Emil Jannings

If Weimar cinema had one film star, it would be Emil Jannings (1884-1950). He was one of the greatest actors in the silent era. In 1929, he received the first Oscar in the Best Actor category. It's too bad that during the Third Reich, he worked as a board member for the Ufa propaganda machine.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1266/4, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder / Ufa. Emil Jannings in Varieté (E.A. Dupont, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 410/1. Photo: Union-Film. Emil Jannings as Henry VIII in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin., no. 697/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Ufa. Emil Jannings in Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 698/1. Photo: Filmhaus Bruckmann. Emil Jannings as Nero in Quo vadis? (Gabriellino D'Annunzio, Georg Jacoby, 1924).


Italian postcard by G.B. Falci, Milano, no. 269. Photo: S.A.I. Films / Paramount. Emil Jannings in The Way of All Flesh (Victor Fleming, 1927). The Italian release title was Nel gorgo del peccato.


French postcard by A.N., no. 365. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings in The Patriot (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4746/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930).

In the trenches

Emil Jannings was born Theodor Friedrich Emil Janenz in Rorschach, Switzerland, in 1884. He was the son of German-American merchant Emil Janenz and his wife Margarethe Schwabe. He grew up in Leipzig in the German Empire and further in Görlitz after the early death of his father. Emil had two brothers and a sister.

He left grammar school in the ninth grade. His mother initially forbade him from becoming an actor, so he went to sea as a ship's boy for a year. On his return to Görlitz, she allowed him to begin a traineeship in acting at the Görlitz theatre. He did not show any talent though, but Jannings did not give up. From 1901 on, he played in several provincial theatres and with travelling companies.

From 1907 to 1908, he performed in Stettin, from 1908 to 1911 in Bonn where he also directed several productions, from 1911 to 1912 in Königsberg, from 1912 to 1913 in Nuremberg (together with Werner Krauß), and from 1913 to 1914 in Darmstadt and in Bremen. In 1914, he reached Berlin. Jannings had his first film role in the War Propaganda film Im Schützengraben/In the Trenches (Walter Schmidthässler, 1914). He did not see film work as his fulfilment. Artistically, it was not an adequate medium for his acting, as he was unable to use his versatile voice in silent films.

In 1915-1916, he was engaged at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater. At Reinhardt's theatre, he at first mainly played smaller and mid-size roles. In 1916, he directed Gustav Kaltenbach's comedy 'Familie Schimek' at Deutsches Theater. Through Reinhardt, Jannings met author Karl Gustav Vollmoeller and Ernst Lubitsch. Both were important cultural figures in Berlin society in the Golden Twenties. Berlin society photographer Frieda Riess took portraits of him.

From 1917 on, he played larger roles, for instance, the role of Wehrhahn in 'Der Biberpelz' (The Beaver Coat") by Gerhart Hauptmann, or the role of Gustav Hein in Hermann Bahr's 'Das Konzert' (The Concert). In the summer of 1918, he went to Königliches Schauspielhaus where he made his first performance in the role of the village judge Adam in Heinrich von Kleist's 'Der zerbrochene Krug' (The Broken Jug). It became his greatest stage triumph. At the end of 1918, he returned to Deutsches Theater, getting bigger and bigger roles. He left the ensemble in June 1920.


German postcard, no. 9904. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 1880. Photo: Fritz Richard. Emil Jannings in 'Kollege Crampton' by Gerhart Hauptmann.


Spanish postcard. Photo: Ufa. Written dedication: "To the audience of the Kursaal." This could refer to the Kursaal in Barcelona or the Kursaal in Madrid.


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 205.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture, no, 29, Group 43. Photo: publicity still for Arme Eva (Robert Wiene, 1914). Caption: Emil Jannings, jung und schön, in seinem ersten Film, Fromont junior, Risler senior. (Emil Jannings, young and handsome, in his first film Fromont junior, Risler senior. According to other sources, Arme Eva (Robert Wiene, 1914) was his first film.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1989. Photo: Union Film. Erna Morena, Emil Jannings and Harry Liedtke in Der Ring der Giuditta Foscari (Alfred Halm, 1917).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2008. Photo: Union-Film. Ossi Oswalda in the German silent comedy Wenn vier dasselbe tun (Ernst Lubitsch, 1917), starring Ossi Oswalda as the girl, Fritz Schulz (here on the left) as her lover, and Emil Jannings as her father (here on the right).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/3. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Emil Jannings in Die Ehe der Luise Rohrbach/The Marriage of Luise Rohrbach (Rudolf Biebrach 1917), based on a novel by Emmi Elert.

