Martin Rikli

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Martin Rikli (born January 19, 1898 in Zurich ; † April 7, 1969 there ) was a Swiss director and documentary filmmaker during the Nazi era and an important cultural filmmaker of the 1920s and 1930s. Rikli's father was the Swiss botanist and plant geographer Martin Albert Rikli .

Life

Rikli attended high school in Zurich and studied chemistry at the ETH Zurich . In 1921 he graduated as an engineering chemist. As early as 1919 he founded the Academic Aviation Society in Zurich under the name "Agis", of which he was president until 1921. It was at this time that the first aerial photographs of the Alps were taken. In 1921 he moved to Dresden to study scientific photography with Professor Robert Luther and colloidal chemistry with Professor Lottermänner at the Scientific Photography Institute of the Chemical Department of the Saxon Technical University in Dresden . In 1923 Martin Rikli graduated with a doctorate on the subject of "The dependence of the flammability of photographic cellulose films on chemical age" advertised by Dresden-based Zeiss Ikon with the rating "very good" as a doctoral engineer. For this work Rikli received the Ica Mimosa Foundation Prize. He was hired as a research assistant in the test room of the Zeiss Ikon, which was headed by Professor Emanuel Goldberg . Here he was involved in the development of the Kinamo as well as an electric motor specially designed for this hand-held camera for slow-motion and time-lapse recordings and an apparatus for microfilming. Research focused on micro-photography and micro-cinematography. This is how the full-length film An der Schwelle des Lebens (1926) came about, which mainly showed microscopic images of flora and fauna. Rikli published several scientific articles in the magazine Filmtechnik and for some time was responsible for the editing of the Zeiss-Ikon magazine Die Projektionstechnik .

In addition, he gave national and international scientific lectures on the research results obtained in the test room. On behalf of Zeiss Ikon he organized and supervised exhibitions and gave advanced training courses for teachers in optics and production technology. In 1927, because of his special knowledge, he was offered the opportunity to accompany a film safari to Africa as a cameraman. This became his expedition, on which he tested tropical film materials for Zeiss Ikon and wrote photo reports for the Dresdner Anzeiger . As a result, he succeeded in making a long cultural film entitled Heia Safari . This movie was released in Dresden successful than the film spies of Fritz Lang , after which Martin Rikli from the cultural department of the UFA was hired as a research assistant and cameraman. A year later, the contract was extended to include the role of director. Rikli was responsible for films on chemical and physical topics in the UFA's cultural department, but was also able to regularly shoot expedition films in China, Abyssinia and other regions of the world.

Nordlandbilder (1928) was the first well-known cultural film that Rikli made for UFA. As a cameraman and director, he made the short documentary Waldeszauber (1929) in 1928/29 . In Werden und Vergehen , Rikli worked with enlargements and time-lapse recordings. In this film he showed the growth of mold, observed a Venus flytrap and looked at biological processes that create milk and honey. He called these films "Filmed Knowledge". In this sense, he explains in his film Breathing is Life from 1929 the breathing of people, animals and plants.

In 1929 he shot a series of short films on an expedition in North Africa, which were also awarded as a full-length film Land of Shadows . As a further result of this expedition he published the richly illustrated book On the Edge of the Sahara . Parts of these films were incorporated as documentary film sequences for the film On the Edge of the Sahara . For the recordings of the work of the sponge fishermen, he developed the first simple underwater film apparatus. He then made several films on physical topics, and he worked on various commercials, such as He comes (Bolle) or Relaxation with Wolfgang Kaskeline .

At the beginning of 1932 Martin Rikli was sent to China as special rapporteur for the Manchurian crisis . There he shot and shot 15 newsreel subjects. After reporting on the military occupation, he shot material for various cultural films, such as In the Shrine of Ling Yin (1932), and materials that he used in the film Wonderful Buildings from China's Empire (1934).

