Jules Greenbaum (5 January 1867 – 1 November 1924) was a German pioneering film producer. He founded the production companies Deutsche Bioscope, Deutsche Vitascope and Greenbaum-Film and was a dominant figure in German cinema in the years before the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. He is also known for his early experiments with

sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, 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, bu ...

s around twenty years before the success of ''

The Jazz Singer ''The Jazz Singer'' is a 1927 American part-talkie musical drama film directed by Alan Crosland and produced by Warner Bros. Pictures. It is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous ...

'' made them a more established feature of cinema.

Early career and Deutsche Bioscope

Greenbaum was born in Berlin in 1867 as Julius Grünbaum. He married Emma Karstein in c1887 and moved to

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, where his first son Georg was born 1 November 1889. He worked in the

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

industry. On his return to Berlin in 1895 aged around 42, Greenbaum moved into the newly established film business and founded Deutsche Bioscope () in 1899. This name has various contemporary spellings, including Bioscope, Bioskope and Bioskop. Greenbaum acquired a camera in Amsterdam, and a cameraman, Georg Furkel. Furkel worked as his technical director until 1912, along with another Dutch cameraman, Martin Knoop. Deutsche Bioscope's first independent film was the 60-metre 1899 newsreel picture ''Spring Parade'' featuring German Kaiser

Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until Abdication of Wilhelm II, his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as th ...

. His firm released more newsreels in 1901/02, importing American and French features and manufacturing cinema equipment. Deutsche Bioscope GmbH, Berlin, was incorporated on 18 June 1902 with a capital of 20,000 marks The main offices were at 131d

Friedrichstraße Friedrichstraße, or Friedrichstrasse (see ß; ) (lit. ''Frederick Street''), is a major culture and shopping street in central Berlin, forming the core of the Friedrichstadt neighborhood and giving the name to Berlin Friedrichstraße stat ...

, where the firm supplied equipment (including the American Biograph camera), and an 8-hour guaranteed film copying service. Bioscope's cameramen were sent to Vienna, Munich, Leipzig, Halle, Nuremberg, Kiel, Hamburg, Poznan, Lviv and Riga in search of vaudeville/variety acts to film.

Studios at 123 Chausseestraße

Bioscope built new offices in 1906 at 123

Chausseestraße Chausseestraße, or Chausseestrasse (see ß; ), is a major street in the centre of Berlin, located in the district of Mitte. It is 1.7 kilometres long. Many notable buildings and structures are located along the street, including the Headquar ...

, in the east of Berlin; a glasshouse studio was erected in the large courtyard at the rear of the

Jugendstil (; "Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany, Austria and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German and Austrian cou ...

building, where

Continental-Kunstfilm 123 Chauseestraße, Berlin, Continental-Kunstfilm's first studioThe inscription ERBAUT MDCCCXCVI (built 1906) appears on the building. Remarkably it survived World War II, and ended up on the Berlin border crossing after 1961. Chauseestraße f ...

would later film ''

In Nacht und Eis ''In Nacht und Eis'' (English: "In Night and Ice"), also called ''Der Untergang der Titanic'' ("The Sinking of the ''Titanic''") and ''Shipwrecked in Icebergs'' in the US, is a 1912 German silent adventure-disaster drama film about the sinking ...

'' in 1912.

Vitascope-Theater

Greenbaum began acquiring

cinemas A movie theater (American English) or cinema (Commonwealth English), also known as a movie house, cinema hall, picture house, picture theater, the movies, the pictures, or simply theater, is a business that contains auditoriums for viewing fi ...

, opening a Vitascope cinema at 10 Friedrichstraße, and in March 1907 he registered Vitascope Theater GmbH as a limited company. Its partners were Louis Rosenfeld and Otto Heinemann. This established a

vertically integrated In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration, also referred to as vertical consolidation, is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each ...

network with Vitascope handling the

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

for Bioscope films.

