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Hubert Von Meyerinck
Hubert "Hubsi" von Meyerinck (23 August 1896 – 13 May 1971) was a German film actor. He appeared in more than 280 films between 1921 and 1970. Biography Meyerinck was born in Potsdam, Brandenburg, the son of Friedrich von Meyerinck (1858–1928), Hauptmann (Captain) in the Prussian Army. He grew up at his family's estates in the Province of Posen and attended the gymnasium secondary school in Godeberg. Having passed his Abitur exams, he was called up for military service as a cadet in World War I, but soon was dismissed due to a pulmonary disease. In 1917 he gave his debut as a theatre actor at the Schauspielhaus in Berlin and from 1918 to 1920 continued his career at the Hamburg Kammerspiele. Back in Berlin he performed in avant-garde plays by Carl Sternheim, as well as in several revue entertainments and kabarett venues. Later he returned to classical theatre with engagements at the Deutsches Theater and the Lessing Theater, performing as '' The Imaginary Invalid'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potsdam
Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of Berlin, and lies embedded in a hilly morainic landscape dotted with many lakes, around 20 of which are located within Potsdam's city limits. It lies some southwest of Berlin's city centre. The name of the city and of many of its boroughs are of Slavic origin. Potsdam was a residence of the Prussian kings and the German Kaiser until 1918. Its planning embodied ideas of the Age of Enlightenment: through a careful balance of architecture and landscape, Potsdam was intended as "a picturesque, pastoral dream" which would remind its residents of their relationship with nature and reason. The city, which is over 1000 years old, is widely known for its palaces, its lakes, and its overall historical and cultural significance. Landmarks include ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabarett
Kabarett (; from French ''cabaret'' = tavern) is satirical revue, a form of cabaret which developed in France by Rodolphe Salis in 1881 as the ''cabaret artistique''. It was named Le Chat Noir and was centered on political events and satire. It later inspired creation of Kabarett venues in Germany from 1901, with the creation of Berlin's Überbrettl venue and in Austria with the creation of the Jung-Wiener Theater zum lieben Augustin housed in the Theater an der Wien. By the Weimar era in the mid-1920s it was characterized by political satire and gallows humor. It shared the characteristic atmosphere of intimacy with the French cabaret from which it was imported, but the gallows humor was a distinct German aspect. Difference from other forms Kabarett is the German word for the French word ''cabaret'' but has two different meanings. The first meaning is the same as in English, describing a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre (often the word "cabaret" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis powers. World War II was a total war that directly involved more than 100 million personnel from more than 30 countries. The major participants in the war threw their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities behind the war effort, blurring the distinction between civilian and military resources. Aircraft played a major role in the conflict, enabling the strategic bombing of population centres and deploying the only two nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II was by far the deadliest conflict in human history; it resulted in 70 to 85 million fatalities, mostly among civilians. Tens of millions died due to genocides (including the Holocaust), starvation, ma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazism And Cinema
Nazism created an elaborate system of propaganda, which made use of the new technologies of the 20th century, including cinema. Nazism courted the masses by the means of slogans that were aimed directly at the instincts and emotions of the people. The Nazis valued film as a propaganda instrument of enormous power. The interest that Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels took in film was not only the result of a personal fascination. The use of film for propaganda had been planned by the Nazi Party as early as 1930, when the party first established a film department. Background The Nazis were very aware of the propagandistic effect of movies and already in 1920 the issues of the '' Racial Observer'' included film criticism. The SS-philosopher Walter Julius Bloem published the book ''The Soul of the Cinema – A Commitment to the Movies'' in 1922. In September 1923, Philipp Nickel produced a documentary of the "German Day in Nuremberg" where the " Battle-Leagu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Von Ruffin
Kurt von Ruffin (1901 in Munich, Germany – 17 November 1996 in Berlin, Germany) was a German actor and opera singer who was imprisoned by the Nazis for the crime of homosexuality. Career Von Ruffin began his career as a singer. Starting in 1927 he sang with the operas of Magdeburg, Mainz, and Nuremberg. He made his film debut in 1931 in ' and '' Walzerparadies'', also starring in Harry Piel's ''Bobby geht los'' in the same year. For the latter film von Ruffin took boxing lessons from heavyweight champion Hans Breitensträter. After completing filming on '' The Black Forest Girl'' in 1933, von Ruffin was identified as a homosexual by another gay man who named him under torture, and imprisoned at Lichtenburg concentration camp, where many gay men were imprisoned, for two years. Von Ruffin says that SS guards touched prisoners and then beat those who got sexually aroused. He also recalls being forced to watch as some prisoners were beaten to death. After nine months in Lichtenburg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a dictatorship. Under Hitler's rule, Germany quickly became a totalitarian state where nearly all aspects of life were controlled by the government. The Third Reich, meaning "Third Realm" or "Third Empire", alluded to the Nazi claim that Nazi Germany was the successor to the earlier Holy Roman Empire (800–1806) and German Empire (1871–1918). The Third Reich, which Hitler and the Nazis referred to as the Thousand-Year Reich, ended in May 1945 after just 12 years when the Allies defeated Germany, ending World War II in Europe. On 30 January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany, the head of gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sound Film
