Robert Herlth

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Robert Paul Fritz Herlth (born May 2, 1893 in Wriezen , Brandenburg ; † January 6, 1962 in Munich , Bavaria ) was one of the most important German set designers (film architects) of the 20th century.

Life

Robert Herlth graduated from the University of Fine Arts in Berlin in 1914, specializing in painting. After that he was drafted into military service. From 1916 to 1918 he worked as a set designer at the Heerestheater in Vilnius . After the war he continued this work in film from 1920. Hermann Warm brought him to the Decla-Bioscop. Herlth designed costumes and decorations together with Walter Röhrig . With Warm, he created the equipment for Fritz Lang's Der müde Tod (1921).

Herlth and Röhrig were hired by Ufa and combined expressionist elements with the facilities of the chamber feature film in their interior design . Herlth and Röhrig develop particular creativity for the films by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau , who himself actively participates in the design process.

The close collaboration with Röhrig lasted until 1936. Gustav Ucicky is the director with whom they work most often, and they also met the cameramen Carl Hoffmann and Fritz Arno Wagner several times. Her students at that time included u. a. Anton Weber . Herlth's only directorial work was done in 1936; in co-direction with Röhrig he shot the fairy tale film Hans im Glück , in which Rudolf Biebrach can be seen in one of his last roles. In 1937 Robert Herlth went to Tobis , and from 1939 he set out entertainment films for Terra Film .

After the war, Herlth worked as a set designer at several Berlin theaters. His first film work of the post-war period was made in Munich for Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1947). Robert Herlth received the Federal Film Award for the Thomas Mann film adaptation of Buddenbrooks (1959) . After 1961 he worked exclusively for television. His brother Kurt Herlth , with whom he worked several times, was also a production designer.

Robert Herlth was buried in the Grünwald forest cemetery near Munich.

Filmography

literature

  • Ron Schlesinger: cows, beetles, high animals. Robert Herlths and Walter Röhrig's HANS IM GLÜCK (1936) between experimental fairy tale films and propagandistic "big fun" . In: Filmblatt, Volume 16, No. 46/47, Winter 2011/12, ISSN  1433-2051 , pp. 85-94.
  • 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 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 644.
  • The book Filmarchitektur Robert Herlth by the German Institute for Film and Television, Munich (the forerunner of the HFF Munich ) was also published on Robert Herlth in 1965 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Herlth, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Herlth, Robert Paul Fritz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German production designer
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Wriezen , Brandenburg, Germany
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1962
Place of death Munich , Bavaria, Germany