In the film Mit Kreuzer Königsberg in See (1933) he told of working on a ship of the Navy. First Rikli edited films from the materials of other cameramen before he started making his own films again from mid-1934. Martin Rikli's works between 1933 and 1944 are divided into two areas: he made films that continued to make the phenomena of nature and science understandable to an interested audience and arouse their curiosity, as well as film productions that deal with the relevant topics of everyday National Socialism and dedicated to state-supporting areas. For example, in 1934, in collaboration with the research institutes for hydraulic engineering and shipbuilding in Berlin, Hanover and Hamburg, the film Currents and Eddy was made . Based on his experience as a pilot, he was offered the opportunity to accompany several Junkers flights. This is how u. a. the film FP1 becomes reality via a platform in the Atlantic where mail planes could stop on their way to Latin America. In the same year Rikli also shot Gorch Fock about the training of sailors and roads without obstacles about the construction of the Reichsautobahn. Then Rikli went on a six-month expedition to Abyssinia on behalf of UFA. During this time, at least 15 newsreels, dozens of photo reports for newspapers and magazines as well as the full-length cultural film Abyssinia Today - Blickpunkt der Welt (1935) were made. Five thematic short films were awarded as extracts from this film. Rikli had also put together an exhibition on “Abyssinian Art”, which opened on the occasion of the premiere in Berlin. He left Abyssinia before the outbreak of war with Italy. In 1935 his book How I saw Abyssinia was published by Scherl-Verlag , and he gave lectures on the country during the Italo-Ethiopian War . Another book called Strange Abyssinia: As a film reporter at the court of the Negus was published in 1946, and in 1950 Rikli planned another expedition to Abyssinia.

In 1936 Rikli worked on a film Attention Recording , in which he used the example of the various departments involved in a film production to explain the special requirements that color film places on all those involved. This film has only survived in fragments. Films were made about physical phenomena and the interrelationships of the world - such as Infinite Space (1937) or Pulse of the Sea (1937) and Hussars of the Sea (1937). The highlight of this year was the film X-rays about "X-ray cinematography", which it was hoped would provide additional medical knowledge. This amusing film full of surprising discoveries won first prize for the best scientific film at the Venice Film Festival and the Grand Prix at the World Exhibition in Paris. In 1937 Martin Rikli made at least six cultural films. The full-length film Flieger, Funker, Kanoniere was also made in 1937 on behalf of the Reich Aviation Ministry . For this portrait of the Luftwaffe, Rikli assembled excerpts from the training of young pilots with maneuver shots.

This was followed by films such as Sun, Earth, Moon (1938), Basic Substances of Nutrition (1938), Work Maiden Helping (1938), Science Pointing New Paths (1939) or Symphony of the Clouds (1939), to name but a few. The events of the war are already reflected in films from 1939/1940, such as Radium , Schießen und Treffen or Jugend flies .

In 1940 Martin Rikli traveled to Norway on behalf of the High Command of the Wehrmacht to assemble the film Battle for Norway - Campaign 1940 from materials from the Reich propaganda companies and other embedded Wehrmacht film locations and some confiscated material from Norwegian cameramen . From 1940 three more cultural films followed on topics of aerodynamics and micro-photography. From 1942 Rikli tried to return to Switzerland; During this period up to his discharge and departure in 1944, there were only a few productions left, such as Wolkenspiel or Earthquakes and Volcanoes , for which Martin Rikli drew.

From the end of 1944 he lived in Zurich again. In 1945 he received an order for several cultural films from the Swiss Central Transport Authority, which was withdrawn two months later. An article appeared in the Basler National-Zeitung that attacked Martin Rikli because of the film and the booklet Flieger, Funker, Kanoniere . Rikli filed a voluntary report.

In 1946 and 1947, Martin Rikli worked for Iris-Film and made the films Clouds as Weather Prophet and White Veil , among others . He also held lectures and lectures on color photography and wrote for the trade journal Photo-Beratung. Illustrated monthly magazine for the photo amateur . In 1948 and 1949 he made several industrial films. His film Himmelsbrandung was shown at the Hamburg Short Film Festival and received a “Special Award” at the Venice Biennale. In 1950 he founded a color photography institute in Zurich. He continued to give specialist lectures, photographed and processed various orders.