Sale of Deutsche Bioscope

As his business increased, Greenbaum made a deal with the chemist Carl Moritz Schleussner of the photochemicals firm Schleussner AG in

Frankfurt/Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

. Carl Schleussner had been involved since 1896 in producing negative film stock for Röntgen photography soon after its discovery.Eisenbach, Ulrich, (2007
''Schleussner'' in: Neue Deutsche Biographie 23, pp. 68–69 [Online edition
(in German). In February 1908 Carl Schleussner bought Deutsche Bioscop as a manufacturing, copying and sales operation, for a 2/3 share of 140,000 marks, with 1/3 provided by Greenbaum and his brother Max. Deutsche Bioskop was re-registered on 27 February 1908, and Schleussner bought out the Greenbaums' remaining share in 1909. Under its new owner, Deutsche Bioskop AG moved to Babelsberg Studio in November 1911, which is well-known as the oldest large-scale film studio in the world and still today producing well-known Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters. Deutsche Bioskop AG later merged with

Erich Pommer Erich Pommer (20 July 1889 – 8 May 1966) was a German-born film producer and executive. Pommer was perhaps the most powerful person in the German and European film industries in the 1920s and early 1930s. As producer, Erich Pommer was involved ...

's Decla-Film in 1920 to create Decla-Bioskop AG.

Bioscope-Theater

Greenbaum registered a new cinema company, Bioskope-Theater GmbH, on 24 February 1908. The directors were Jules' brother, Max Greenbaum (an experienced banker), and Erich Zeiske. In October 1908, Greenbaum opened the Vitascope cinema, a showpiece 500-seat movie theatre equipped to show sound films on Hermannplatz, 1–2 Berliner Straße. When Greenbaum left Deutsche Bioscop on 8 September 1909, the Bioskope-Theater became Deutsche Vitaskope Gmbh, releasing films under the 'Deutsche Vitascope' name.

Synchroscope – early sound films

Greenbaum's firm invented and used

Synchroscope In AC electrical power systems, a synchroscope is a device that indicates the degree to which two systems ( generators or power networks) are synchronized with each other.Terrell Croft, Wilford Summers (ed.), ''American Electricians' Handbook ...

, which synchronised the visual picture of films with

phonograph A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

records to create a working sound and vision system. Greenbaum produced a number of these sound shorts of vocal classical music, and in 1908 entered into contracts to supply the machinery to

Carl Laemmle Carl Laemmle (; born Karl Lämmle ; January 17, 1867 – September 24, 1939) was a German-American film producer and the co-founder and, until 1934, owner of Universal Pictures. He produced or worked on over 400 films. Regarded as one of the ...

's Movie Service Company in Chicago and to another American,

Charles Urban Charles Urban (April 15, 1867 – August 29, 1942) was a German-American film producer and distributor, and one of the most significant figures in Cinema of the United Kingdom, British cinema before the First World War. He was a pioneer of the do ...

, in Britain.

installed the system in a number of American cinemas, mostly in German-speaking communities.Eyman p.29 Synchroscope largely petered out because not enough sound films were made to meet demand and because it could only last for two or three

reels A reel is a tool used to store elongated and flexible objects (e.g. yarns/ cords, ribbons, cables, hoses, etc.) by wrapping the material around a cylindrical core known as a '' spool''. Many reels also have flanges (known as the ''rims'') arou ...

while the standard length of films was increasingly four or five reels long. Costs had soared by the end of 1908 (the Synchroscope was originally priced at $750 (around $20,000 in 2015); and Schleussner AG bought out Greenbaum's share of Deutsche Bioscope to free up his operations.

Deutsche Vitascope

On 8 September 1909 Vitascope-Theater GmbH changed its name to Deutsche Vitascope GmbH, with Greenbaum the owner and managing director, and headquarters at 20 Friedrichstraße. The firm's chief objective was the production of sound pictures on continuous film so that all the reels could be shown without interruptions. The 1910 Vitascope catalogue advertised a flicker-free camera, Vitaphone soundfilms, arc lamps, used original Vitascope films and 100,000 meters of used

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

/variety act movies, for 20-40 pfennigs/meter. Studios at 32–34 Lindenstraße In 1910 Vitascope opened main offices and a film copying facility at 32–34 , with a glasshouse studio on the roof. Greenbaum moved to new recording rooms for sound production at 105

Große Frankfurter Straße Karl-Marx-Allee () is a boulevard built by East Germany between 1952 and 1960 in Berlin Friedrichshain and Mitte. Today the boulevard is named after the German philosopher Karl Marx. It should not be confused with the Karl-Marx-Straße station in ...

