Walter Koppel

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Walter Koppel (born April 23, 1906 in Cologne , † October 25, 1982 in Marburg ) was a German film producer.

Life

The son of the businessman Gisbert Koppel and his wife Ella, b. Simon, after graduating from high school, made a career in a department store group and became managing director of the branch in Bergedorf .

After the transfer of power to the Nazis in 1933, he emigrated to Austria as a Jew . In Vienna he worked in film distribution . After the German invasion he fled to Prague , then to Brussels and Paris. There he was arrested during the German occupation in 1940 and taken to Hamburg. He was sentenced in 1942 to 1½ years in prison for “racial disgrace” and “preparation for high treason”. Since he feared that he would not be released from prison afterwards, but would be transferred to the Gestapo and deported, he faked a brain tumor, epileptic seizures and one-sided paralysis, due to which he was transferred to the Jewish hospital on Schäferkampsallee. There he successfully simulated for almost three years - until the British troops marched into Hamburg in May 1945.

In 1947 he founded “ Real-Film GmbH ” with Gyula Trebitsch in Hamburg . In the same year he was elected first chairman of the Association of Film Producers in the British Zone . Koppel's Real-Film became one of the largest and most successful film production companies in the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1950s . Revue films , film comedies and, relatively often, literary adaptations were produced . During this time, Koppel took on several offices in the film industry on a national and international level.

In the 1960s years he missed the introduction to the new film trends ( hit movies , Edgar Wallace films , Karl May movies ). In March 1963, Koppel filed for settlement with Real Film, and two years later the company went bankrupt. In 1967 he produced the film Die Heiden von Kummerow and their funny pranks with the help of DEFA . In addition, Koppel was involved in the Society for German-Soviet Cooperation.

Koppel married the costume designer Erna Sander while he was emigrating to Paris . His second wife was from 1947 Helga Trebitsch, b. Kohn, while Trebitsch married Koppel's first wife Erna. The daughters Gabriele and Esther emerged from Koppel's second marriage. After the divorce in 1960, he married the actress Tatiana Ivanov in 1975 .

His life and work can be seen in the TV documentary I wasn't just the messenger boy between the bank and the director. The film producer Walter Koppel is shown, which was created in 1981 at NDR .

Filmography

Awards

"Walter-Koppel-Weg" in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel
  • The Walter – Koppel – Weg in Hamburg-Poppenbüttel has been a reminder of Walter Koppel's resistance since 1985 .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Beate Meyer: "A conto future" - Help and rescue for Hamburg Jews in hiding, magazine of the Association for Hamburg History, Volume 88, Hamburg 2002, pp. 211–212
  2. ↑ I wasn't just the messenger boy between the bank and the director. The film producer Walter Koppel. (No longer available online.) In: filmportal.de . German Film Institute , archived from the original on April 15, 2016 ; Retrieved April 1, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmportal.de
personal data
SURNAME Koppel, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film producer
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1982
Place of death Marburg