Wolf Schmidt

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Autograph card from Wolf Schmidt
Signed autograph card, owned and courtesy of the Wolf Schmidt family.

Wolf Schmidt (born February 19, 1913 in Friedberg , † January 17, 1977 in Gelsenkirchen ) was a German journalist , cabaret artist , author , director and actor . He was best known as Karl ( "Babba") Hesselbach in the hr productions The company Hesselbach , the Hesselbach family and later Mr. Hesselbach and ... .

Beginnings

Wolf Schmidt (Johann Sebastian Ferdinand Wolfgang) was born the son of a high school teacher. From a young age he wrote plays. After graduating from the Augustinerschule Friedberg , Schmidt began studying law in Paris and Freiburg im Breisgau , which he broke off after a short time to stay in Paris and work as a journalist. He worked there as a foreign correspondent and reported for various newspapers from Paris, Rome and Budapest .

In 1933, the shortage of foreign exchange for his clients apparently prompted him to move to Berlin , where in November 1933 he took over the publishing management and editor-in-chief of the Berliner Morgenblatt Neue Zeit in Charlottenburg . However, the publishing house was on the verge of bankruptcy and Schmidt could no longer avert the inevitable. Schmidt later processed the experiences of this time in the Hesselbachs , whose company was a printing company with a publisher ("Weltschau am Sonntag").

Second World War

In 1939, when the Second World War broke out , Schmidt volunteered to work as a war correspondent at the front. He reported first from France and later from the Eastern Front . In 1944 Schmidt was drafted into the fighting force. In April 1945 his unit stayed in Vorarlberg , where Schmidt separated from the troops and set off on foot on the long way home to Friedberg.

Cabaret and the Hesselbachs

Shortly after the end of the war, Schmidt founded the political cabaret “Die Zeitgenossen”. From 1946 he wrote articles for what was then Radio Frankfurt, the forerunner of Hessian broadcasting . For the latter, Schmidt also developed his most famous work, the radio play series about Die Hesselbachs , in which he also played the main role as "Babba" Hesselbach.

In the mid-1950s, four movies followed with the Hesselbachs and a fifth film "The ideal subtenant" in German and English, "The ideal lodger" or "Too young for men" (AT), (financed from Schmidt's private assets) and later also the television series "The Hesselbach Company" and, as a sequel, "The Hesselbach Family". In both series Liesel Christ played the role of Mama Hesselbach .

New concepts

The name Wolf Schmidt is primarily associated with his figure of "Babba Hesselbach". Schmidt's versatility was not only evident in the various dialect versions of the "Hesselbach", which u. a. as "Familie Staudenmaier" (Radio Stuttgart) and "Familie Schmitz" (NWDR Cologne) were broadcast.

Freed from the constraints of format, he created a whole series of sophisticated radio play adaptations of world literary pieces (including by Mark Twain , Giovanni Boccaccio , Niccolò Machiavelli , Ludwig Thoma , George Bernard Shaw ), which convey an impression of Schmidt's education and poetic range. In 1951/52 he brought out the 19-part radio play series The Adventures of Mr. Pfleiderer with Willy Reichert in the title role. The person Häberle ( Oscar Heiler ) only appeared in a few episodes (see also Häberle and Pfleiderer ).

In the 1960s, Schmidt tried to get rid of the role of "housefather on duty" with new concepts and broadcasts on television. But the audience wanted to see him as Karl Hesselbach. As early as 1957 he had made a new start with the "Ideal Subtenant" after the resounding success of the radio series, which, however, flopped with the German audience. Even a concept for a television show, “Die Sonntagsrichter” with Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff , only came on a few programs.

For Schmidt, the consequence was to turn the “Hesselbachs” into a platform for new ideas. The last season "Mr. Hesselbach and ..." moved in the fields of Hessian local politics and discreetly took up the zeitgeist of the late sixties.

Sickness and death

In the mid-1960s, Schmidt fell ill with Alzheimer's disease . This increasingly restricted his ability to write and play, and was one of the reasons for the Hesselbachs to be hired . After that, Schmidt largely withdrew into private life. He died in 1977 at the age of 63 after a long and serious illness in a sanatorium in Gelsenkirchen. At his own request, he received a burial at sea .

Works

Filmography

  • 1953: women, films, TV radio
  • 1954: The Hesselbach family
  • 1955: The Hesselbach family on vacation
  • 1956: The horoscope of the Hesselbach family
  • 1956: Mr. Hesselbach and the company
  • 1957: The ideal subtenant
  • 1957: A portrait is made (documentary short film with the painter Hans Jürgen Kallmann)
  • 1960–1967: The Hesselbach Company (TV series, 51 episodes)
  • 1962: The Sunday Judges (TV series, one episode)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ knerger.de: Wolf Schmidt
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Wolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hesselbach, Karl; Hesselbach, Babba
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German journalist, cabaret artist and actor
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedberg
DATE OF DEATH 17th January 1977
Place of death Gelsenkirchen