, where Vitascope produced short films of about 120 feet (60m) synchronised with phonograph recordings of vocal numbers, opera arias and dance pieces. The sound films were directed by

Franz Porten Franz Porten (23 August 1859 – 21 May 1932) was a German actor and film director. He was the father of actress and film producer Henny Porten, screenwriter, actress, and director Rosa Porten, and actor Fritz Porten. Filmography Director ...

and starred his daughter

Henny Porten Frieda Ulricke "Henny" Porten (7 January 1890 – 15 October 1960) was a German actress and film producer of the silent film, silent era, and Germany's first major film star. She appeared in more than 170 films between 1906 and 1955. Biography ...

. One notable film was of ''

Mignon ''Mignon'' () is an 1866 ''opéra comique'' (or opera in its second version) in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carré, based on Goethe's 1795-96 novel '' Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre''. ...

'' Act I by

Ambroise Thomas Charles Louis Ambroise Thomas (; 5 August 1811 – 12 February 1896) was a French composer and teacher, best known for his operas ''Mignon'' (1866) and ''Hamlet (opera), Hamlet'' (1868). Born into a musical family, Thomas was a student at the C ...

with the Royal Court Orchestra & Choir and the Royal Ballet. Greenbaum also had a 'normal' silent film studio at 94 Markgrafenstraße. Vitascope's first film of 1910 was ''

Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes ''Arsène Lupin contra Sherlock Holmes'' is a 1910 German drama film, drama film serial directed by Viggo Larsen. The survival status of any of the episodes is unknown. Cast * Viggo Larsen as Sherlock Holmes * Paul Otto as Arsène Lupin List o ...

'' produced and directed by

Viggo Larsen Viggo Larsen (14 August 1880 – 6 January 1957) was a Danish film actor, director and producer from the early silent era to the ' talkies'. He appeared in 140 films between 1906 and 1942. He also directed 235 films between 1906 and 1921. ...

who joined in 1909 from Nordisk. Larsen remained with Vitascope for two years, then founded his own company with star Wanda Treumann. Walter Schmidthässler also joined in 1910, working as director and lead actor for Vitascope. In 1911

Max Mack Max Mack (1884–1973) was a German screenwriter, film producer and director during the silent era. He is particularly known for his 1913 film '' The Other''. He directed, and co-starred in, an early film adaptation of ''Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'' ...

was engaged as scriptwriter, soon debuting as actor and director, with ''Gehirnreflexe'' (Brain Reflex) and three others with

Albert Bassermann Albert Bassermann (7 September 1867 – 15 May 1952) was a German stage and screen actor. He was considered to be one of the greatest German-speaking actors of his generation and received the famous Iffland-Ring. He was married to Elsa Schiff w ...

, notably '' The Other''. '' The Blue Mouse'' showed at the new

Marmorhaus The Marmorhaus (English: Marble House) was a movie theater, cinema that used to be located on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin. Opened in 1913, it takes its name from a large marble façade. Designed by the architect Hugo Pál, the walls of the foyer ...

cinema. Studio at 16 Friedrichstraße Vitascope opened a further studio at

16 in 1911; and in October 1912 Greenbaum vacated 123 Chauseestraße and moved everything to 32–34 Lindenstraße (including manufacture, developing and copying equipment). The fine red sandstone building at 123 Chauseestraße was taken over by Walter Schmidthässler and his recently formed

. Studios at 5–7 Franz-Josef-Straße, Weissensee Needing to expand even further, Greenbaum acquired land at 5–7 Franz-Josef-Straße (now Max-Liebermann-Straße), Weißensee, and in 1913 built a double glasshouse studio along with the largest film processing lab in the country (capable of an advertised 100,000 meters daily capacity.) Showrooms remained in 32/34 Lindenstraße, and the entire production of films moved to Weissensee on 1 October 1913, along with the manufacturing, drying and copying equipment.

Merger with PAGU

In January 1914 Greenbaum merged his Vitascope firm with

PAGU The Projektions-AG Union (generally shortened to PAGU) was a Cinema of Germany, German film production company which operated between 1911 and 1924 during the silent era. From 1917 onwards, the company functioned as an independent unit of Universum ...

