Walter Frentz

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Walter Frentz (lying) during the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin's Olympic Stadium

Walter Frentz (born August 21, 1907 in Heilbronn ; † July 6, 2004 in Überlingen ) was a German cameraman , filmmaker , photographer , speaker, and kayak pioneer. Frentz was instrumental in the visual language and propaganda of the “ Third Reich ”. During the time of National Socialism he first worked as a cameraman for Leni Riefenstahl , from 1939 to 1945 he was a war correspondent for the German newsreel in the immediate vicinity of Adolf Hitler . In addition to his official film work, he took private photographs of people and life in the Führer headquarters during these years , mainly in color in the last years of the war. After 1945, his film recordings and photographs had a major impact on the public image of the Third Reich. Although Frentz was not a member of the NSDAP , he was fundamentally positive about National Socialism - he joined the SS in 1941 - and never distanced himself from Hitler.

Life

Youth and first kayak films

Walter Frentz's father Albert Frentz was a cook in Heilbronn, his mother's name was Wilhelmine geb. Closer. In 1912 the family moved to Stuttgart .

Even as a child, Walter Frentz was enthusiastic about water sports and photography. Through the youth movement he came to canoeing in 1923 . In 1927 he began studying electrical engineering at the TH Munich . The following year he founded the Hochschulring Deutscher Kajakfahrer Kiel . The organization of water sports enthusiasts at German universities and colleges, a member of the German Canoe Association (DKV), he headed for six years as "ring guide". In 1930, after moving to the TH Berlin , he started making kayak films ( white water paradises in Austria and Yugoslavia , through rock domes to the Mediterranean , white water rafting through the black mountains ). He developed into a master of the handheld camera. His recordings were among the first to be shot in a kayak of white water rides . The films, which were spectacular for the time, brought him early fame among canoeists.

Cameraman for Leni Riefenstahl

Walter Frentz with Leni Riefenstahl in the Berlin Olympic Stadium in 1936 on a camera car, pushed by Riefenstahl's assistant Wolfgang Brüning

In 1933 the UFA hired him for the cultural film Wasser hat Balke , for which Frentz made film recordings on board the Hamburg on the way to New York. In the same year Albert Speer , whom Frentz had met while paddling, recommended him to Leni Riefenstahl as a cameraman for the NSDAP - party conference film The Victory of Faith . Frentz subsequently became one of Riefenstahl's most important cameramen and shaped the visual style of her propaganda films significantly. Until 1936 he was involved in all of the director's films - such as Triumph des Willens and the Olympic films Festival of the Nations and Festival of Beauty by Olympia-Film GmbH.Some of the sequences he shot are among the best-known from these films, such as Adolf Hitler's drive through Nuremberg in Triumph of Will or the marathon in Olympia . Frentz's specialty has always been the “ subjective camera ”. In addition, between 1934 and 1938, he shot his own cultural films and propaganda films ( hands on the work , Albania logbook , glider pilots on the Wasserkuppe , artists at work ) , some of which were commissioned by the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda .

"Leader's cameraman"

Photo taken by Frentz of the briefing at the headquarters of Army Group South in Poltava, June 1, 1942

In April 1938 he accompanied Hitler to Ufa - Newsreel on a campaign trip through Austria shortly after the so-called port . At the beginning of September 1939 he began his work as a newsreel war reporter in the Führer headquarters , assigned to the Luftwaffe . One of the first known recordings is Hitler's victory parade in Warsaw on October 5, 1939. On June 17, 1940, he filmed Hitler's famous movements in the Führer headquarters near Brûly-de-Pesche in Belgium. Dance of Joy ”after Hitler learned of the French armistice request. Frentz was also there as a cameraman on Hitler's short visit to Paris with Speer , Arno Breker and Hermann Giesler .

Frentz as a Nazi photographer

In addition to his work as a war reporter, he always photographed a lot, initially both in black and white and in color, and since 1943 almost exclusively in color. The photographs show Hitler during briefings in the " Wolfsschanze ", weapons demonstrations, front drives, in front of architectural models and in private surroundings on the Berghof . In addition, Frentz took a lot of pictures of visitors and people from Hitler's environment such as Julius Schaub , Martin Bormann , Heinrich Himmler or Albert Speer , but also of Eva Braun , Traudl Junge or Hitler's shepherdess Blondi . The photos were not intended for publication. After the death of the Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition, Fritz Todt , on February 8, 1942, Hitler commissioned him to make colored studio portraits of the greats of the "Third Reich" - politicians, military, party officials, industrialists and, above all, knight's cross bearers - and state guests. Thousands of portraits were made by 1945. Some of these pictures have been shown in exhibitions as duxochrome prints.

The trip to Minsk in 1941

In August 1941, a few weeks after the German attack on the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941), Frentz accompanied Himmler to Minsk as a photo reporter . The inspection trip by " Reichsführer SS " Himmler essentially served the further planning and implementation of the organized mass murder in the Soviet Union . On August 15, 1941, Frentz was also present at a mass shooting carried out for Himmler. Shortly after the trip he was accepted into the SS , but does not seem to have actively exercised this membership.

Film projects during the Second World War

For the German newsreel , Frentz made recordings not only in the Führer headquarters , but also in the theaters of war. In June 1942 he filmed the shelling of Sevastopol . Frentz also received internal film commissions, mostly from Albert Speer . These include film documentaries about the fortifications on the Atlantic coast (" Atlantic Wall ") and in the Alps and about armaments projects such as the "Retaliation Weapon" A4 . In the course of the film work, a number of color photos were taken in the “Mittelwerk” of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp , where the A4 rocket was made by forced laborers . The staged photos, which do not show the suffering of the prisoners and the cruel treatment by the SS, are now widely used image sources on forced labor during the “Third Reich”.

