Rudolf Werner Kipp

Rudolf Werner Kipp (born August 26, 1919 in Eichwalde , Teltow district , † January 15, 1990 in Hamburg ) was a German documentary filmmaker , cameraman, author and producer .

Years of apprenticeship

Rudolf Werner Kipp was the son of a graphic artist. His enthusiasm for films already began during his time at the secondary school in Eichswalde. Together with his friend Jan Thilo Haux (who later became the head cameraman of Norddeutscher Rundfunk), he bought a film camera and projection equipment, shot short film sequences, edited and edited them and organized film screenings in the school.

After graduating from high school in Berlin, he worked for a few months as a commercial trainee at a company for surgical instruments and at the same time produced his first small film entitled Beautiful Germany . He applied to the Tobis film company in Berlin and in 1939 got a job as a picture assistant candidate . He rose to be the assistant to various cameramen, including Friedel Behn-Grund , Bruno Mondi and Fritz Arno Wagner . He also attended courses in photo chemistry and photo optics and took lessons at the Hans Schulze directing and acting school.

War years

In 1940 he was drafted into military service. In 1941 he volunteered for the propaganda company to make films. At first he was employed as an editor , soon as a film reporter. Until the end of the war , he worked in a team with the photographer Fritz Kemper (later head of the State State Image Office Hamburg) and the journalist Martin S. Svoboda (later head of the Tagesschau in Hamburg). During various work holidays and UK leave he was able to work for Tobis again at times. Together with Jan Thilo Haux and Heinrich Klemme , he founded the Atlantis production group and shot articles primarily for UFA and the German newsreel .

Work in the post-war period

After his release from brief British captivity in 1945, Kipp set up a film service for young refugees, got his first film orders from the Hamburg cultural authorities and produced radio plays for the NWDR . Since Kipp was not a party member , he was soon able to work for the Anglo-American newsreel world in film . In 1947 he received the license as a cameraman and producer from the British military government . Together with Heinrich Klemme and Günther Sawatzki, he founded the Atlantis production group in Hamburg in 1948 , which was soon renamed Deutsche Dokumentarfilm GmbH and specialized in short documentary films.

Kipp's best-known works of this time included the titles Lifelines , Asylum Law and The Salvage of the New York. In: Asylrecht Kipp observed refugees from the eastern zone on their arrival in the west, during their registration and examination. Most of the refugees were sent back. Kipp is one of the first German filmmakers to receive awards at international festivals after the war. After the currency reform , which worsened the financial framework for him, his company had to file for bankruptcy at the end of 1950. Rudolf W. Kipp received orders from the Tagesschau and reported together with Jürgen Roland from the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki .

The life's work

In 1950, Kipp founded Rudolf W.Kipp-Filmproduktion (RKF) . By the eighties, the company produced over a hundred cultural, commercial, industrial and educational films. On behalf of the Institute for Film and Image and the Institute for Scientific Film , image documents were created on the history of film and the emergence of the two German states . The company's clients also included public-law institutions such as NWDR , WDR and ZDF and individual companies. Commercials for companies such as BP, Ruhrkohle, Sunil, Nivea and Kaba were important for the financing of the film company.

In a film bunker , Kipp not only stored his own works, but also a collection of rare film sequences and films by colleagues, plus scripts, photos and correspondence. His estate is now kept by the Hannover Culture Archive . Some of Kipp's films and reports, some of them on 35mm film, can be viewed at the Hamburg State Image Office. Rudolf W. Kipp died in Hamburg in January 1990.

Awards (selection)

• 1949 Venice International Film Festival (IFF): Silver medal for salvage of the New York
• 1949 Venice Biennale : Special award for the right of asylum
• 1965 IFF of the first world exhibition of transport in Munich : 1st prize (special cinematic achievement in the space travel group) for advance into the unknown
• 1966 Deutsches Industriefilm-Forum Düsseldorf (DIF): Excellent rating for venturing into the unknown and summer at the South Pole
• 1966 International Industry Festival Rouen : Bronze medal for foray into the unknown
• 1968 DIF Munich: Rating very good for shipyard test drive
• 1969 International Industrial Film Festival Berlin: 1st prize in category B for: The 7th continent
• 1971 DIF Bonn: Predicate good for thank you and have a good trip / people at petrol stations

Publications

• Image effect and tension in the amateur film. In: Filmwelt. No. 32 of August 11, 1939.
• Causes and Effects of Film Editing. In: Film Kurier. No. 271, November 18, 1941.
• Film without legs or breasts / On the history of industrial film. In: Film-Echo / Filmwoche May 8, 1970.
• SOS: How do I save my films? In: Narrow film and video films. No. 9, September 1984, pp. 379-381.
• It doesn't get any more black and white: shadow plays. In: Narrow film. The magazine for film amateurs. No. 6, June 1985, p. 232 ff.

literature

• Volker Reissmann: Kipp, Rudolf . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 6 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-8353-1025-4 , p. 161-162 .

Web links

• Rudolf W. Kipp. In: CineGraph. Lexicon for German-language films. Retrieved January 24, 2016 . 
• Rudolf Werner Kipp in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Footnotes

1. ^ The situation in Germany 1945/46 , compilation of historical film material by Rudolf Kipp. 16 minutes on Umatic , archived by the Landesbildstelle Hamburg.
2. ^ Lisa Joos in Film und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg: The German Documentary Film Society. ( filmmuseum-hamburg.de ( Memento of the original from August 2, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ). 
3. ↑ Film documents on the development of Hamburg 1906–1989. State Image Point Hamburg 1989.