(Projektions-Aktiengesellschaft 'Union'), owned by his rival Paul Davidson, in order to compete with the larger French studios who were flooding the German market with their films. The brief merger between PAGU and Vitascope (1914–15) was called Union-Vitascope Gmbh.''Der Kinematograph'', Nr. 419, 6 January 1915, [pdf 29
PAGU combined the resources of 800 employees, with main offices in Zimmerstraße and Lindenstraße, 20 "Union" cinemas, glasshouse studios in Tempelhof and in Weissensee, with its duplicating lab. Both companies continued to produce films under their own name and logos. From January 1914

Richard Oswald Richard Oswald (5 November 1880 – 11 September 1963) was an Austrian film director, producer, screenwriter, and father of German-American film director Gerd Oswald. Early life and career Richard Oswald, born in Vienna as Richard W. Ornstein, ...

was artistic and advertising director at Vitascope. Oswald made the "Baskerville" detective series. Pathé Still seeking further distribution outlets, Greenbaum and Davidson closed a deal with

Pathé Frères Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...

to distribute PAGU films. Pathé bought the Weissensee studios at 5–7 Franz-Josef-Straße in July 1914. However, with the outbreak of the

, foreign films were barred from Germany allowing domestic production to boom. Pathé and PAGU broke off relationships; the admin offices and studios belonging to Pathé were placed into receivership, and reverted to Greenbaum.

Greenbaum-Film

Weissensee The war resulted in the elimination of foreign competition. He broke with Davidson's PAGU and founded Greenbaum-Film out of Vitascope. On 12 January 1915 Greenbaum-Film was incorporated with 10,000 marks and started production again in 5–7 Franz-Josef-Straße, Weissensee, with office and sales at Friedrichstraße 235. An article in ''Lichtbild-Bühne'' for 3 June 1915 announced: "Dr. Hans Oberländer, Richard Löwenbein, Richard Oswald, Greenbaum-Film GmbH – the biggest film factory in Germany." Oswald made five films in a few months and then separated financially from Greenbaum-Film, becoming a self-employed producer and director. In 1916 Greenbaum closed a deal with

, who starred in seventeen films for Greenbaum-Film by 1920. Director

Adolf Gärtner Adolf Gärtner (24 July 1867 − 9 February 1937) was a German film director of the silent era.Cresswell & Dixon p.174 Selected filmography * ''The Night Talk'' (1917) * ''Sadja'' (1918) * ''The Lady in the Car'' (1919) * ''Between Two Worlds (19 ...

(who worked on

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 Cinema of Germany, German cinema. Biography After studying in Berlin and a variety of odd jobs, he b ...

Stuart Webbs Stuart Webbs is a fictional detective who appeared in a series of German films and serials during the silent era. Webbs was one of a number of detectives with English-sounding names to appear in German cinema of the era. Like his contemporaries, s ...

detective series) also moved to Greenbaum-Film and directed nine films in Weißensee. Greenbaum took out a 5-year lease on the Weißensee premises from 4 January 1917 – 1922. In 1919 he leased the double glasshouse studios to

for 600,000 marks, which became known as the May-Atelier.

Merger with Ufa – bankruptcy and death

In 1919 Greenbaum affiliated with Ufa, which the State had quietly established as the giant of German film industry during the war, but the deal led to a series of legal disputes and the virtual bankruptcy of Greenbaum-Film. Greenbaum negotiated a monopoly contract with Ufa to supply films to Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Although Ufa generally didn't break even with domestic sales in Germany alone, foreign sales could make up the difference. However, the war had enormous repercussions for the Balkan peninsula with the borders of many states completely redrawn after 1919. This unsettled political situation led to reduced profits; Ufa claimed millions from Greenbaum for lost sales and the dispute escalated through the courts. Ufa's interests were represented by Hemann Fellner, Greenbaum's former business partner. In April 1920, rival company Decla Film merged with Deutsche Bioscop GmbH and became known as Decla-Bioscop. Greenbaum lost the factory and everything else, and died in 1924 in a mental hospital aged 57. The studios were taken over by Ufa after his death; his two sons George and Mutz managed Greenbaum-Film until it was taken over by Hermann Millakowsky and eventually liquidated in 1932. During his life Greenbaum launched the career of a number of leading German directors and actors including

and

Maria Orska Maria Orska (; ; 16 March 1893 – 16 May 1930) was an important actress of the German theater and cinema in the 1920s. Maria Orska was born as Rachel Blindermann in 1893, of a Jewish family, in a city of Mykolaiv (), not far from Odesa, in wh ...