Ernst Lubitsch

From 1916 on, Emil Jannings played more and more in film, mostly in quickly staged melodramas and crime stories. From 1916 on, Jannings regularly appeared in films, mostly in quickly filmed melodramas that covered the topics of love and passion, money and crime.

In 1919 he had his big breakthrough as Louis XV in the lavish period piece Madame DuBarry, directed by his former theatre colleague Ernst Lubitsch.

It became a turning point in his career. The film was such an international hit that former war adversaries such as the United States embraced German cinema. Jannings and his co-star Pola Negri became instant celebrities.

He focused on his film career instead of the theatre. For a while, he continued to play debauched rulers such as Henry VIII in Anna Boleyn/Deception (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920), Amenes in Das Weib des Pharao/Pharoah's Wife (Ernst Lubitsch, 1922) and Czar Peter the Great in Peter der Grosse (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922).

Again and again, Jannings embodied this type of character in his films of the early 1920s. Other strong historical characters were the title roles in Danton/All for a Woman (1921) and Othello (1922), both directed by Dimitri Buchowetzki.


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 10, group 40. Photo: Ufa. Publicity still with Pola Negri and Emil Jannings in Vendetta (Georg Jacoby, 1919).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden Deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 60, group 42. Photo: Ufa. Pola Negri and Emil Jannings in Madame Dubarry/Passion (Ernst Lubitsch, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 630/3. Henny Porten as Rose Bernd, and Emil Jannings as the brutal suitor Arthur Streckmann in Rose Bernd (Alfred Halm, 1919), adapted from the eponymous play by Gerhard Hauptmann. The man with the white beard may be Werner Krauß as Rose's father.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 639/6. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Emil Jannings in Kohlhiesels Töchter/Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 645/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Union Film. Emil Jannings and Henny Porten in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


Italian postcard for BAM Cinema Capranica, Rome, no. 19. Emil Jannings as Othello in Othello (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1922), adapted from William Shakespeare's play. The Italian release titles were Il Moro di Venezia and Otello.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 665/2, 1919-1924. Photo: May Film. Publicity still for Tragödie der Liebe/Love Tragedy (1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 697/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Ufa. Emil Jannings in Der Letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (F.W. Murnau, 1924).


Italian postcard by Ifas for the Palermo-based cinema Modernissimo. Photo: Emil Jannings and Conrad Veidt in Nju - Eine unverstandene Frau/Husbands or Lovers (Paul Czinner, 1924).

Quo vadis?

Emil Jannings starred as Emperor Nero in the Italo-German coproduction Quo vadis?, which was shot in Rome with an international cast including Lilian Hall-Davis, Alphons Fryland, Elga Brink, Elena Sangro, Rina de Liguoro and Raimondo Van Riel.

The producer was grand old man Arturo Ambrosio of the Unione Cinematografica Italiana, a Universal-like merger of many Italian prewar companies. The film had its Roman premiere in March 1925. Quo vadis? tried to equal the earlier version of 1913, adding enormous sets, designed by architect Brasini, and streaks of sadism and nudity, but it didn't have the worldwide success of Enrico Guazzoni's 1913 version.

People were a bit bored with epic films and the censor ordered cuts. The producer almost went bankrupt over copyright claims. It didn't help that the lion tamer Alfred Schneider was convicted because one of his circus lions had killed an extra. But Quo vadis? is a fascinating film, especially for Jannings's performance as the evil emperor. In 2002, the film was restored by Eye Filmmuseum in the Netherlands, based on various existing copies. This restored version had its 're-premiere' at the Cinema Ritrovato film festival in Bologna. In 2024, the film was shown again at Cinema Ritrovato to a large audience.