A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before sound motion pictures became commercially practical. Reliable synchronization was difficult to achieve with the early sound-on-disc systems, and amplification and recording quality were also inadequate. Innovations in sound-on-film led to the first commercial screening of short motion pictures using the technology, which took place in 1923. The primary steps in the commercialization of sound cinema were taken in the mid-to-late 1920s. At first, the sound films which included synchronized dialogue, known as "talking pictures", or "talkies", were exclusively shorts. The earliest feature-length movies with recorded sound included only music and effects. The first feature film originally presented as a talkie (although it had only limited so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Monocle
A monocle is a type of corrective lens used to correct or enhance the visual perception in only one eye. It consists of a circular lens, generally with a wire ring around the circumference that can be attached to a string or wire. The other end of the string is then connected to the wearer's clothing to avoid losing the monocle. The antiquarian Philipp von Stosch wore a monocle in Rome in the 1720s, in order to closely examine engravings and antique engraved gems, but the monocle did not become an article of gentlemen's apparel until the 19th century. It was introduced by the dandy's quizzing glass of the 1790s, as an article of high fashion. Styles There are three additional styles of the monocle. The first style consists of a simple loop of metal with a lens that was slotted into the eye orbit. These were the first monocles worn in England and could be found from the 1830s onwards. The second style, which was developed in the 1890s, was the most elaborate, consisting of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Silent Film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, when necessary, be conveyed by the use of title cards. The term "silent film" is something of a misnomer, as these films were almost always accompanied by live sounds. During the silent era that existed from the mid-1890s to the late 1920s, a pianist, theater organist—or even, in large cities, a small orchestra—would often play music to accompany the films. Pianists and organists would play either from sheet music, or improvisation. Sometimes a person would even narrate the inter-title cards for the audience. Though at the time the technology to synchronize sound with the film did not exist, music was seen as an essential part of the viewing experience. "Silent film" is typically used as a historical term to describe an era of cinema pri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Threepenny Opera
''The Threepenny Opera'' ( ) is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht, adapted from a translation by Elisabeth Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, ''The Beggar's Opera'', and four ballads by François Villon, with music by Kurt Weill. Although there is debate as to how much, if any, Hauptmann might have contributed to the text, Brecht is usually listed as sole author. The work offers a socialist critique of the capitalist world. It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. Songs from ''The Threepenny Opera'' have been widely covered and become standards, most notably "" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") and "" ("Pirate Jenny"). Background Origins In the winter of 1927–28, Elizabeth Hauptmann, Brecht's lover at the time, received a copy of Gay's play from friends in England and, fascinated by the female characters and its critique of the condition of the London poor, began translating it into German. Brecht at first took lit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Captain Of Köpenick (play)
''The Captain of Köpenick'' (german: Der Hauptmann von Köpenick) is a satirical play by the German dramatist Carl Zuckmayer. First produced in 1931, the play tells the story, based on a true event that happened in 1906, of a down-on-his-luck ex-convict shoemaker (Wilhelm Voigt) who impersonates a Prussian Guards officer, holds the mayor of a small town to ransom, and successfully "confiscates" the town's treasury, claiming to be acting in the name of the Kaiser. The Prussian cult of the uniform ensures that the townspeople are all-too willing to obey his orders, in stark contrast to the treatment the protagonist was given before he donned the uniform. Zuckmayer described the story as a "German fairy tale". Plot The first part of the play deals with the two parallel (and at some points intertwined) stories of Wilhelm Voigt himself and the uniform which plays a central role in the story, which is set in Potsdam, Berlin and Köpenick at around 1900. The uniform is originally made ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mephistopheles
Mephistopheles (, ), also known as Mephisto, is a demon featured in German folklore. He originally appeared in literature as the demon in the Faust legend, and he has since appeared in other works as a stock character (see: Mephistopheles in the arts and popular culture). Etymology and name meaning The name ''Mephistopheles'' is a corrupted Greek compound. The Greek particle of negation (μη, ''mē'') and the Greek word for love or loving (φίλος, ''philos'') are the first and last terms of the compound but the middle term is more doubtful. For the middle term, three meanings have been noticed and three different complete etymologies have been established: *not loving light (φως το, ''phōs to''; the old form of the word being ''Mephostopheles'') *not loving Faust *allied to '' mephitic,'' a term which designates the poisonous vapors arising from the earth in certain places—pools, caverns, springs—destructive of human life. It is likely that the name was invent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
