Hans Berthel

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Hans Berthel (born October 19, 1914 in Nuremberg ; † January 18, 2003 in Lenggries ) was a German fighter pilot during the Second World War and a busy film architect after 1945 .

The early years as an aviator

Berthel began to discover his enthusiasm for aviation at the age of 16, became a glider pilot and in this context also took part twice in the German aerobatic championships . During the National Socialism , Berthel was called up to the air force and the staff l. Assigned to group. With the rank of lieutenant, the Messerschmitt pilot shot down six enemy (British) machines between October 6, 1939 and September 7, 1940 as a member of JG 52 , mostly over the London area . On September 15, 1940, he was shot down in a dogfight with British fighters in the Margate area .

Berthel was able to save himself by parachute and fell into British captivity, which he spent mainly in Canada . There a fellow prisoner who had been an actor in civil life persuaded the hobby painter Berthel to design and paint the sets for the camp theater.

Work in film and television

Back in Germany (1947), Hans Berthel made contact with stage design at the Kammerspiele there in Munich and attended the Nuremberg art school for two semesters.

In Helmut Käutner's parodistic satire The Apple is off he got to know the film business from the bottom up. Without having a classic professional training, Berthel received his first order for a film architecture in 1950 due to his practical experience. In the following years he worked with established production designers such as Ernst H. Albrecht , Franz Bi and Rochus Gliese . A little later he became the sole chief architect.

In this role, Berthel designed the sets for a series of pure entertainment films, which only rarely (as with Käutner's Sky Without Stars ) had artistic ambitions. Since the early 1960s, he was the chief architect of Wolf C. Hartwig's adventure films, which were mainly made in Southeast Asia. Between 1955 and 1963 his colleagues Robert Stratil and Johannes Ott were put at his side.

In 1964 Berthel withdrew from the cinema business and produced a considerable number of TV documentaries - nearly 60 films of 30 to 40 minutes in length - about Southeast Asia, which were broadcast on the SDR and the WDR .

Berthel, who last lived in Grünwald near Munich, died at the beginning of 2003 in Lenggries, Bavaria.

Filmography (selection)

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 369.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Date of death according to Grünwald municipal office, residents' registration office, from July 23, 2018
  2. ↑ Between August 31 and September 7, 1940 alone, five kills are documented: four hurricanes and one Spitfire in the Kenley , Sittingbourne and Faversham rooms
  3. ↑ http://www.battleofbritainaviationart.com/battle_of_britain_aces.php?PilotID=3894
  4. ↑ http://www.jg52.net/kriegstagebuch/1940/7/
personal data
SURNAME Berthel, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German fighter pilot and film architect
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH January 18, 2003
Place of death Lenggries