Otto Gebühr

Otto Gebühr
Portrait photo by Alexander Binder
Born	29 May 1877(1877-05-29) Kettwig, German Empire
Died	14 March 1954(1954-03-14) (aged 76) Wiesbaden, West Germany
Occupation	Film actor
Years active	1917 – 1962

Otto Gebühr (29 May 1877 – 14 March 1954) was a German theatre and film actor, who appeared in 102 movies released between 1917 and 1962. He is noted for his performance as the Prussian king Frederick the Great in numerous films.

Life

Born in Kettwig (today part of Essen) in the Rhine Province the son of a merchant, Gebühr attended the gymnasium secondary school in Cologne and completed a commercial training. Alongside he took drama lessons and began his acting career at the Görlitz city theatre. In 1898 he joined the ensemble of the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden and from 1908 performed at the Lessing Theater in Berlin. As a World War I volunteer he achieved the rank of a Lieutenant in the German Army.

After the war he worked with director Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. At the same time he obtained his first film performances with the help of his colleague Paul Wegener. He found the role of his lifetime in 1919, acting as King Frederick II in the historical drama Die Tänzerin Barberina directed by Carl Boese, modeled on the life of ballerina Barbara Campanini (1721–1799). The first part of the UFA Fridericus Rex tetralogy starring Otto Gebühr playing the title role was released in 1921, followed by several further so-called "Fridericus-Rex-movies". The series was heavily criticized by contemporaries for supporting a widespread negative stance towards the Weimar Republic democracy and the yearning for a leader in waiting. Gebühr continued his performances in the Nazi period from 1933 onwards, last performing in The Great King (German: Der Große König), a 1942 German wartime propaganda film directed by Veit Harlan^[1] referring to the historic Miracle of the House of Brandenburg, which received the rare "Film of the Nation" distinction.^[2]

Gebühr died at Wiesbaden in 1954. His final film, Die Blonde Frau des Maharadscha, was released eight years after his death.

Selected filmography

• Evening – Night – Morning (1920)
• The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920)
• Dr. Holl (1951)
• Sauerbruch – Das war mein Leben (1954)

Films with Otto Gebühr as Frederick the Great

• 1920: Die Tänzerin Barbarina - director: Carl Boese
• 1921–23: Fridericus Rex – director: Arzén von Cserépy

Teil 1 - Sturm und Drang

Teil 2 - Vater und Sohn

Teil 3 - Sanssouci

Teil 4 - Schicksalswende

• 1926: Die Mühle von Sans Souci – director: Siegfried Philippi
• 1928: Der alte Fritz – 1. Teil Friede – director: Gerhard Lamprecht
• 1928: Der alte Fritz – 2. Teil Ausklang – director: Gerhard Lamprecht
• 1930: Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci – director: Gustav Ucicky
• 1932: Die Tänzerin von Sans Souci – director: Friedrich Zelnik
• 1933: Der Choral von Leuthen – director: Carl Froelich
• 1936. Heiteres und Ernstes um den großen König - director: Phil Jutzi
• 1936: Fridericus – director: Johannes Meyer
• 1937: Das schöne Fräulein Schragg – director: Hans Deppe
• 1942: Der große König – director: Veit Harlan

References

1. ^ "New York Times: The Great King". NY Times. http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/13299/Der-Grosse-K-246-nig/overview. Retrieved 2008-07-25. 
2. ^ Erwin Leiser (1974) Nazi Cinema; tr. Gertrud Mander and David Wilson. London: Secker and Warburg ISBN 0-02-570230-0; p. 116

External links

• Otto Gebühr at the Internet Movie Database
• Photographs and literature

Persondata
Name	Gebühr, Otto
Alternative names
Short description	Actor
Date of birth	1877-5-29
Place of birth	Kettwig, Germany
Date of death	1954-3-14
Place of death	Hesse, Germany