Herbert Lichtenfeld

Herbert Lichtenfeld (16 June 1927 in Leipzig-11 December 2001 in Hamburg) was one of the most successful television screenplay writers in Germany. He wrote over 300 film scripts. Many his of scripts were successful in Germany.

Life

After graduating, Lichtenfeld moved into the Federal Republic, and there worked as a reporter on several newspapers. In the 1960s he became the television correspondent for Hörzu magazine. At this time he started to write radio plays and books. From 1968 he worked full-time as screenplay writer. His first television film "Deutschlandreise" (German Journey) (1970, coproduction between NDR og NRK) was co-written with Adolf Grimme-Preis.

A little later he began a partnership with the at that time still unknown director Wolfgang Petersen. Together they developed a series of detective TV movies called "Kriminalreihe" (Crime scene). These achieved ratings of over seventy per cent. High point was the "School leaving certificate" (1974) with Nastassja Kinski and Christian Quadflieg, about a relationship between a teacher and a pupil.

While Wolfgang Petersen moved to the cinema and today works successfully in Hollywood, Lichtenfeld remained a writer for television. Besides writing further "Kriminalreihe" scripts he wrote for other crime film series such as "Der Alte" (The old man).

Also outside of the crime film genre he wrote numerous books, radio plays, television films and television series. Lichtenfeld's film scripts were always complex, the dialogues very precise, often not without a shot of irony.

Die Schwarzwaldklinik

Lichtenfelds most major success was "Die Schwarzwaldklinik" (The Black Forest Hospital). Lichtenfeld is often called the inventor of "Die Schwarzwaldklinik". But the idea to create a series in a hospital in the Black Forest was conceived by producer Wolfgang Rademann, who gave the screenplay writing job to Lichtenfeld. The series attracted audiences of 25 million to watch Professor Brinkmann in his white doctors coat.

Lichtenfeld wrote all the scripts for "Die Schwarzwaldklinik" as well as his own series "Der Landarzt" (The country doctor), centring around physician Dr. Matthiesen in the fictitious small town of Deekelsen in Schleswig-Holstein. Lichtenfeld wrote all the episodes until 1997.

In the early 1990s Lichtfeld was one of the most sought after directors on German television. Among other series he wrote "Das Traumschiff" (the dream ship), and "Hotel Paradies" (1990), "Unsere Hagenbecks" (1991), "Immer wieder Sonntag" (1993-1995), and several successful television films such as "Vater wider Willen" (Father against Will)" (1995). Lichtenfeld's final film, "Jugendsünde" (Youth Sin) ran in 2000.