruptcy and entered 1928 as a production manager at the UFA one. Numerous productions were created under his direction, including the first Erich Kästner adaptation Emil and the Detectives .

As the German film industry came more and more under state control, this led to his emigration to England in 1935. There he worked for Alexander Korda as production manager for Gaumont British and London Film. At the beginning of the war he settled in Switzerland. For the small elite film in Zurich he produced the film Verena Stadler .

After founding Gloriafilm on November 19, 1940, he made four more films in Switzerland. Stapenhorst continued to maintain contact with Germany and applied for a management post at UFA in 1941, 1942 and 1943, but this was rejected with reference to his collaboration with Jewish actors. In Switzerland he came under increasing suspicion of espionage. In the spring of 1942 he was forbidden to attend the outdoor shootings of his film Steibruch . After financial losses, he resigned from the board of directors of Gloriafilm on July 16, 1943, but stayed in Switzerland until the end of the war.

In 1948 he returned to Germany and founded Carlton-Film GmbH in Munich in 1949 . "Stapi", as he was called by his friends, produced numerous entertainment films in the 1950s , including three films based on Erich Kästner's novels ( Das doppelte Lottchen , Das fiegen Klassenzimmer and The Disappeared Miniature ) , for which Kästner wrote the scripts.

Baron von Stapenhorst had been married to Charlotte Countess von Brockdorff since 1911. From 1950 until his death, the actress Margot Rupp, who was married to Willem Holsboer , was his life partner. In 1962 he left the management of the company to his son Klaus Stapenhorst . His other son Fritz became a film editor and director , his daughter Lore a screenwriter .

Günther Stapenhorst rests in the Riem cemetery in Munich.

Filmography

Production Manager

production

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Conversation with G. von Stapenhorst about "Verena Stadler". Schweizer Film = Film Suisse: official organ of Switzerland, accessed on June 14, 2020 .


personal data
SURNAME Stapenhorst, Günther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stapenhorst, Günther Gustav von (birth name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer
DATE OF BIRTH June 25, 1883
PLACE OF BIRTH Gebweiler , Alsace
DATE OF DEATH 2nd February 1976
Place of death Munich