After his return from Italy, Jannings managed to turn away from period pieces in two films that were produced by Ufa. In Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (1924), he played a proud hotel doorman who loses his self-esteem and the esteem of others when he is reduced to a toilet man, working in the basement of the hotel. In Varieté/Variety (Ewald André Dupont, 1925), he is the strong acrobat, who kills his rival out of jealousy. In these two films, he succeeded in arousing sympathy and understanding for characters who at first belie their fears and despair with rough behaviour.

Emil Jannings magnificently expressed the fears and doubts of proud and big-hearted men, who are cheated by their surroundings. F.W. Murnau directed him in two more silent classics Tartüff/Tartuffe (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1925) with Lil Dagover, and Faust (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1925) as Mephisto opposite Gösta Ekman as Faust. The international success of his films brought Jannings a three-year contract with Paramount, where Ernst Lubitsch and Pola Negri were already working.


Italian card by editor A. Traldi, Milano. On the back is an ink stamp for the Politeama Cesare Rossi, Fano. Photo: Emil Jannings as Emperor Nero in Quo vadis? (Georg Jacoby, Gabriellino D'Annunzio, 1925).


French postcard by Editions Cinémagazine, no. 542. Photo: publicity still for Quand la Chair succombe/The Way of All Flesh (1927), now a famous lost film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1556/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1998/1, no. 1927-1928. Photo: Paramount / ParUfaMet.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3206/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3796/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3979/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3979/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Paramount.

Paramount

In October 1926, Emil Jannings went with his wife to Hollywood. His Paramount films were mostly made according to Der letzte Mann/The Last Laugh (1924) and Varieté/Variety (1925). He played characters who lose their place in society and end in misery, men who perish by love. In The Way of All Flesh (Victor Fleming, 1927) he played a bank teller who leaves his job and his family for an adventuress. The Way of All Flesh was a great financial success. In The Last Command (Josef von Sternberg, 1928), Jannings played a former White-Russian general who was hired out as an extra in Hollywood. The two films earned him the first Oscar ever awarded to an actor.

His next film, The Street of Sin (Mauritz Stiller, Ludwig Berger, 1928) was not well received by critics or audiences. Together with Ernst Lubitsch, he tried to repeat their German successes in The Patriot (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928) in which he played the mad Czar Paul I, who is murdered at the end by Lewis Stone, the patriot of the title, for the betterment of Russia.

Jannings' first sound film project was a film version of the comedy 'Das Konzert' by Hermann Bahr, but he feared that he would not be able to match the requirements of English-language films. With the switch from silent films to talkies, public taste changed rapidly and Jannings' rather exalted acting style was quickly considered outdated. Of the five silent films Jannings made for Paramount, only The Last Command (1928) has survived intact. Of two films, The Way of All Flesh (1927) and The Patriot (1928), only brief clips remain. The other two, Street of Sin (1928) and Betrayal (1929) also starring a young Gary Cooper, are thought to be completely lost.

Emil Jannings left Hollywood and returned to Berlin, where he was launched in his first sound film Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (1930), directed by Josef von Sternberg. It was based on a novel by Heinrich Mann, 'Professor Unrat'. Jannings played the local university professor Immanuel Rath who falls in love with cabaret singer Lola Lola (Marlene Dietrich). Once married to him, she shamelessly exploits and humiliates him. When the film came out, Dietrich's popularity overshadowed Jannings's. The film was her ticket to Hollywood.

Emil Jannings returned to the stage. From 1930 on, he performed at the theatre again, multiple times in plays by Gerhart Hauptmann. In 1930, he played the role of Wehrhahn in 'Der Biberpelz', in 1932 the title role in 'Fuhrmann Henschel', and the role of privy council Clausen in 'Vor Sonnenuntergang', a role he resumed in the film Der Herrscher/The Ruler (1937). In 1933, he again played the role of Judge Adam on stage. In May 1934, he became a cast member of Staatliches Schauspielhaus where he made his last stage performance in 1936 in the role of Bismarck in 'Der Ministerpräsident' by Wolfgang Goetz.


