Harald Bredow

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Harald Bredow , actually Harald Breckling (born July 10, 1878 in Altona ; † November 5, 1934 in Berlin ), was a German actor , screenwriter , theater director and journalist with a past life as a businessman and diplomat in the imperial era.

Live and act

According to his own statements, Bredow's life was very adventurous. He, the son of the north German writer Sophus Heinrich Breckling (1827-1883) and a pianist who died in 1911, claims to have attended the royal high school in Altona and then received acting lessons from Leo Forst. According to Bredow, after completing a business apprenticeship, he worked for the Hamburg import and export company Louis Ritz & Co. on his way to the German colonies in Africa. He worked for two and a half years in German East Africa, then in the west of the continent ( Gold Coast ) for two years as a factor manager . This time, according to Bredow, was very bad for him, as he had constantly suffered from tropical diseases ( dysentery , malaria , yellow fever ).

Back at home in Hamburg, he claims to have served as secretary in the Argentine consulate for a year and then to have been hotel director in Hamburg and Sopot for two years and to head a forest sanatorium in Berlin-Hermsdorf for another year in the same position. He then began to get enthusiastic about acting and was committed to Berlin's Rose Theater and a German-American stage. The early theatrical joys are said to have only lasted for a short time, because Bredow had suffered from a delayed appendicitis that had tied him to the sickbed for a long time. He then went behind the curtain and was deputy director and director at the Varieté in Elberfeld. As an independent impresario, Bredow then said he traveled to Paris and went on tour there as “general director” with the Nouveau Grand Cirque de Paris. He also claims to have appeared at regular theaters such as the Parisian Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin and the Théâtre François Coppée.

Bredow now claims to have established contact with the French celluloid industry through the film company Éclair and to have received leading roles from this company, for example as an intriguer in Nick Carter films (around 1908 to 1910). He would have received further offers from the companies Lux, Lion, Pathé and Gaumont. As an author and assistant director, he then (all before 1914) also worked with Suzanne Grandais . Surprised by the outbreak of the First World War in France, he was arrested on suspicion of espionage and only deported to Switzerland several years later. He does not want to have returned to Germany until June 1918.

Only after the end of the war in 1918 did Bredow briefly appear in front of the camera, albeit regularly. His film activities ended in 1921. His films, which he made in France before 1914 under the direction of pioneers such as Louis Feuillade , Léonce Perret and Victorin Jasset and for which he also claims to have provided one or the other script manuscript, cannot currently be verified by name.

Filmography

  • 1912: Blanche comme la neige (not verified)
  • 1918: Princess Wolkowska's lace shawl
  • 1919: Vendetta (not secured)
  • 1919: Madame Dubarry (not secured)
  • 1919: Carousel of Life (not secured)
  • 1919: Crucify her (unsecured)
  • 1919: morality and sensuality (not secured)
  • 1919: his last trick
  • 1920: people of today
  • 1920: The Chamber Singer
  • 1920: The master shot
  • 1920: The man in the trap
  • 1920: The ban on kisses
  • 1921: Symphony of Death (also co-script)
  • 1921: cocaine

literature

  • Hans Richter (ed.): Filmstern 1922 . Hans Hermann Richter Verlag, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1921/22, p. 14.
  • Kurt Mühsam / Egon Jacobsohn: Lexicon of the film . Lichtbildbühne publishing house, Berlin 1926. P. 27 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see references
  2. ↑ The doubts about Bredow's self-portrayal can be substantiated here, since the film Das Spitzentuch der Fürstin Wolkowska , in which he was involved, was shot in Germany as early as 1917 and was shown before his alleged return to Germany.
personal data
SURNAME Bredow, Harald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Breckling, Harald (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, screenwriter and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH July 10, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH November 5, 1934
Place of death Germany