Werner Schlichting

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Werner Schlichting (born June 27, 1904 in Berlin ; † March 8, 1996 in Oberalm ) was a German set designer . He designed the buildings in over 120 films. His work spanned a period of 48 years, from the time of the silent film to the early 1970s.

Life

Werner Schlichting at work in the film studio in the early 1940s

Schlichting was born the second of four children to the tailor Paul Schlichting and his wife Emma (née Berg). He began his training at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory during the war to become a porcelain painter. But this was closed in 1918. In 1919 he began his training as a theater decoration painter with Impekoven in the Kunstgewerbehaus in Berlin-Wedding.

In 1923 he worked as a stage painter at various theaters and was entrusted with his first film work as an artist in Fritz Lang's silent film The Nibelungs . In 1926 he was already working as an assistant architect in Murnau's film Faust , after which he received a permanent contract as a film architect from UFA . In 1931 he married Charlotte Fredersdorf, and in 1932 his son Bernt was born. The marital happiness did not last too long, the couple had been in divorce since 1935.

Due to his success, Goebbels offered him the chairmanship of the film architects' association of the Reichskunstkammer. On the flimsy reasoning that he was too young for this post and that he did not yet feel up to the responsibility, he refused. This dangerous snub against the regime and the increasing political influence on the UFA prompted him to move to Vienna. There he already had good contacts through his first films with Karl Hartl in 1933 and 1934. After the founding of Wien-Film, he became chief architect at this company, headed by Karl Hartl as artistic director. The good working atmosphere there made Vienna his second home. There was a temporary relationship with his now divorced wife Charlotte and son Bernt, who continued to live in Berlin, which only led to his final separation from his wife at the end of the war in 1945.

In 1948 he took on Austrian citizenship and in 1950 married Isabella Ploberger (née Hartl), a qualified architect, student of Clemens Holzmeister and also a film architect. Their biggest film was 1944 Tiefland by Leni Riefenstahl . Isabella had two children from her first marriage: Stephanie and Konstantin. In addition to a studio apartment in Vienna, they both built a house in Mariazell in Styria. The couple worked together successfully as a team in most films from now on. As in many artist families with constantly changing places of activity, there was hardly any time for real family life.

After the war, engagements for foreign productions followed. He created the film structures for the great Anatol Litwak film with Yul Brunner and Deborah Kerr The Journey, major equipment films for the USA e.g. B. the King Brothers Sindbad, for the director Leopold Lindberg Four in a jeep . He built Odissea in Rome, in Switzerland for the Italian director Commencini Heidi , with Carmino Gallone Casta Diva and various films for The Walt Disney Company such as Johann Strauss, Beethoven, the Vienna Boys' Choir and the Lipizzaner. He had worked with many great international directors. In between he also created stage sets for the Wiener Kammerspiele, the Theater in der Josefstadt, Volkstheater and Volksoper.

In 1979 Schlichting received the Silver Medal for Services to the State of Vienna . The films for The Walt Disney Company in particular were particularly good advertising for Austria and Vienna in the USA.

At the end of the 1960s, the couple moved to San Juan de Alicante in Spain, to a house they had built in the Moorish style. Unfortunately, both of them had their eyesight deteriorated over the years. When increasing blindness no longer allowed an independent life abroad, they both returned to Austria in 1990. They spent their last years in the senior citizen's monastery at Schloss Kahlsperg in Oberalm near Hallein, cared for by nuns.

Werner Schlichting died in March 1996, his wife Isabel survived him by six years.

Filmography

literature

  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 7: R - T. Robert Ryan - Lily Tomlin. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 119.

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