Artur Brauner – A legend turns 100

August 01, 2018

Artur „Atze“ Brauner was born on August 1st, 1918 in Łódź as Abraham Brauner.
Due to persecution by the Nazis during the occupation of Poland he and his family fled into the Soviet Union.
Post war Brauner returned to West Berlin, becoming a successful film producer.

Artur Brauner and his CCC Filmkunst Studios felt at home in nearly every genre. He was the first one to exploit Karl May for the screen, he convinced Heinz Rühmann of playing the role of „Schwejk“, he produced „Hollandmädel“ together with Sonja Zieman being a huge sucess, he filmed with Klaus Kinski (his first role), Romy Schneider (her last role), Curd Jürgens, Gert Fröbe, O.W. Fischer, Ruth Leuwerik, Maria Schell and many other stars.

Although producing lots of films for easy entertainment - due to the post-war circumstances in the 50s nobody wanted to nor could deal with the past and serious topics in cinemas - Brauner’s main concern was to process the German Nazi-history. His first movie dealing with this topic was „Morituri“ followed by 20 other movies dealing with Nazi-Germany, resistance and the holocaust, such as "Die Spaziergängerin von Sanssouci“ starring Romy Schneider and "Hitlerjunge Salomon“.

"Hitlerjunge Salomon" won the Golden Globe for "Best Foreign Language Film" and was nominated for the Academy Award. What caused quite a stir was the German Oscar committee refusing to submit the film for the category "Best Foreign Language Film" thus preventing it's oscar nomination. The soundtrack for the movie was composed by Zbigniew Preisner.

Artur Brauner also managed to retrieve famous Weimar Republic film directors back to Germany who had to leave their home country before or during the Nazi reign, such as Fritz Lang and Robert Siodmak, to produce new films. For example "Das Indische Grabmah" ("The Indian Tomb") and "Der Tiger von Eschnapur" ("The Tiger of Eschnapur") with Fritz Lang. Both movies had more success abroad than in Germany.

If you want to find out more about Artur Brauner, his legend and the history behind his movies, there is a documentary by ARTE, SWR & CCC-Film (also containing several titles from our publishing catalogue):

Film: Der Unerschrockene - Der Berliner Filmproduzent Artur Brauner
Genre: Documentary
Direction: Kathrin Anderson, Oliver Schwehm
Production: ARTE, SWR, CCC-Film
Length: 60 Minuten
Country: Germany
Year: 2018
Broadcast: 01/08/2018, 22:05 - 23:05 on ARTE

Following an extract of films produced by Artur Brauner with songs/soundtracks from our publishing catalogue:

Adieu, Lebwohl, Goodbye (Gert Wilden)
Am Tagen als der Regen kam Marina-  (Martin Böttcher)
Bbij Jahr - vergessenes Verbrechen (Walter Werzowa)
Bittere Ernte (Jörg Strassburger)
Cafe Oriental (Gert Wilden)
Charlotte (Egisto Macchi)
Das 7. Opfer (Raimund Rosenberger)
Das Geheimnis des schwarzen Koffers (Gert Wilden)
Das indische Grabmahl (Gerhard Becker-Biebl)
Das Phantom von Soho (Martin Böttcher)
Das Testament des Dr. Mabuse (Raimund Rosenberger)
Das Ungeheuer von London (Martin Böttcher)
Der Fluch der gelben Schlange (Oskar Sala)
Der Schut (Martin Böttcher)
Der Tiger von Eschnapur (Gerhard Becker-Biebl)
Der Todesrächer von Soho (Rolf Kühn, Rolf Alexander Wilhelm)
Die Deutschen, die Liebe und die Ehe (Ernst Simon)
Die Nibelungen (Rolf Alexander Wilhelm)
Die Pyramide des Sonnengottes (Erwin Halletz)
Die tausend Augen des Dr. Mabuse (Gerhard Becker-Biebl)
Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse (Carlos Diernhammer)
Die unsichtbaren Krallen des Dr. Mabuse ( Christian Bruhn, Rolf Alexander Wilhelm, Oskar Sala, Peter Sandloff)
Du bist Wunderbar (Ralf Arnie, Ernst Bader, Werner Müller)
Durchs wilde Kurdistan (Raimund Rosenberger)
Eine Liebe in Deutschland (Michel Legrand)
Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein (Martin Böttcher, Rolf Alexander Wilhelm
Hanussen (Jeno Huszka, Andras Kozma, Ferenc Martos, Peter Szalai, Zdenko Tamassy,, Gyorgy Vukan)
Hitlerjunge Salamon (Zbigniew Preisner)
Im Reich des silbernen Löwen (Raimund Rosenberger)
Im Stahlnetz des Dr. Mabuse (Peter Sandloff)
Kampf um Rom  (Riz Ortolani )
Lange Beine Lange Finger (Martin Böttcher)
Mädchen Hinter Gitter (Raimund Rosenberger)
Old Shatterhand (Riz Ortolani)
Schatz der Azteken (Erwin Halletz)
Via mala (Rolf Alexander Wilhelm)
Von Hölle zu Hölle (A.A. Pantykin)
Winnetou und Old Shatterhand im Tal der Toten (Martin Böttcher)
and many more...

Photo credits:

Source: programm.ard.de