Rolf Wenkhaus

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Rolf Wenkhaus (born September 9, 1917 in Berlin , † January 31, 1942 in Western Ireland ) was a German film actor .

Career as a child actor

The son of the theater actor and later DEFA actor Kurt Wenkhaus (1891-1965) was best known for the title role of Emil Tischbein in the first film adaptation of Emil and the detectives based on the novel by Erich Kästner . The film became a worldwide success. A total of around 2,500 boys are said to have registered for the cast, of which fifty were initially shortlisted. Five of them were given the lead roles, including Wenkhaus. Allegedly, after viewing test shots, UFA production manager Carl Meinhardt recommended the boy to director Gerhard Lamprecht because Wenkhaus spoke “with fresh naturalness”. At the time of shooting in July / August 1931 in Potsdam-Babelsberg and Berlin, Wenkhaus was 13 years old.

Child star Rolf Wenkhaus only appeared in three films. In 1932 he took on a small supporting role in the comedy Strich durch den bill with Heinz Rühmann as a racing cyclist. A year later, Wenkhaus played the Hitler Youth Erich Lohner in the first Nazi propaganda film, SA man Brand , who selflessly sacrificed himself for a comrade. Contrary to various claims in the film literature, Wenkhaus did not appear in the film Hitler Youth Quex (1933).

death

After the outbreak of war, Wenkhaus enlisted in the military. He died as a member of the crew of a four-engine Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor bomber specializing in ship targets. The machine with the registration number F8 MH 0093 was shot down on January 31, 1942 off the western Irish coast near Bloody Foreland (County Donegal) by the HMS Genista , which shielded a convoy. The entire six-person crew on the plane was allegedly killed. The body of the pilot, Werner Bornefeld, was washed ashore two weeks later near Bunbeg and buried in the German military cemetery in Glencree . Rolf Wenkhaus, who last lived in Sorau in Silesia, was considered missing and was declared dead on June 6, 1948.

Wenkhaus was not the only leading actor in Emil and the Detectives who fell in World War II : Hans Schaufuss (Gustav) was killed in October 1941, Hans Albrecht Löhr (Tuesday) died in August 1942, both on the Eastern Front.

Filmography

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guntram Vogt: Die Stadt im Film, Schüren 2001, p. 260 f.
  2. ↑ Helga Belach, Hans-Michael Bock (ed.): Emil and the detectives. Screenplay by Billy Wilder based on Erich Kästner for Gerhard Lamprecht's film from 1931. With an introductory essay by Helga Schütz and material on the film by Gabriele Jatho. edition text + kritik (FILMtext), Munich 1998, ISBN 3-88377-582-7 , p. 180
  3. ↑ http://bz-berlin.de/artikel-archiv/die-bz-schrieb-das-drehbuch
  4. ^ Susan Tegel: Nazis and the cinema, Hambledon 2007, p. 57
  5. ↑ Law and Ordinance Gazette of the State of Brandenburg, June 6, 1948, p. 253
personal data
SURNAME Wenkhaus, Rolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film actor
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin , Germany
DATE OF DEATH January 31, 1942
Place of death Ireland