Gustav Fröhlich

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Gustav Fröhlich, photograph (around 1929) by Alexander Binder

Gustav Friedrich Fröhlich (born March 21, 1902 in Hanover , † December 22, 1987 in Lugano ) was a German actor and film director . The role of Freder Fredersen in Fritz Lang's science fiction classic Metropolis (1927) brought him great fame . He remained a popular film star in Germany until the 1950s, mostly appearing in the role of the charming gentleman.

life and work

Before 1933

Gustav Fröhlich grew up with foster parents in Hanover and Würzburg . He was the illegitimate child of the engineer Gustav König (1876–1952), director and technical director of the Halle machine factory and father of the later sociologist René König (1906–1992), and the craftsman's daughter Hedwig Therese Sophie Fröhlich. After attending a secondary school in Berlin-Friedenau , he did voluntary service in 1916/17 to monitor the press in Brussels and made his first attempts at writing with groschenheften. In 1919 he began a traineeship at the Lower Saxony regional newspaper in Celle , performed in a variety theater under the stage name "Gustav Geef" and joined the Central Franconian guest performance ensemble in Sontheim. After taking acting classes in Heilbronn , he found his first engagements in Friedberg / Hessen and at the travel theater of the Swabian Volksbühne. In 1921 Gustav Fröhlich went to Berlin , where, on the recommendation of Paul Henckels , he was engaged for two years at the Neues Volkstheater in Köpenickerstraße. From 1923 to 1925 he played at the Volksbühne am Bülowplatz in productions by Erwin Piscator . In the early 1930s he appeared under Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater, including as Prince von Homburg .

A supporting role in Theo Frenkel's Dutch-German co-production A New Life (1922) marks Gustav Fröhlich's film debut. This was followed by leading roles and important supporting roles in a series of silent films, among which Fritz Lang's lavish Ufa film Metropolis (1927) was the most important in terms of film history.

After the introduction of the sound film, Fröhlich was able to continue his career without any problems. In 1930/31 Warner Bros. committed him to Hollywood, where he worked in German versions of American films. In 1931 he appeared in Max Ophüls ' musical comedy Die verliebte Firma alongside Lien Deyers and also in 1931 in Robert Siodmak's criminal drama Preliminary Investigation alongside Hans Brausewetter and Albert Bassermann . He often worked with the director Géza von Bolváry , who used him six times as a leading actor from 1931 to 1933 alone. In 1933 Fröhlich directed the film Rakoczy March for the first time. In addition to Camilla Horn , he also played the main role as usual.

In the Third Reich

In 1931, Merry married the actress Gitta Alpár, who was of Jewish origin . According to Alpár, Fröhlich dismissed her when she was pregnant with their daughter Julika / Julitschka Fröhlich (born 1934). During a reception at the Minister of Culture Joseph Goebbels , he denied his wife in order to be able to approach Goebbels unhindered and not to endanger his personal career. The marriage ended in divorce in 1935 when Alpár was already in exile. Since Fröhlich ideally embodied the type of lover in his roles, who was particularly in demand in National Socialist cinema - the sympathetic but sensible and reliable gentleman and bridegroom - he was sure to have leading roles in numerous films even after the NSDAP came to power . As an actor for police officers, lawyers, officers, engineers and representatives of similar trust-inspiring professions, he was mostly seen alongside the relevant actresses of unsentimental, modern, practical young women such as Marianne Hoppe , Renate Müller , Ilse Werner and Hilde Krahl . He also shot with Sybille Schmitz , Brigitte Horney , Camilla Horn and Käthe von Nagy . In 1941 Gustav Fröhlich married Maria Hajek.

In 1935/36 he stood in front of the camera three times with Lída Baarová ( Lieutenant Bobby, the devil guy , Barcarole , The Hour of Temptation ). He was also privately involved with her during this time. Lida Baarova finally left Gustav Fröhlich because she had an affair with the Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels . In contrast to many other prominent professional colleagues, Fröhlich was not made indispensable after the beginning of the Second World War , but was called up for 18 months in a Poznan Landschützen regiment, which he was only allowed to leave temporarily for filming.

