#german actresses

[cleopatragirlie]

𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐲 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐞𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐬 (𝟏𝟗𝟓𝟕)

[a-perfect-parisian-day]

Romy Schneider at the premier of The Cardinal in Paris, 1963

[emmieexplores2]

Lilian Harvey

[vintage-old-hollywood]

Hildegard Knef

[dolorygloria]

Romy Schneider in Madrid, 1965

[petiteblasee]

*:･ﾟ✧ Charleen Weiss × icons

• 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐨𝐫 𝐮𝐬𝐞!

[kezrps]

[minayuri]

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, Gertrude Welcker! ❤️

(July 16, 1896 – August 1, 1988)

Gertrude Welcker was a stage and silent film actress; her film career was short lived, lasting from 1917 to 1925. The role she’s best known as, the alluring and enigmatic Countess Dusy Told of Fritz Lang’s 1922 epic crime thriller masterpiece, Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler.

Below is a summary of her life and career, with the people she had collaborated with as an actress.

She was born in Dresden, Saxony, Germany on July 16, 1896. Her younger brother Herbert was born in 1898. Gertrude’s father worked as editor-in-chief and general manager of the Posener Tageblatt, he died in 1909.

During the First World War, she visited Max Reinhardt’s acting school in Berlin. In 1915-16, she had starred in productions at the Albert Theatre in her hometown. During the years of 1916-19, Welcker performed at Deutsches, Kammerspiele, and Volksbühne theatres. Her stage roles include portraying a prostitute in August Strindberg’s Meister Olaf, Lesbia in Friedrich Hebbel's Gyges and His Ring, Recha in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing’s Nathan the Wise, Sister Martha in Gerhart Hauptmann's The Ascension of Little Hannele, and Desdemona and Jessica in William Shakespeare’s Othello and Merchant of Venice respectively.

Her film debut in 1917 was in Felix Basch’s Eine Nacht in der Stahlkammer as Jane Kendall, starring Harry Liedtke as her husband. Her next film was as an angel in Hans Trutz in the Land of Plenty, starring and directed by her stage collaborator Paul Wegener. The film also featured film director Ernst Lubitsch who portrayed Satan.

In 1918, she was in Lupu Pick’s Der Weltspielgel with Bernd Aldor and Reinhold Schünzel. She also starred in Viggo Larsen's The Adventure of a Ball Night with Paul Bildt and Paul Biensfeldt.

Welcker was also in Carl Froelich’s Der Tänzer with Walter Janssen.

She was the lead in the low-budget films, Die Geisha und der Samurai in 1919 and Eine Frau mit Vergangenheit in 1920.

Gertrude Welcker acted in films alongside Conrad Veidt, but those films are sadly considered lost. They portrayed siblings in F.W. Murnau’s Evening – Night – Morning and in Carl Boese’s Nocturne of Love, with Veidt as Frederic Chopin. (I, for one, would’ve loved for her to have been in a film as one of his leading ladies!)

In Hans Werckmeister’s 1920 sci-fi film, Algol: Tragedy of Power, she portrayed Leonore Nissen opposite Emil Jannings. It also starred Hanna Ralph, Hans Adalbert Schlettow (whom Welcker would appear with in Part II of Dr. Mabuse), and John Gottowt. The sets of the film were designed by The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari’s Walter Reimann.

She also appeared in Richard Oswald’s Lady Hamilton in 1921 as Arabella Kelly, in her first scene she is seen with Theodor Loos.

In 1922, Welcker portrayed her most infamous role as Countess Told in Dr. Mabuse, the Gambler starring Rudolf Klein-Rogge, with Aud Egede-Nissen, Alfred Abel, and Bernhard Goetzke. Also, in that same year - Welcker was in Carl Froelich’s Luise Millerin, an adaptation of Friedrich Schiller's Intrigue and Love as Lady Emilie Milford, another of her noteworthy roles. Previously, she was in a stage production portraying the role of Lady Milford's maid, Sophie. The film's all-star cast featured Lil Dagover as the title character, Paul Hartmann, Walter Janssen, Friedrich Kühne, Fritz Kortner, Werner Krauss, and Reinhold Schünzel.

She portrayed the villainess Gesine von Orlamünde of Arthur von Gerlach’s 1925 period drama film, Chronicles of the Grey House. It stars Lil Dagover, Paul Hartmann, Rudolf Forster, and Rudolf Rittner. Thea von Harbou was the film’s screenwriter with music composed by Gottfried Huppertz.

Her final film role was in Goetz von Berlichingen of the Iron Hand as Adelheid von Walldorf. She continued to act on stage until 1930. She has a total of 64 film credits to her name.

Around July 1930, Welcker married the Swedish painter Otto Gustaf Carlsund. She met him while on a trip to Paris. Their marriage lasted until August of 1937 and had no children. Before WWII broke out, she worked as an editor for UFA and by 1941, was active for the Red Cross. Some time before the war's end, she managed to leave for Sweden, and lived the rest of her life there.

It’s a great loss that so many of the films Gertrude Welcker did are considered lost and that her career as a film actress was as short as it was. Certainly, that many of those lost films showcased her great versatility. Gertude Welcker carried a remarkable set of talent, grace, beauty, charisma, and wit and is one of my most favorite actresses of the silent era I love.

Her filmography can be viewed here and here.

[shamelesscollectivepuppy]

Romy Schneider

[cleopatragirlie]

𝐔𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐢 𝐎𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐧 '𝐃𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐤𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐞' (𝟏𝟗𝟔𝟗)

[within-auryn]

hannelore elsner

[twixnmix]

Eartha Kitt posing on set of the ZDF show Vergißmeinnicht, 1970.

Photos by Hans Dürrwald

[ongawdclub]

Z a z i e B e e t z

[frenchnewwaves]

Nastassja Kinski at the 1980 Deutscher Filmball in Germany

[some-celebrity-stuffs]

Happy Birthday Lauren German

November 29

[kitsunetsuki]

John Rawlings - Marlene Dietrich, 1940, from John Rawlings: 30 Years in Vogue by Kohle Yohannan (2001)