Willi Burth
Willi Burth (born September 10, 1904 in Saulgau ; † December 8, 2001 in Ravensburg ) was a German cinema pioneer who received several awards for his technical developments.
Life
Willi Burth, who was born in Saulgau in Upper Swabia and is the son of a textile shop owner, organized the first cinema screenings in his hometown at the age of ten.
After starting his own business with a film projector at the age of 19 , he had the Oberland Theater built in 1930 with his brother Alfons Burth on Kaiserstraße in Saulgau. When the building was demolished, Alfons Burth had a second movie theater building built in 1956, today's cinema on Saulgauer Poststrasse. The Union Theater in Ravensburg (formerly Eden-Lichtspiele) followed in 1934, followed by the Burgtheater in Ravensburg in 1938 .
In 1948 Burth, who had joined the NSDAP in 1933 , was classified as a “fellow traveler” during the denazification process . In 1953 he founded the Frauentor cinema center in Ravensburg, the largest cinema in Upper Swabia with 900 seats . In 1971 Burth took over the Ringtheater in Biberach, with 650 seats, which he divided into three cinemas in 1972 by drawing in a partition.
technology
In the course of his entrepreneurial activity, Burth called the “plate father” also dealt with the improvement of current projection technology, which in 1969 resulted in a worldwide patent for his No Rewind film plate . The invention, distributed by the Bavarian film technology manufacturer Kinoton , made it possible to show a film without fading and rewinding, thus reducing the effort of the projectionist and thus providing the prerequisites for the creation of box -type cinemas and multiplex cinemas .
Awards
For his invention Burth 1984 he was awarded the Medal of Honor of the umbrella organization of the film industry (SPIO) and 1987 as a technical Oscar known Scientific and Engineering Award of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences .
In 1989 he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit and in 1998 the Golden Screen of the Main Association of German Film Theaters .
In 2004 a permanent exhibition on the life and work of the Upper Swabian film pioneer opened in Burth's Ravensburger Burgtheater (now the “Die Burg” cinema center ).
The commercial school Bad Saulgau was named after Willi Burth in 2013 and has been called Willi Burth School since then .
literature
- Jürgen Adamek: Willi Burth is revolutionizing cinema technology. In: Jörg Baldenhofer (Ed.): Swabian inventors and inventors. DRW, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-87181-232-3 , pp. 152-157.
- Jutta Koch, Herbert Beck: "Technical Oskar" for film pioneer Willi Burth . In: Kressbronner Jahrbuch. Contributions from the past and present . tape 1987/1988 , ZDB -ID 143675-2 , p. 39 .
- Hermann Müller: Willi Burth, a Saulgau film pioneer. Life and work of an Upper Swabian inventor. In: Saulgauer Hefte on town history and local history. 5th year 1984. pp. 74-78.
Web links
- Saulgau cinema (with texts and pictures on the story)
- "Kinozentrum am Frauentor" and "Die Burg" Ravensburg with Willi Burth Museum (with a large picture gallery on cinema history)
- Patents with Google Patents
- Ringtheater Biberach at Filmtheater Square 7
- Ringtheater Biberach at kinoliste.de
Individual evidence
- ^ File at LEO-BW
- ^ Biberach Ring Theater - Kinowiki. filmtheater.square7.ch, accessed on July 28, 2016 .
- ↑ KINOliste - Ringtheater Biberach an der Riss. kinoliste.de, accessed on July 28, 2016 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Burth, Willi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Burth, Wilhelm |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German cinema owner and film pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 10, 1904 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saulgau |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 8, 2001 |
| Place of death | Ravensburg |