Kurt Wilhelm (director)

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Kurt Wilhelm (2003)

Kurt Otto Wilhelm (born March 8, 1923 in Munich - Schwabing ; † December 25, 2009 in Straßlach ) was a German director and author .

education

Kurt Wilhelm received his training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. After his first roles at the Burgtheater and the Theater in der Josefstadt in 1942/43, he went to the Schauspielhaus Stuttgart, where he worked as an actor, dramaturge and assistant director.

Conflict with the Nazi regime

In early 1944, the Gestapo arrested Wilhelm and transferred him to a special court. A letter from him had been intercepted in which he was critical of the Nazi regime and then denounced Wilhelm. Kurt Wilhelm should be very lucky: the public prosecutor who was working on his case surprisingly turned out to be anti-Nazi and prevented the 21-year-old dramaturge from being brought to justice. After the war, Wilhelm testified for his rescuer in a denazification process.

In the summer of 1944, Wilhelm, who suffered from polio, was released from remand prison because he was incapable of imprisonment and immediately set out on a journey through Germany to avoid being arrested again. In 1945 Kurt Wilhelm returned to his hometown Munich.

Radio and television

In Munich Wilhelm department head and director at Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich and remained so until 1988. A number of successful radio programs and series as the productions of the dialect radio plays Brummlg'schichten that he together with the later as head of television Komödienstadel became known Olf Fischer or, with Ellis Kaut , he co-authored most of them himself, and the Fleckerlteppich episodes made Wilhelm known and popular with the audience. But the criticism also honored him several times for his programs.

From the 1950s onwards, Wilhelm also played a key role in young German television . Especially his opera productions, which were carefully arranged for television, and operetta productions conducted by Franz Marszalek (together with the radio productions in this area, Wilhelm comes to almost 600 works of music theater set up for radio), but also his directing the first character stories of German television, the came from the pen of Reiner Zimnik and for whom the well-known actor Joachim Fuchsberger acted as spokesman, are to be mentioned as particularly formative from this phase of his work. The latter are part of many collaborations between Kurt Wilhelm and his brother, the composer Rolf Alexander Wilhelm . Kurt Wilhelm was in a relationship with the actress Gerlinde Locker (* 1938). Son Anatol (* 1963) comes from this connection . He has another son with his wife.

theatre

After successfully staging plays at various Munich theaters, he wrote an extremely successful stage adaptation of the popular short story about Kaspar from Brandner for the 1974/75 season for the Munich State Theater , which his great-great-great-uncle Franz von Kobell published in the Fliegende Blätter in 1871 . Wilhelm's comedy Der Brandner Kaspar und das Ewig 'Leben was taken over by various theaters after its premiere at the Residenztheater and also broadcast on German television and edited by Wilhelm himself for radio. This arrangement, in which Fritz Straßner , Gustl Bayrhammer and Toni Berger essentially spoke to the ensemble of the theater performance, was later published as a speech record and is now available as an audio book . The play was a great success for the Munich State Theater from the first performance and was continuously on the repertoire until the 1990s. For Toni Berger, the portrayal of death in Kurt Wilhelm's comedy was the greatest success of his theater career and also something like the role of his life, which he played on stage for almost 20 years.

With Wolf in Mink , Wilhelm brought another piece of his own to the stage in 1984, along with many other stage productions from drama to opera.

Filmography (selection)

Works

Wilhelm was also active as a writer. He wrote novels, short stories and published works on Richard Strauss and his work.

  • Brummlg'schichten. A book about the radio broadcast series, which has Mr. Xaver Brumml's experiences and adventures as content , Munich 1948
  • Everyone says fat. A song of body and love illustrated by Reiner Zimnik , music (i.e. sheet music printed in facsimile ) by Rolf Alexander Wilhelm , Munich, 1956
  • O Maria help! immediately! so that it becomes a real Bavarian , illustrated by Josef Oberberger . Rosenheimer Verlagshaus, Rosenheim, 1978, ISBN 3-475-52235-7
  • Bavarian rarities in verse and prose , with picture stories by Ernst Maria Lang, illustrated by Josef Oberberger. Ehrenwirth Verlag, Munich, 1978, ISBN 3-431-02050-X
  • Paradise, paradise! , 1981
  • Yes, yes - the art! , illustrated by Josef Oberberger, Bayerland Publishing House, Dachau, 1993, ISBN 3-89251-158-6
  • Kaspar from Brandner and life forever , theater version, Rosenheimer Verlag, ISBN 978-3-475-53493-5

Discography

  • Kurt Wilhelm's Brummlg'schichten ISBN 3-934044-55-7 (audio cassettes), ISBN 978-3-934044-80-7 (CD set)
  • Jonas the Angler / Lecturer: The missing melody. Joachim Fuchsberger reads modern fairy tales by Reiner Zimnik. Director: Kurt Wilhelm ISBN 3-8291-1103-7
  • Kurt Wilhelm - The Brandner Kaspar and eternal 'life. Comedy based on a story, motifs and poems by Franz von Kobell. ISBN 3-934044-21-2
  • Hugo Hartung: I often think of Piroschka. Director: Kurt Wilhelm, Ullstein-Hörverlag, Munich 2003 ISBN 3-550-09092-7

honors and awards

such as

annotation

  1. ↑ Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 373.

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Wilhelm, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wilhelm, Kurt Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German director and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 8, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 2009
Place of death Straßlach