HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Walter Ruttmann (28 December 1887 – 15 July 1941) was a German
cinematographer The cinematographer or director of photography (sometimes shortened to DP or DOP) is the person responsible for the photographing or recording of a film, television production, music video or other live action piece. The cinematographer is the ch ...
and
film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...
, an important German abstract
experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...
maker, along with Hans Richter,
Viking Eggeling Viking Eggeling (21 October 1880, Lund – 19 May 1925, Berlin) was a Swedish avant-garde artist and filmmaker connected to dadaism, Constructivism, and abstract art and was one of the pioneers in absolute film and visual music. His ...
and
Oskar Fischinger Oskar Wilhelm Fischinger (June 22, 1900 – January 31, 1967) was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter, notable for creating abstract musical animation many decades before the appearance of computer graphics and music vid ...
. He is best known for directing the semi- documentary '
city symphony A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...
'
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 ...
, with orchestral score by
Edmund Meisel Edmund Meisel (14 August 1894 – 14 November 1930) was an Austrian-born composer. He wrote the score to Walter Ruttmann's '' Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis'' (1927), ''The Battleship Potemkin'' (1925), and other films of Sergei Eisenstein. Meis ...
, in 1927, '' Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis''. His audio montage ''Wochenende (Weekend)'' (1930) is considered a major contribution in the development of
audio plays Radio drama (or audio drama, audio play, radio play, radio theatre, or audio theatre) is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine t ...
.


Biography

Ruttmann was born in
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...
, the son of a wealthy mercantilist. He graduated "high school" in 1905, then began in 1907, architectural studies in
Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...
, later, in 1909, painting in
Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
(later in
Marburg Marburg ( or ) is a university town in the German federal state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district (''Landkreis''). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has a population of approximate ...
) where he befriended
Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
and
Lyonel Feininger Lyonel Charles Feininger (July 17, 1871January 13, 1956) was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist. He was born and grew up in New York City, traveling to Germa ...
. Ruttmann was conscripted into the army in 1913, first serving in Darmstadt, and shortly after the outbreak of the
World War I 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 ...
was he sent to the Eastern Front, where he served as an artillery lieutenant and a gas defense officer. After spending 1917 in a hospital, for
post traumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats on a ...
, he began making films. Ruttmann had the financial means to work independently of the major German studios of the time. He founded Ruttmann-Film S.R.O. in Munich and patented an animation table, in June 1920. His first productions were the first fully animated German cartoons, and abstract animated films. ''Lichtspiel: Opus I'', produced between 1919 and 1921, premiered on 27 April 1921 at the
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
Marmorhaus The Marmorhaus (English: Marble House) is a former cinema 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 and auditorium were dec ...
, and released for German theatrical distribution in 1922, is the "oldest fully abstract motion picture known to survive, using only animated geometric forms, arranged and shown without reference to any representational imagery". ''Opus I'' and ''Opus II'', were experiments with new forms of film expression, and the influence of these early abstract films can be seen in some of the early work of Oskar Fischinger. Ruttmann and his colleagues of the avant garde movement enriched the language of film as a medium with new formal techniques. In 1926 he worked with
Julius Pinschewer Julius Pinschewer (15 September 1883 Inowroclaw – 16 April 1961 Berne) was a German film producer who specialised in advertising films. During the First World War, he recognised the potential of propagandistic film use and produced several fi ...
on ''Der Aufsteig'', an experimental film advertising the
GeSoLei The GeSoLei (german: Große Ausstellung Düsseldorf 1926 für Gesundheitspflege, soziale Fürsorge und Leibesübungen) was the largest trade fair in Germany during the Weimar Republic. It attracted 7.5 million visitors. The name was constructed fro ...
trade fair A trade fair, also known as trade show, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products and services, meet with industry partners and c ...
in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
. In 1926, Ruttmann licensed a Wax Slicing machine from
Oskar Fischinger Oskar Wilhelm Fischinger (June 22, 1900 – January 31, 1967) was a German-American abstract animator, filmmaker, and painter, notable for creating abstract musical animation many decades before the appearance of computer graphics and music vid ...
to create special effects for ''
The Adventures of Prince Achmed ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'' (known as ''Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed'' in German language, German) is a 1926 German Animation, animated Fairy tale, fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; ...
'', an animated fairy tale film, for
Lotte Reiniger Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger (2 June 1899 – 19 June 1981) was a German film director and the foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Her best known films are ''The Adventures of Prince Achmed'', from 1926, the first feature-length animated fil ...
, making the moving backgrounds and magic scenes. Ruttmann was a prominent exponent of both avant-garde art and music. His early abstractions played at the 1929 Baden-Baden Festival to international acclaim despite their being almost eight years old. Together with
Erwin Piscator Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator (17 December 1893 – 30 March 1966) was a German theatre director and producer. Along with Bertolt Brecht, he was the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of ...
, he worked on the film '' Melody of the World'' (1929), though he is best remembered for '' Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt'' (''Berlin: Symphony of a Metropolis'', 1927). ''Weekend'' (Wochenende), commissioned in 1928 by Berlin Radio Hour, and presented on 13 June 1930, is a pioneering work of
musique concrète Musique concrète (; ): " problem for any translator of an academic work in French is that the language is relatively abstract and theoretical compared to English; one might even say that the mode of thinking itself tends to be more schematic, ...
, a montage of sound clips, recorded using film optical sound track from the
Tri-Ergon The Tri-Ergon sound-on-film system was developed from around 1919 by three German inventors, Josef Engl (1893–1942), Joseph Massolle (1889–1957), and Hans Vogt (1890–1979). The system used a photoelectric recording method and a non-standard ...
process. Ruttmann recorded the streets sounds of Berlin with a camera, but without images, this was before
magnetic tape Magnetic tape is a medium for magnetic storage made of a thin, magnetizable coating on a long, narrow strip of plastic film. It was developed in Germany in 1928, based on the earlier magnetic wire recording from Denmark. Devices that use magne ...
. Hans Richter called it “a symphony of sound, speech-fragments, and silence woven into a poem.” A pacifist, he traveled to Moscow in 1928 and 1929. During the Nazi period he was replaced by
Leni Riefenstahl Helene Bertha Amalie "Leni" Riefenstahl (; 22 August 1902 – 8 September 2003) was a German film director, photographer and actress known for her role in producing Nazi propaganda. A talented swimmer and an artist, Riefenstahl also became in ...
as director of the documentary which eventually became ''
Triumph of the Will ''Triumph of the Will'' (german: Triumph des Willens) is a 1935 German Nazi propaganda film directed, produced, edited and co-written by Leni Riefenstahl. Adolf Hitler commissioned the film and served as an unofficial executive producer; his na ...
'' (1935), supposedly because Ruttmann's editing style was considered too "Marxist" and Soviet influenced. He died in
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
15 July 1941 due to an embolism after leg amputation.


