Willi A. Herrmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Willi A. Herrmann (born January 24, 1893 in Berlin ; † February 15, 1968 there ) was a German film architect , with an oeuvre of well over 300 titles in half a century, one of the most productive set designers in German film history.

Life

Herrmann had had professional training in his hometown of Berlin and had already joined the cinema in 1914 as the second architect of the Greenbaum film . After his first work as chief architect in 1915, he went to Decla for two years and was then drafted.

In 1918 Herrmann resumed his work. In the beginning, he mainly equipped films by the director Richard Eichberg , and from 1920 also the sensational films by the actor-directors Harry Piel and Luciano Albertini . Herrmann also designed the backdrops for the directorial debutants FW Murnau ( The Boy in Blue ) and Conrad Veidt ( Wahnsinn ). At times, the frequent and fast worker Herrmann was involved in up to a dozen and a half films per annum. In 1937 he created the comprehensive architectural ensembles for the adventure films Alarm in Beijing, which are set in East Asia, and Eichberg's The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb .

Only with the outbreak of the Second World War did its output decrease. In the late phase of the war he was mainly responsible for the design of the decorations for the comedies by and with Heinz Rühmann (including Die Feuerzangenbowle ), with whom he had already worked at the end of the 1930s. In 1948 Herrmann found a connection to (federal) German post-war filmmaking and was again committed by Eichberg, who had just returned from the USA. As before 1945, he was still able to design mostly only second-class entertainment goods.

In 1961 Herrmann largely withdrew from professional life in the preparatory phase for the crime thriller Marriage Institute Aurora ; Albrecht Hennings took over his work on this film . In 1964/65, Herrmann received a few more orders from CCCTelevision to design the scenery for television games.

Willi A. Herrmann is often equated with the production and recording manager Willy Herrmann and is thus confused. Identical personalities between the two Herrmanns is excluded: Willi A. Herrmann worked and lived in Berlin until the end, Willy Herrmann lived in Munich-Grünwald.

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 3: F - H. Barry Fitzgerald - Ernst Hofbauer. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 650.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Herrmann, Willi A.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film architect
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 15th February 1968
Place of death Berlin