Ellen Richter

We highly recommend a new, German-language book, 'Ellen Richter, Die grosse Unbekannte des Weimarer Kinos'. The title refers to a 1924 adventure film by the Austrian actress and film producer in which she travelled by car, ship and aeroplane around the world. She was a modern woman, and her films were exciting, humoristic and extraordinary. Of the 70-odd films in which Ellen Richter appeared between 1913 and 1933, only a fraction have survived. Thanks to the growing interest in women in film history, several of her films have been rediscovered and restored by film archives. Philipp Stiasny and Oliver Hanley wrote a wonderful book about this forgotten film star, lavishly illustrated with images of posters, tinted film stills and postcards, including a couple from our own collection.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 766/3, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 766/4, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1017/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1199/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3360/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3874/1, 1928-1929.


German collector card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der stumme Film, picture no. 66. Photo: Ellen-Richter-Film. Ellen Richter, Anton Pointner and Hans Brausewetter in Der Flug um den Erdball / The Flight Around the Globe (Willi Wolff, 1925).

Sensation and adventure films

Ellen Richter was born Käthe Weiss in 1893 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary (now Austria). She studied acting with Ferdinand Gregori at the Akademie für darstellende Kunst.

In 1915, she conquered European audiences with sensation and adventure films like the Joe Deebs detective film Das Gesetz der Mine / The Law of the Mine (Joe May, 1915) starring Max Landa.

She became, in no time, a competitor of action star Harry Piel in films like Der Ring des Schicksals / The Ring of Fate (Richard Eichberg, 1916), Der Spion / The Spy (Karl Heiland, 1917), and Der Flieger von Görz / The Aviator of Gorizia (Georg Jacoby, 1918) starring Harry Liedtke.

These films had enormous success. In 1920, Ellen Richter founded her own production company, Ellen Richter Film, together with her later husband, Willi Wolff.

From then on, he directed and wrote, and she produced and acted in films tailored to her. She soon had the reputation that her films always contained an expensive excursion to exotic locations.


Italian postcard by Ed. G. Vettori, Bologna, no. 341. Photo: Ellen Richter-Film. Ellen Richter in Lola Montez, die Tänzerin des Königs (Willi Wolff, 1922).


German postcard by NPG (Neue Photographische Gesellschaft), no. 911. Photo: Anny Eberth, Berlin.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 5078. Photo: Atelier Eberth. Perhaps this photo refers to Richter's film Zigeunerweisen (Rudolf Meinert, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 192. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 193. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 194. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2199. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 2604. Photo: Meinert Film. Ellen Richter in Die schöne Jolan (Rudolf Meinert, 1918), scripted by Willi Wolff. The man on her right is probably Hugo Flink, Richter's co-actor in this film.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 3245. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 120/1. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson. The picture possibly refers to the Union film Das Teehaus zu den zehn Lotosblumen (Georg Jacoby, 1919), with Richter in the lead.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 120/2. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 120/3. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 120/5. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot, no. 1651. Photo: Willinger.

The nerveless woman

Ellen Richter married Willi Wolff in 1923. She was able to hold her popularity well till the end of the 1920s.

Richter appeared in his films like Lola Montez, die Tänzerin des Königs / Lola Montez, the King's Dancer (Willi Wolff, 1922) with Georg Alexander, Der Flug um den Erdball / The Flight Around the Globe (Willi Wolff, 1925), Moral (Willi Wolff, 1928) and Die Frau ohne Nerven / The Nerveless Woman (Willi Wolff, 1929) opposite Walter Janssen.

In the 1930s, Richter only played in a few films, such as Die Abenteurerin von Tunis / The Adventuress of Tunis (Willi Wolff, 1931) and Das Geheimnis von Johann Orth / The Secret of Johann Orth (Willi Wolff, 1932) with Karl Ludwig Diehl, before she retired from the film business.

Her last film was the crime comedy Manolescu, der Fürst der Diebe / Manolescu, King of Thieves (Georg C. Klaren, Willi Wolff, 1933) starring Iván Petrovich. The rise of the Nazis ended her film career. The Jewish Richter was forbidden to produce more films and was in 1938 excluded from the Reichsfilmkammer.

During the Second World War, she lived in foreign countries. After her return to Germany, she worked again in film production, but now on a small scale. Ellen Richter died in 1969 in Düsseldorf, West Germany. Willi Wolff had passed away in 1947.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 766/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1017/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1017/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1768/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3047/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3874/2, 1928-1929.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3360/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5110/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Wengeroff film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6149/1, 1931-1932. Ellen Richter in Die Abenteurerin von Tunis / The Adventurer of Tunis (Willi Wolff, 1932).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 6607. Photo: Ellen Richter Tonfilm.


Cover of 'Ellen Richter, Die grosse Unbekannte des Weimarer Kinos' (2026) by Philipp Stiasny and Oliver Hanley. Published by Synema - Gesellschaft für Film und Medien, Wien.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.