Werner Hochbaum

Werner Paul Adolph Hochbaum (born March 7, 1899 in Kiel , † April 15, 1946 in Potsdam ) was a German film director.

Life

Werner Hochbaum has been involved with the film since 1927, initially as a critic. In 1929 he shot the proletarian film Brothers in his own production . The film, which is remarkable for its montage based on the Soviet model, was quickly forgotten in its time and has only recently been made accessible again. It is considered an important document of the working class culture of the late 1920s. After two election propaganda films for the SPD , his second feature film in 1932 was Razzia in St. Pauli , just like its predecessor in Hamburg . The film was banned by the National Socialist film censors in 1933. With Heinrich George he turned the M 17 tow tractor in 1933 .

Initially, Hochbaum only found work in Austria . With Vorstadtvarieté , based on the play Der Gemeine by Felix Salten , he produced one of the most time-critical and formally exposed films of the time. After the great success of his doctor's film Die Ewige Maske (1935), in which Hochbaum used technical possibilities such as assemblies, buildings, camera and copying tricks to visualize the complex relationships between life and death, he was able to work temporarily in Germany again. In 1939 he was supposed to deliver a cinematic "declaration of loyalty" to the National Socialists. The film Drei Unteroffiziere (1939), a song in praise of the conscientiousness of the soldier, was to be directed by him. However, he used his artistic talent to emphasize the alternatives to the unquestioned fulfillment of military duty, namely love and personal happiness as values ​​in life. The soldiers were shown more private and sometimes disoriented. The film was thus deprived of its propaganda effect, which the clients did not miss. He was expelled from the Reichsfilmkammer and drafted into military service. For health reasons he was released before the end of the war. His commitment to building up the film industry after the end of the war came to an abrupt end after only one film, when he died on April 15, 1946, weakened by hunger and illness, of a long-term lung disease.

Filmography

• 1928: Forward (short documentary) - Vera-Filmwerke
• 1929: Brothers (also screenplay and production)
• 1929: Zwei Welten (election film for SPD; also screenplay and production)
• 1929: Wille und Werk (election film for SPD; also screenplay and production)
• 1932: Raid in St. Pauli (also script; 1933 prohibited) - interior shots in the Vera-Filmwerke film studio
• 1932: Wanted a better man for the purpose of ... (short film; also screenplay)
• 1933: M 17 tow tractor
• 1933: People in the Storm (German version of the Hungarian film Itel a Balaton )
• 1933: Life begins tomorrow
• 1935: Vorstadtvarieté (Austria; also co-script)
• 1935: The Eternal Mask (Austria / Switzerland; also co-script)
• 1935: Light Cavalry (Germany)
• 1935: Cavalerie légère (French version of light cavalry )
• 1935/36: The Empress' Favorite (also co-script)
• 1936: Shadow of the Past (Austria)
• 1936: Hannerl and her lovers (also under the title: Season in Grinzing; Austria)
• 1937: They talk about Jacqueline (also co-script)
• 1938: A girl goes ashore (also co-script)
• 1939: Three NCOs
• 1940: Donauschiffer (co-script, anonymous)
• 1945: Liberated Music (co-production)
• 1945: Dob, the stable hare (cartoon; co-production)

Awards

• 1935: Medal for the best psychological study at the Venice International Film Festival for The Eternal Mask
• 1937: Best Foreign Film at the National Board of Review Awards for The Eternal Mask

literature

• Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 174.
• Elisabeth Büttner / Joachim Schätz (eds.): Werner Hochbaum. Film on the edges of history . Vienna: Filmarchiv Austria, 2011.

Web links

• Werner Hochbaum in the Internet Movie Database (English)