In 1969 he died of a heart condition.

The film historian Kerstin Stutterheim published a detailed lexicon article on the life and work of Rikli in the lexicon of the German-language film CineGraph .

Films (selection)

  • By plane from Thun past the Stockhorn and Niesen over the Bernese Alps to the Rhone Valley (1924)
  • Egypt, the land of the pyramids (1925)
  • On the threshold of life. On forays of the naturalist with a telescope, magnifying glass and microscope (1925)
  • Hey Safari! (1927/28)
  • Nordlandbilder (1928)
  • Pearl farming in Japan (1928)
  • Breathing is life (1928/29)
  • Land without a shadow (1929/30)
  • Gold of the North (1931)
  • Invisible clouds. A film about making warm air visible (1931/32)
  • The Mysterious Ship (1932)
  • Film diary from the war in China (1932)
  • In the Ling Yin Shrine (1932)
  • A fountain of youth in the Middle Kingdom (1932)
  • FP1 becomes reality (1934)
  • Gorch Fock. Pictures of life and work on the sailing training ship of the German Reichsmarine (1934)
  • Wonderful buildings from China's imperial era (1934)
  • Currents and Eddies (1934)
  • Roads without obstacles. A film about the Reichsautobahn (1934/35)
  • Abyssinia today - the world's point of view! (1935)
  • Infinite Space (1936)
  • The pulse of the sea (1936/37)
  • Blessing of the Cold (1937)
  • We're Conquering Land (1937)
  • X-rays (1937)
  • Cold ... colder ..., coldest ... A film about the creation of low temperatures (1937)
  • Attention! Asia marches! (1937)
  • Sun, Earth, Moon (1938)
  • Labor maids help (1938)
  • Basic nutrients (1938)
  • Symphony of the Clouds (1939)
  • Aviators at Sea (1938/39)
  • Science shows new ways (1939)
  • Islands in the Sand Sea (1940)
  • Battle for Norway - Campaign 1940
  • Windy Problems (1941)
  • Cloud Play (1943)
  • Kitchen Magic (1943)
  • Clouds as Weather Prophets (1947)
  • Skybreak (1949)
  • Laying cables (1949)
  • Trolleybus (1949)

See also

literature

  • Martin Rikli: I filmed for millions. Rides, adventures and memories of a film reporter. Berlin 1942.
  • Jeanpaul Goergen: Propaganda for a modern Ethiopia. Martin Rikli as Ufa special reporter in Abyssinia in 1935. In: Filmblatt. Volume 16, No. 45 Summer 2011, ISSN  1433-2051 , pp. 3–16.
  • Kerstin Stutterheim: X-rays and kitchen magic. Cultural films of the twenties and thirties by Martin Rikli. In: Filmblatt. Volume 10, No. 10 Spring / Summer 2005, ISSN  1433-2051 , pp. 33-39.
  • Kerstin Stutterheim: Martin Rikli - director, author, producer. In: CineGraph - Lexicon of German-Language Films. Volume 38.

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Martin Rikli: On the edge of the Sahara. Verlag Reimar Hobbing, Berlin 1930, 77 images
  2. ↑ Martin Rikli: How I saw Abyssinia. Scherl, Berlin 1935, illustrated in color
  3. ^ Detlev Wissinger: Memories of a tropical doctor. Hamburg 2002, p. 12
  4. ↑ Martin Rikli: Strange Abyssinia: As a film reporter at the court of the Negus. Interverl.-AG, Zurich 1946
  5. ^ Daniel Gethmann: The Narvik Project. Film and war. Bonn 1998, p. 234 f.
  6. ^ Kerstin Stutterheim: Martin Rikli. In: CineGraph - Lexicon for German-language film. Edited by Hans-Michael Bock. Text and criticism, München. Loose-leaf collection, delivery 38
  7. ↑ Martin Rikli, I film for millions. 1944. Schweizer Film = Film Suisse: official Swiss organ, accessed on June 22, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Rikli, Martin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss director and documentary filmmaker
DATE OF BIRTH January 19, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1969
Place of death Zurich