Willi Cronauer
Wilhelm "Willi" Cronauer , also Willy Cronauer (in the film) (* July 3, 1901 in Munich ; † October 14, 1974 ) was a German artist with a wide range of occupations in radio, stage and film and shortly after the end of the war in 1945 a documentary film director and Bavarian Cultural politician.
Life
Nothing is currently known about Cronauer's origins and his early years. During the Weimar Republic he worked for the Bavarian Radio and on April 6, 1932, he made a name for himself with a radio interview he had with Ödön von Horváth on the topic of the definition of “folk piece”. During the Third Reich , Willi Cronauer made no secret of his anti-fascist sentiments and was arrested four times. Artistically he could only work very irregularly in the Nazi state. In the years 1936 to 1942 Willi Cronauer was offered a number of small film roles and played roles such as chauffeurs, stage managers and salespeople. During these years (around 1940) he also worked briefly as an actor at the Munich Volkstheater . Even before the end of the war in April 1945, Cronauer is said to have dared to step between the fronts and, through his efforts, prevented one or the other destruction: “It is thanks to his commitment that the Bavarian towns of Dachau, Gründig and Mitterndorf and the Dachau concentration camp are not few Razed days before the liberation. In negotiations with the commander of a large combat battery of the Wehrmacht, he had managed to spare the place. "
With the collapse in 1945, Cronauer began his second career, this time as a cultural and SPD politician in Munich. His anti-fascist past quickly enabled him to have good contact with the American occupation forces. In June 1945 the US occupiers allowed Cronauer to document the war damage to Munich with a 35 mm camera in hand. The result was the 67-minute silent film Munich 1945 . At almost the same time, on June 3, 1945, he was asked to make a nine-minute documentary about the Corpus Christi procession in downtown Munich. When administrative structures could gradually be rebuilt in Munich, Willi Cronauer was appointed to the senior government council in the Bavarian Ministry of Culture , where he was responsible for theater, film and lectures.
In later years, SPD member Cronauer came across friends and foes more often. As a member of the Bavarian State Constitutional Assembly , he clashed with Alois Hundhammer , the founder of the conservative CSU , and then retired from civil service. He also ran into problems with his own party because of his proximity to communist resistance and officials and was evidently expelled from the SPD. Nevertheless, SPD Mayor Hans-Jochen Vogel honored Cronauer on the occasion of his 60th birthday in 1961 for his great services to Munich's urban culture. From 1961 to 1969 Cronauer was one of four presidents of the Association of Victims of the Nazi Regime (VVN). Cronauer had also launched his own theater venue: he founded and directed the Munich premiere stage “Stage of Time”.
Filmography (complete)
as an actor, unless otherwise stated
- 1936: The big and the small world
- 1936: Servants ask
- 1936: The laughing third
- 1938: Traveling people
- 1938: Thirteen men and one cannon
- 1940: enemies
- 1942: Peterle
- 1945: Munich 1945 (documentary film director)
- 1945: Corpus Christi (documentary film director, short film)
Web links
- Willi Cronauer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Willy Cronauer on filmportal.de
- Willi Cronauer in: Materials 1954
- Cronauer recordings from Munich 1945
- Cronauer as a documentary filmmaker in 1945 on: kultur-vollzug.de
Individual evidence
- ^ Cronauer in: Jana Schäfer: Social and Gender Criticism in Selected Works by Ödön von Horváth, Bachelor thesis 2012
- ↑ Cronauer-Vita on protest-muenchen.sub-bavaria.de
- ^ Johann Caspar Glenzdorf: Glenzdorfs international film lexicon. Biographical manual for the entire film industry. Volume 1: A-Heck. Prominent-Filmverlag, Bad Münder 1960, DNB 451560736 , p. 255.
- ↑ Cronauer-Vita on protest-muenchen.sub-bavaria.de
- ↑ full film on youtube
- ^ Munich Corpus Christi June 3, 1945
- ↑ Cronauer-Vita on protest-muenchen.sub-bavaria.de
- ↑ Cronauer on: kultur-vollzug.de
- ↑ Cronauer on radiomusaeum.org
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cronauer, Willi |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Cronauer, Wilhelm (maiden name); Cronauer, Willy (at the film) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German cultural politician, radio producer, theater and film actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 3, 1901 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munich , German Empire |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 14, 1974 |