Culture and Media

Segments from Ruttmann's experimental films ''Lichtspiel: Opus II'' (1923) and ''Lichtspiel: Opus IV'' (1925) are used in the credits of the German
neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...
television series ''
Babylon Berlin ''Babylon Berlin'' is a German neo-noir television series. Created, written, and directed by Tom Tykwer, Achim von Borries, and Hendrik Handloegten. It is loosely based on novels by German author Volker Kutscher. The series premiered on 13 O ...
''.


Select filmography

* ''Lichtspiel: Opus I'' (1920) * ''Der Sieger'' (1922) * ''Das Wunder'' (1922) * ''Lichtspiel: Opus II'' (1922) * ''Lichtspiel: Opus III'' (1924, with Lore Leudesdorff)Heinz Steike in ''Film als Film 1910 bis Heute'', Kölnischer Kunstverein, 1977 * ''Lichtspiel: Opus IV'' (1925, with Lore Leudesdorff) * ''Das wiedergefundene Paradies'' (1925) * ''Der Aufstieg'' (1926) * ''Spiel der Wellen'' (1926) * ''Dort wo der Rhein...'' (1927) * '' Berlin: Die Sinfonie der Großstadt'' (1927) * '' Melody of the World'' (''Melodie der Welt'') (1929) * '' Wochenende'' (1930) n experimental film with sound only, no image* '' Feind im Blut'' (1931) * '' In der Nacht'' (1931) * ''
Steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...
'' (1933) * '' Blut und Boden - Grundlagen zum neuen Reich'' * '' Altgermanische Bauernkultur'' (1934) * '' Metall des Himmels'' (1935) * '' Schiff in Not'' (1936) * ''
Mannesmann Mannesmann was a German industrial conglomerate. It was originally established as a manufacturer of steel pipes in 1890 under the name "Deutsch-Österreichische Mannesmannröhren-Werke AG". (Loosely translated: "German-Austrian Mannesmann pi ...
'' (1937) * '' Henkel, ein deutsches Werk in seiner Arbeit'' (1938) * '' Waffenkammern Deutschlands'' (1940) * '' Deutsche Panzer'' (1940) * ''Krebs'' (1941)


Further reading

* Cowan, Michael. ''Walter Ruttmann and the Cinema of Multiplicity: Avant-garde-Advertising-Modernity''. Amsterdam, NL: Amsterdam University Press, 2014. * Dombrug, Adrianus van. ''Walter Ruttmann in het beginsel''. Purmerend, NL: J. Muusses, 1956. * Goergen, Jeanpaul. ''Walter Ruttmann: Eine Dokumentation''. Berlin: Freunde der deutschen Kinemathek, 1989. * Rogers, Holly and Jeremy Barham ''The Music and Sound of Experimental Film''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017. * Quaresima, Leonard, editor. ''Walter Ruttmann: Cinema, pittura, ars acustica''. Calliano (Trento), Italy: Manfrini, 1994.


References


External links

* * *
Walter Ruttmann
Union List of Artist Names The Union List of Artist Names (ULAN) is a free online database of the Getty Research Institute using a controlled vocabulary, which by 2018 contained over 300,000 artists and over 720,000 names for them, as well as other information about artist ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ruttmann, Walter German experimental filmmakers Film people from Frankfurt Abstract animation Visual music artists 1887 births 1941 deaths Articles containing video clips Deaths from embolism German amputees