János Veiczi

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János Veiczi (born September 30, 1924 in Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary ; † June 26, 1987 in Berlin ) was a Hungarian-German actor, film director and screenwriter, who gained fame primarily for his productions for the DEFA studio for feature films.

Veiczi grave in Berlin-Lichtenberg

Life

János Veiczi was born in Budapest in 1924 as the son of a journeyman cobbler and a seamstress . He grew up in poor conditions. After his parents' failed marriage, Veiczi had to work with his two younger brothers in a children's home in the countryside to earn a living alongside school. He was considered a docile student, so he was able to complete a middle school education and then do the Abitur . To prepare for engineering studies in mechanical engineering and electricity, he spent three years in a Catholic boarding school . After a raid, the school management expelled him from the school because he had made “his own thoughts” during the time of the spreading fascism , and he was considered dangerous and undesirable.

János Veiczi returned to Budapest and found work in an armaments factory. The new Hungarian rulers arranged for his deportation to Germany in 1944 . He was reinstated as a forced laborer in the armaments industry in Berlin . Veiczi, who had meanwhile been married, was able to flee the camp in April 1945 and go into hiding in the capital of the Reich.

When the Second World War ended, Veiczi received permission from the Soviet city command to remain in Berlin, mainly because his wife's illness prevented him from returning to Hungary. In the post-war years he only earned his living doing odd jobs until he finally responded to an advertisement in 1949 with the newly founded film production company DEFA , which was looking for new talent for its film and television productions. He was accepted and was able to study directing and dramaturgy in the company's own up-and-coming studio until 1952 . Veiczi then became assistant director with various directors such as Martin Hellberg , Gerhard Klein , Gustav von Wangenheim , Curt Bois and Carl Balhaus . After four years as an assistant, he made his directorial debut in 1956 with the production of Incident in Benderath , an adaptation of Corrinth's work The Case with Päker and the stage play The Trojans . The contemporary films Reportage 57 and Step by Step followed, until he achieved his greatest success in 1963 with the spy strip For Eyes Only . As a director and screenwriter - together with the writer Harry Thürk - he had presented a current topic with this film that represented a kind of counterpart to James Bond at the time of the Cold War .

In 1967 Veiczi produced the two-part anti-fascist film Die gefrorenen Blitze, one of the most elaborate DEFA productions of the 1960s. At that time, the production cost around 5.1 million marks, which was mainly spent on the stage construction. The new staging in documentary reportage style was rather poorly received by the audience. As a DEFA commissioned work for GDR television , Veiczi realized the 11-part series Rendezvous with unbekannt (1969) about the "pioneering days of the GDR's defense organs" around the Stasi major Wendt, portrayed by Alfred Müller . At the end of the 1970s Veiczi, who was married three times and had two children, withdrew from the film scene.

His final resting place is in the artist graves section at the Friedrichsfelde central cemetery .

Filmography (director)

Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Veiczi, János
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-German actor, film director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Budapest , Kingdom of Hungary
DATE OF DEATH June 26, 1987
Place of death Berlin