. His son

Mutz Greenbaum Mutz Greenbaum (3 February 1896 – 5 July 1968), sometimes credited as Max Greene or Max Greenbaum, was a German film cinematographer. He was the son of the pioneering film producer Jules Greenbaum who had founded Deutsche Bioscope. He began as ...

("Max Greene") became a leading

cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the recording of a film, television production, music video or other live-action piece. The cinematographer is the chief of the camera ...

, whose films include ''

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

'' (1923) starring

, '' Thunder Rock'' (1942) and ''

I'm All Right Jack ''I'm All Right Jack'' is a 1959 British comedy film directed and produced by John and Roy Boulting from a script by Frank Harvey, John Boulting and Alan Hackney based on the 1958 novel ''Private Life'' by Alan Hackney. The film is a sequel ...

'' (1959).

Selected filmography

* '' The Other'' (1913) * '' The Blue Mouse'' (1913) * '' Where Is Coletti?'' (1913) * '' Detektiv Braun'' (1914) * '' Ivan Koschula'' (1914) * '' The Iron Cross'' (1914) * '' Laugh Bajazzo'' (1915) * ''

The Vice Vice is a stock character of the medieval morality plays. While the main character of these plays was representative of every human being (and usually named Mankind, Everyman, or some other generalizing of humanity at large), the other character ...

'' (1915) * ' (1915, producer) * ''

The Confessions of the Green Mask ''The Confessions of the Green Mask'' () is a 1916 German silent film directed by Max Mack and starring Alfred Abel and Reinhold Schünzel. The film's sets were designed by the art director Heinrich Richter. Cast * Alfred Abel *Reinhold Schü ...

'' (1916) * '' The Night Talk'' (1917) * '' Lorenzo Burghardt'' (1918) * '' Father and Son'' (1918) * '' The Zaarden Brothers'' (1918) * '' Doctor Schotte'' (1918) * '' The Voice'' (1920) * '' The Sons of Count Dossy'' (1920) * '' Dolls of Death'' (1920) * '' The Last Witness'' (1921) * '' The Oath of Stephan Huller'' (1921) * ''

The Nights of Cornelis Brouwer ''The Nights of Cornelis Brouwer'' () is a 1921 German silent thriller film directed by Reinhard Bruck and William Wauer and starring Albert Bassermann, Colette Corder and Rudolf Klein-Rogge.The plot, about a respectable citizen who is taken ...

'' (1921)

References

Notes Citations

Sources

* * * Eyman, Scott. ''The Speed of Sound: Hollywood and the Talkie Revolution, 1926–1930''. Simon and Schuster, 1997. * * * {{cite book , last=Hardt , first=Ursula , year=1996 , title=From Caligari to California: Erich Pommer's Life in the International Film Wars , publisher=Berghahn Books , isbn=9781571819307 , url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vmOZnlEqPmcC&pg=PA24 * {{cite book , last=Müller , first=Corinna , title=Frühe deutsche Kinematographie : formale, wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Entwicklungen, 1907-1912 , language=German , date=1994 , place=Stuttgart , publisher=Metzler , url=https://archive.org/details/fruhedeutschekin0000mull/page/19/mode/1up , url-access=registration NB The chapter end notes
"Back Matter"
(PDF) are freely available from Springer Link. * {{cite book , editor1-last=Nowell-Smith , editor1-first=Geoffrey , date=1996 , title=The Oxford History of World Cinema , url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhistoryofw00geof , url-access=registration , publisher=Oxford University Press , isbn=0-19-874242-8 *

Siegbert Salomon Prawer Siegbert Salomon Prawer (15 February 1925 – 5 April 2012) was Taylor Professor of the German Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. Life and works Prawer was born on 15 February 1925 in Cologne, Germany, to Jewish parents Marcu ...

: ''Between Two Worlds: The Jewish Presence in German and Austrian Film, 1910-1933''. Berghahn Books, 2007.

External links

*{{IMDb name, 0338466 {{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Greenbaum, Jules 1867 births 1924 deaths German film producers Film people from Berlin 19th-century German Jews Deaths in mental institutions Businesspeople from Berlin Jewish film people