Otto Erdmann (film architect)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Otto Erdmann (born December 17, 1898 in Berlin ; † January 23, 1965 there ) was a German film architect with a creative period spanning almost four decades.

Live and act

Erdmann first studied at the School of Applied Arts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin before making his film debut in 1921 as an architectural assistant under his famous colleague Paul Leni .

Two years later, Erdmann began his work as chief architect at the side of Hans Sohnle , with whom he worked as a team for the next 15 years. During this time, the Sohnle / Erdmann team designed a wealth of film-historically not too significant - exception: GW Pabst's Die joudlose Gasse - cinema productions. It wasn't until 1938 that the two separated, and Erdmann went his own way. By the end of the war, he designed the buildings for quite different, mostly less ambitious entertainment films. Only his decorations for Helmut Käutner's highly acclaimed Maupassant adaptation Romanze in Moll , which brought the world of the Parisian bourgeoisie and its salons of the Belle Epoque to the canvas, stand out artistically.

In the early phase of World War II , Erdmann created the decorations for two anti-British Nazi propaganda strips by Max W. Kimmich ( Der Fuchs von Glenarvon , Mein Leben für Irland ), a few years after the end of the war for DEFA, but also the film structures for several again blatantly procommunist propaganda films. In addition, he also outfitted the well-respected DEFA productions Ehe im Schatten , and Der Biberpelz as well as the film adaptation of the opera The funny women of Windsor .

After creating late medieval accessories in the artistically elaborate and politically strongly tendentious DEFA portrait Thomas Müntzer about the farmer's leader of the same name, Erdmann went to the West in 1956, where he limited his craftsmanship and creative skills to second-rate productions - war films, crime thrillers and melodramas had to.

Filmography

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 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 571.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Erdmann, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film architect
DATE OF BIRTH December 17, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Germany
DATE OF DEATH January 23, 1965
Place of death Berlin