Joe Deebs was a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Along with Stuart Webbs and a number of other fictional cinema detective characters with Anglo-Saxon names, he was modeled on Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. In 2009, Ken Wlaschin wrote that "Joe Deebs was one of the most famous screen detectives of the German silent cinema, the suave crime-solving star of at least thirty films." Deebs was played by six different actors including

Max Landa Max Landa ( be, Макс Ландаў; 24 April 1873 – 8 November 1933; born Max Landau) was a Russian-born Austrian silent film and stage actor. Career Landa attended the Handelsakademie (commercial academy) in Vienna and took classes with a ...

Heinrich Schroth Heinrich August Franz Schroth (23 March 1871 – 14 January 1945) was a German stage and film actor. Career Schroth was born in Pirmasens, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. He made his acting debut at the Sigmaringen Royal Theatre in 1890. In 1894 h ...

and

Harry Liedtke Harry Liedtke (12 October 1882 – 28 April 1945) was a German film actor. Early life Liedtke was born in Königsberg, East Prussia to a merchant as the seventh out of 12 children. After the death of his father in 1896, he grew up in an orphanage ...

. The films were produced by

Joe May Joe May (born Joseph Otto Mandl; 7 November 1880 – 29 April 1954) was an Austrian film director and film producer and one of the pioneers of German cinema. Biography After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, he began his career as ...

(Julius Mandl), who also directed several of the films. Some of the films were produced at

Weissensee Studios The Weissensee Studios (german: Filmstadt Weißensee) was a collection of separate film production studios located in the Berlin suburb of Weißensee during the silent era. History The two main studios comprising the complex were almost next ...

. Deebs' first appearance was in 1915 during the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the character continued to be featured in films through the early 1920s during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...

. One example is "Der Onyxknopf," or

The Onyx Head ''The Onyx Head'' (German: ''Der Onyxknopf'') is a 1917 German silent crime film directed by Joe May and starring Max Landa, Bruno Kastner and Leopoldine Konstantin. It was part of a series of Joe Deebs detective films. The film's sets were d ...

, a 1917 silent film starring Max Landa,

Bruno Kastner Richard Otto Bruno Kastner (January 1890Different sources cite 1 January, 3 January, 20 January, and 30 January as Kastner's date of birth. – 30 June 1932) was a German stage and film actor, screenwriter, and film producer whose career was most ...

and

Leopoldine Konstantin Leopoldine Konstantin (born Leopoldine Eugenie Amelie Konstanti; 12 March 1886 – 14 December 1965) was an Austrian actress. She played in Frank Wedekind's ''Spring Awakening'' (1907), Shakespeare's ''Romeo and Juliet'' (1907), ''A Winter's Tal ...

References

{{Reflist

Bibliography

* Abel, Richard. ''Encyclopedia of Early Cinema''. Taylor & Francis, 2005. * Isenberg, Noah William. ''Weimar Cinema: An Essential Guide to Classic Films of the Era''. Columbia University Press, 2013. * Prawer, S.S. ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933''. Berghahn Books, 2005. Fictional detectives Film characters introduced in 1915