Conrad Wiene

Conrad Wiene ca. 1915

Conrad Wiene (born February 3, 1878; d. after 1933, exact date of death unknown) was an actor, screenwriter, film producer and director of Austrian and German silent film. He was a younger brother of the famous German film director Robert Wiene (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari).

Biography

Conrad Wiene was born in Vienna, younger son of the successful actor Carl Wiene, in whose footsteps Conrad initially followed as a stage and screen actor. He co-directed his first films with his older brother Robert, and later made almost twenty feature films, mostly silent. On most of them he also wrote the screenplays.

He worked in Berlin, Prague and Breslau (Wrocław) and above all in Vienna, where several of his silent films were shot in the Schönbrunn Studios (Schönbrunn-Ateliers).

His name was connected with the first proposal in 1930 in Vienna to film Leon Feuchtwanger's 1925 historical novel Jud Süß ("Jew Süss"), but the project never reached the production stage.^[1]

With the arrival and dominance of sound film, Wiene worked in Germany. After Adolf Hitler took power in Germany in 1933, Wiene left Berlin for Vienna. His subsequent fate is unknown.

Filmography

Screenshot from Eine Dirne ist ermordet worden (1930), the last Austrian silent film, directed by Conrad Wiene. This picture is taken from the print on a nitrate base discovered in 1999 in the Netherlands Filmmuseum. In 2002 the film was restored by the Filmarchiv Austria

• Johann Strauß, K.u. K. Hoffballmusikdirektor, 1932 (director)
• Durchlaucht amüsiert sich, 1931/1932 (director)
• So lang' noch ein Walzer von Strauß erklingt, 1931 (director)
• Madame Blaubart, 1930/1931 (director and producer)
• Das Geheimnis der Martha Lüders, 1930 (director)
• Eine Dirne ist ermordet worden, 1930 (director); the last Austrian silent film; press screening on February 28, 1930 (Haydn-Kino)
• Eros in Ketten, 1929 (director and screenplay)
• Revolution der Jugend, 1929 (director and screenplay)
• Die vierte von rechts, 1928 (director)
• Heut' spielt der Strauß (Der Walzerkönig), 1928 (director)
• Trude, die sechzehnjährige, 1926 (director and screenplay)
• Die kleine Dingsda, 1926 (director and screenplay)
• Ich hatt' einen Kameraden, 1926 (director)
• Unter Ausschluß der Öffentlichkeit, 1926/1927 (director)
• Zapfenstreich, 1925 (director and screenplay)
• Der krasse Fuchs, 1924/1925, (director and screenplay)
• Die Macht der Finsternis, 1923/1924 (director)
• Das Erbe, 1922/1923 (director and screenplay)
• Das Testament des Ive Sievers, 1922 (director)
• Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen [1], 1920 (director)
• Glanz und Elend der Kurtisanen [2], 1920 (director)
• Die Spinne, 1919 (director)
• Zwei Welten, 1919 (director and screenplay)
• Am Tor des Lebens, 1918 (director)
• Der Stärkere, 1918 (director and screenplay)
• Der letzte Erbe von Lassa, 1918 (director and screenplay)
• Der vorsichtige Kapitalist, 1918 (director and screenplay)
• Das verschnupfte Miezerl, 1917 (director)
• Dem Frieden entgegen, 1917 (director)
• Frank Boyers Diener, 1917/1918 (director)
• Veilchen Nr. 4, 1917 (director)
• Der Mann im Spiegel, 1916 (director)
• Die Dame mit der Maske, 1916 (director)
• Der Evangelimann, 1914 (director)
• Die Waffen der Jugend , 1912/1913 (actor)

Notes

1. ^ The novel was later filmed in England, in 1934, and again in 1940 in Nazi Germany, by Veit Harlan. While the British film, Jew Suss, can be seen today as sympathetic towards Jews and indirectly critical of National Socialist policy towards the Jews, the later German adaptation Jud Süß was an infamous anti-semitic film on permanent release during World War II in all occupied countries.

External links

• Conrad Wiene on the IMDB
• Filmportal.de: Conrad Wiene (German)

References

• Bono, F., Canappele, P., Krenn, G., 1999: Elektrische Schatten: Beiträge zur österreichischen Stummfilmgeschichte. Verlag Filmarchiv Austria. ISBN 390193202X, ISBN 9783901932021