Georg Hugo Will

Georg Hugo Will , also: Georg H. Will and Georg Will (* around 1898 ; † December 14, 1965 in Hanover ) was a German dramaturge , cabaret manager , theater director and film salesman and brother-in-law of the film actress Marlene Dietrich .

Life

The end of the 19th century, born George Will was after the First World War, one of the founders of the against the Weimar Republic and the democratic wing paramilitary Freikorps Oberland and boasted later that he may have in the "liberation of Munich and Upper Silesia in the ranks of the corps “Participated.

Georg Will married Elisabeth Dietrich (Ottilie Josephine Elisabeth Dietrich; * February 5, 1900 in Schöneberg near Berlin; † May 8, 1973 in Bergen), the older sister of Marlene Dietrich. "Liesel" had previously worked as a teacher, gave for her husband and son Hans-Georg Will (* June 10, 1928; † January 30, 2013). took up the profession, subsequently acted more as an accessory to her husband: Georg Will, often wearing a tailcoat and top hat, towered over his wife by more than 30 centimeters. For his sister-in-law Marlene, who called her sister, whom she loved as a brother and sister, who was later publicly denied, as a “virtue pug”, the careerist theater manager and poseur Will was just a “crude guy”, whom Dietrich was correspondingly opposed to.

At the end of the 1920s, Will published the magazine Theater und Kunst together with Frank Wysbar .

In the early 1930s, Georg Will ran the Tribüne theater in Berlin , ran a restaurant in the Theater des Westens and, together with the composer Friedrich Hollaender, ran the Tingel-Tangel cabaret . After the seizure of power by the National Socialists him were 1933 and 1934 but revoked the licenses for the operation of gambling, what a kind of prohibition equaled, though welcome in 1933 the NSDAP had joined.

While Dietrich emigrated to the USA on the evening of the premiere of her film The Blue Angel and then spoke out decisively against the Hitler regime, Georg Will served the party: In a letter to the State Commissioner in the Propaganda Ministry, his "party comrade" Hans Hinkel , he recalled the invaluable service that Will had rendered to the "movement" through his participation in the Oberland Freikorps . Finally, Will let himself be hired by Joseph Goebbels , the Reich Progagal Leader, to persuade “Die Dietrich” to return to Germany. This did not succeed, but Georg Will was rewarded for his efforts: In 1937 he was given the management of three troop cinemas operated for the Wehrmacht and the SS : While he was managing director in Fallingbostel - Oerbke in the Lüneburg Heath and in Wildflecken in the Rhön he took over in Bergen-Belsen in person the management of the play of light house Bergen-Belsen , the time with almost 2,000 seats, the largest troop cinema.

After Will's move to Bergen-Belsen, his wife Elisabeth and son Hans-Georg followed him there in 1939 before the war began. The family had a “comfortable apartment” there during the Second World War , until the couple had to vacate the apartment after the Allied invasion by order of the British military government . In addition, Will was withdrawn from running the troop cinemas. Even before the war actually ended, Marlene Dietrich visited her sister Elisabeth in Bergen-Belsen on May 7, 1945. But the famous film star decided to publicly deny his sister in the future in order not to harm “her clean image ”. Liesel agreed not to give interviews; the two sisters have only remained in contact since then. A few days later, Will's son Hans-Georg returned to his parents on May 20, 1945 from captivity.

Will presented himself to the British troops as an “anti-Nazi”: In June 1945 he received permission to direct the now British troop cinema on the grounds of the barracks in Bergen-Belsen. The lease for the cinema was not extended until April 1, 1950.

In 1951 Georg Will left his wife and took over the Metropol-Lichtspiele in Hanover , which he had previously renovated.

From 1959, Georg Will took over from the city of Bad Münder as well as the hotel and spa operations of the Heilbad am Deister for a few years . But by the end of 1962, in early 1963, the Hanoverian film salesman gave up the management of the spa again. On August 1, 1963, the municipality finally took over the operation of the spa complex and the healing springs in Will.

Georg H. Will was a member of the executive committee of the Wiesbaden- based Central Association of German Film Theaters . He died on December 14, 1965 in Hanover.

literature

Heinrich Thies : Fesche Lola, good Liesel. Marlene Dietrich and her denied sister. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-455-00161-7 , passim ; limited preview in Google Book search

Archival material

Archives by and about Georg Hugo Will can be found, for example

as a brochure Tonlichtspiele Troop Exercise Area Bergen-Belsen
published by Georg H. Will
- in the Bergen City Archives
- in the Lower Saxony state archive in Hanover, identification 1241 Osterheide Community-free district of Osterheide - Baumann collection

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Heinrich Thies: Fesche Lola, brave Liesel. Marlene Dietrich and her denied sister. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-455-00161-7 , passim; limited preview in Google Book search
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Elisabeth Will: In the shadow of the blue angel ... , In: Die Zeit No. 40 of September 28, 2017.
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Claudia Schumacher: Biographien / Heimliche Schwesternliebe ... , in: Die Weltwoche , 85th year, No. 44 of November 2, 2007, p. 62f. ( Digitized version ).
↑ Thomas Elsaesser, Michael Wedel: The BFI companion to German cinema . British Film Institute, London 1999, p. 255; limited preview in Google Book search
↑ Literature / The secretive Dietrich sister , article on the page of the daily newspaper Die Welt from December 18, 2017
↑ Stamm guide through press and advertising. Press and media manual. Annual directory through press and advertising , Essen, Ruhr: Stamm-Verlag, 1961, p. 258; limited preview in Google Book search
↑ Kurt-Werner Seebo: From old time / Marlene and her sister , in: Official Journal for the City of Bergen , No. 2 of April 22, 2005, p. 7; also as a PDF document from bergen-online-de .
↑ Compare the information in the Arcinsys Lower Saxony archive information system , archive signature NLA HA Nds. 1241 Osterheide Acc. 2006/011 No. 283 .

personal data
SURNAME	Will, Georg Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Will, Georg H .; Will, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German dramaturge, cabaret manager, theater manager, film salesman and hotelier
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1898
DATE OF DEATH	December 14, 1965
Place of death	Hanover

[Elisabeth-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l ^m ⁿ ^o Heinrich Thies: Fesche Lola, brave Liesel. Marlene Dietrich and her denied sister. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2017, ISBN 978-3-455-00161-7 , passim; limited preview in Google Book search

[Die_Zeit,_Ausgabe_40_(2017)-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Elisabeth Will: In the shadow of the blue angel ... , In: Die Zeit No. 40 of September 28, 2017.

[Tugendmoppel-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Claudia Schumacher: Biographien / Heimliche Schwesternliebe ... , in: Die Weltwoche , 85th year, No. 44 of November 2, 2007, p. 62f. ( Digitized version ).

[4] Thomas Elsaesser, Michael Wedel: The BFI companion to German cinema . British Film Institute, London 1999, p. 255; limited preview in Google Book search

[5] Literature / The secretive Dietrich sister , article on the page of the daily newspaper Die Welt from December 18, 2017

[6] Stamm guide through press and advertising. Press and media manual. Annual directory through press and advertising , Essen, Ruhr: Stamm-Verlag, 1961, p. 258; limited preview in Google Book search

[7] Kurt-Werner Seebo: From old time / Marlene and her sister , in: Official Journal for the City of Bergen , No. 2 of April 22, 2005, p. 7; also as a PDF document from bergen-online-de .

[8] Compare the information in the Arcinsys Lower Saxony archive information system , archive signature NLA HA Nds. 1241 Osterheide Acc. 2006/011 No. 283 .