Frentz as a rubble photographer and the last newsreel shots of Hitler

At the beginning of 1945, Frentz began to photograph war-torn German cities in color: Berlin, Dresden, Frankfurt am Main, Freiburg, Heilbronn, Cologne, Munich, Nuremberg, Paderborn, Ulm. At the end of March 1945, Frentz made the last film recordings of Hitler, which are among his most famous recordings today: Hitler honors child soldiers in the courtyard of the New Reich Chancellery . On April 24, 1945, Frentz left Berlin and spent the last days of the war on Obersalzberg .

Professional activity after 1945

In 1945/46 Frentz was interned twice for a short time by the Americans. His lack of fame enabled him to quickly return to work as a cultural filmmaker and traveling speaker. He gave slide shows at adult education centers until the 1990s . However, he could no longer build on his pre-war successes.

His film work after 1945 was of rather marginal importance, he made tourism films for the DJH (“Schau ins Land”), educational and information films for federal ministries (“This is how it should be, the pig”) and again kayak films. Since the 1960s, various authors (including John Toland , David Irving , Gitta Sereny ) interviewed him as contemporary witnesses. Around this time he also began to market his pictures from the Nazi era on a smaller scale. The growing interest in color photography from the “Third Reich” then led to an increased use of his photographs in German and foreign print media in the 1990s. The recordings were used for serious publications and press products as well as received and journalistic use in right-wing and right-wing extremist circles.

The German Canoe Association awarded Frentz the “DKV Silver Badge of Honor” at the 1977 German Canoe Day in Recklinghausen.

family

Frentz married the widow Edeltrude Esser in 1949. The marriage resulted in a son in 1953.

literature

  • Boris von Brauchitsch : The leader's shadow. The photographer Walter Frentz between Avantgarde and Obersalzberg , Edition Braus, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-86228-158-9 .
  • Hans Georg Hiller von Gaertringen (Ed.): The eye of the Third Reich. Hitler's cameraman and photographer Walter Frentz . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich 2006, ISBN 3-422-06618-7 (reference book of the work).
  • Yves le Maner, André Sellier: Pictures from Dora. Forced labor in the rocket tunnel 1943–1945 . Westkreuz-Verlag, Berlin / Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-929592-59-2 .
  • Jeanpaul Goergen: handheld camera as a worldview. Walter Frentz as a filming kayaker 1931/32 . In: Filmblatt , Vol. 17, No. 50, Winter 2012/13, pp. 47–63.
  • Matthias Struch: On the move in war and peace. Travel pictures from the cameraman and film designer Walter Frentz . In: Filmblatt , Volume 17, No. 50 Winter 2012/13, pp. 65–73.
  • Gerhard Paul: How the Nazis saw themselves . In: Die Zeit , No. 44/2006.
  • Berthold Seewald: Place of honor to the right of the Führer . In: Die Welt , October 27, 2006.
  • Christian Esch: Blondi and the mass murder . In: Berliner Zeitung , Feuilleton, p. 31.
  • Wolfgang Ullrich: The Third Reich in Color . In: taz , January 13, 2007.
  • A life with a kayak and a camera: Walter Frentz, on his 75th birthday. From kayaker to cameraman, a "kayakology" by Walter Frentz. In: Kanu-Sport , 17/1982, p. 359 f. (List of kayak trips, kayak films, kayak bibliography and paddler honors).
  • Stefan Andreas Schmidt: Walter Frentz - well-traveled gentleman with a lens. The canoe sport athlete portrait. In: Kanu-Sport 8/1996, p. 358 f. (Description of Frentz's paddling, film, photo and writing career on the occasion of his 89th birthday)
  • Olaf Winter: The paddler with the camera. Walter Frentz is dead. In: Kanu-Sport , 8/2004, p. 14 f. (With letters to the editor "Do not play down" in volume 9/2004, p. 36, as well as "Do not belittle role" and "Do not play down, but also hold in honor" in volume 10/2004, p. 38 f.)
  • Thomas Theisinger: Walter Frentz - critical appreciation of a folding boat driver with a past. In: Herbert Kropp (Ed.): "Binsenbummeln und Meeresrauschen III" , 3rd International Yearbook of Folding Boat Sports 2005/2006 ,altenreich Verlag Oldenburg 2005, ISBN 3-00-015998-3 , pp. 195-213.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Georg Hiller von Gaertringen (ed.): The eye of the Third Reich. Hitler's cameraman and photographer Walter Frentz . Deutscher Kunstverlag, Munich / Berlin 2006
  2. ↑ a b Entry on Walter Frentz in the HEUSS database of the Heilbronn City Archives , contemporary history collection, signature ZS-7541 (accessed on 23 September 2017)
  3. ^ Victory of Faith , on: filmportal.de
  4. ↑ Boris von Brauchitsch (ed.): The photographer Walter Frentz between avant-garde and Obersalzberg . Edition Braus, Berlin 2017. ISBN 978-3-8622-8158-9 .
  5. ↑ Triumph of Will , on: filmportal.de
  6. ↑ Festival of the Nations , on: filmportal.de
  7. ^ Festival of Beauty , on: filmportal.de
  8. ^ Hans-Egon Vesper: Walther Frentz received the DKV Silver Badge of Honor. In: Kanu-Sport 6/1978, p. 117
personal data
SURNAME Frentz, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German photographer, cameraman and color photography pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH August 21, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Heilbronn
DATE OF DEATH July 6, 2004
Place of death Überlingen