With an average of three main roles per year, Gustav Fröhlich is one of the most prominent and most active male stars of Nazi cinema alongside Hans Albers , Willy Fritsch and Heinz Rühmann .

After the Second World War

Since Gustav Fröhlich had only occasionally worked on propaganda films (exceptions: Alarm in Beijing , The Great King ), he was able to continue his career after the end of the Second World War . As early as 1946, in Helmut Weiss 'Lustspiel Sag' the truth, he stood in for Heinz Rühmann, who was still banned from his profession because of his proximity to the Nazi regime . At the same time he returned to the theater and accepted an engagement at the Brunnenhoftheater of the Bavarian State Theater in Munich. In 1947/48 he directed the film Paths in Twilight for the first time since the end of the war.

Gustav Fröhlich continued to be seen in numerous leading roles in the cinema. His most interesting post-war role was that of the aging, doomed painter Alexander in Willi Forst's film Die Sünderin ( 1951 ), in which he managed to break out of the drawer of the nice, trustworthy charmer for the first time. The real scope of his acting potential was already indicated in 1932 in Max Ophüls ' film Die Verliebte Firma , in which the harmless niceness of Fröhlich's characters appeared broken for the first time and suggested that determination and even violence could be hidden underneath. However, it took a release from the strict dramaturgical norms of Nazi cinema in order to give these ambiguous elements space to unfold. In 1956 he largely withdrew from the film business, after which he only appeared in front of the camera for a few selected film and television appearances until the early 1980s. Until 1953 Gustav Fröhlich belonged to the ensemble of the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus , directed by Gustaf Gründgens . He then played at the Berlin Renaissance Theater and at the Schauspielhaus Zurich . He played regularly in the theater until 1976.

In 1956 he moved to Brissago on Lake Maggiore in Switzerland . In 1972 he was awarded the Silver Plaque of the City of Salzburg and in 1973 the Federal Republic of Germany with the Gold Film Ribbon . He died in 1987 at the age of 85 after an operation in Lugano; his wife Maria had died a few months earlier. His grave is on the urn wall of the Brissago cemetery.

Filmography

Silent films

Sound films

Post war films

Literature and documents

  • Gustav Fröhlich: The big break. Play.
  • Gustav Fröhlich: Those were the times. My film hero life (= Ullstein. No. 22061). Unabridged edition. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1989, ISBN 3-548-22061-4 .
  • Hans-Michael Bock (Ed.): CineGraph. Lexicon for German-language films. Edition Text & Criticism, München 1984 ff. (Loseblattausgabe).
  • Rolf Aurich, Susanne Fuhrmann, Pamela Müller (Red.): Dreams of film. Cinema in Hanover 1896–1991. Catalog for the exhibition of the same name in the Theater am Aegi from October 6 to November 24, 1991. Society for Film Studies, Hanover 1991, p. 156f.
  • René König Schriften, Volume 18, Autobiographical Writings, newly edited by Mario and Oliver König and with an afterword by Oliver König, Opladen (Leske + Budrich) 1999
  • GenoGraph - family tree "König family" as of April 8, 2011, created and transmitted by Dr. Oliver König, Cologne

Web links

Commons : Gustav Fröhlich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. René König. Autobiographical writings . New ed. by Mario and Oliver König, with an afterthought. by Oliver König, Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2000, ISBN 3-8100-2392-2 . (Series René König Writings Volume 18)
  2. Zürcher Illustrierte, 1933: Photography, Gustav Fröhlich and Gitta Alpár and CH. Weissmann from the Emelka-Filmgesellschaft, in St.Moritz, 1933. Retrieved October 23, 2019 .
  3. ^ According to an interview by Herlinde Kölbel with Alpáry, quoted by Ursula El-Akramy: The Berend sisters. Story of a Berlin family. Europäische Verlags-Anstalt, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-434-50491-5 , p. 280.