French postcard by Cinémagazine-Edition, no. 203. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings in The Patriot (Ernst Lubitsch, 1928).


French postcard by Europe, no. 344. Emil Jannings in The Street of Sin (Mauritz Stiller, Ludwig Berger, 1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Foreign, no. 99/1. Photo: Paramount. Publicity still for The Last Command (1928).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3579/1, 1928-1929.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4324/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Paramount. Emil Jannings in Betrayal (Lewis Milestone, 1929).


German collector card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Ufa. Truus van Aalten and Emil Jannings in Liebling der Götter/Darling of the Gods (Hanns Schwarz, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6424/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Emil Jannings in Stürme der Leidenschaft/The Tempest (Robert Siodmak, 1931).


Dutch postcard, no. 658, ca. 1933. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Zeitschrift für Film und Theater G.m.b.H., Berlin. Licensed by Ross Verlag, Berlin. Photo: Terra-Sandau. Emil Jannings as Paul Kruger in Ohm Krüger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941).

Rulers

With his sound films of the early 1930s, Emil Jannings could not compete with his earlier successes. Only after the Nazis came to power, his star rose again. He played rulers, just like in the early 1920s, but this time, not the decadent versions anymore. He performed historical characters such as Friedrich Wilhelm I in Der Alte und der junge König/The Making of a King (Hans Steinhoff, 1935), Geheimrat Clausen in Der Herrscher/The Ruler (Veit Harlan, 1937), the title roles in Robert Koch (Hans Steinhoff, 1939) and Ohm Kruger/Uncle Kruger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941), and Bismarck in Die Entlassung/The Dismissal (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1942). German Wikipedia: "His films from this period were not on the same level as his earlier works; his performance in Der zerbrochene Krug/The Broken Jug (Gustav Ucicky, 1937) in particular came across more like a filmed stage performance and left the viewer with a static impression. However, the film can still be regarded as one of the most successful popular adaptations of the play, especially in terms of the humorous side of Jannings that was expressed here."

In 1936 he became a board member of Ufa and in 1938 he became chairman. He was allowed to direct his own films and thus was the main responsible for Ohm Kruger, one of the most expensive films of the Nazi era. His historical films contributed to the legitimisation of Nazi politics. These rulers were all historic predecessors to Adolph Hitler. Filmportal.de: "This film marked the pinnacle of the attempt to interpret history in terms of National socialism, and to justify current politics with historic models. In the film, the Boer War serves as a pretence to illustrate the inevitability of war against England, the politician Paul ('Ohm') Krüger is over-magnified as a Führer character."

In January 1945, Emil Jannings broke up work to the film Wo ist Herr Belling?/Where Is Mr. Belling? (Erich Engel, 1945), because of an illness. The film, never finished, was his last work. After the war, the occupational forces banned him from performing for life. Jannings reportedly carried his Oscar statuette with him as proof of his former association with Hollywood. However, his active role in Nazi propaganda meant that he was subject to denazification, effectively ending his career.

Emil Jannings became a citizen of Austria in 1947 and retired to Strobl near Salzburg. He had been married to his fourth wife, the singer and actress Gussy Noll, since 1923. He had a daughter, Ruth, from his first marriage with Erna Hennings. In the early 1920s, Jannings had been married twice, to the actresses Hanna Ralph and Lucie Höflich, respectively. In 1950, Emil Jannings died, aged 65, from liver cancer in his residence at Wolfgangsee in the Salzkammergut region. He is buried in the St. Wolfgang cemetery. His Best Actor Oscar is now on display at the Berlin Filmmuseum.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 200/1. Photo: Lindner / Deka-Film / NDLS. Emil Jannings in Der alte und der junge König/The Making of a King (Hans Steinhoff, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1343/1, 1937-1938. Photo: K.J. Fritzsche Prod. / Tobis Magna. Emil Jannings in Der zerbrochene Krug/The Broken Jug (Gustav Ucicky, Emil Jannings, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2962/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Haenchen / Tobis. Emil Jannings as Paul Kruger in Ohm Krüger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3201/2, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis. Emil Jannings as Paul Kruger in Ohm Kruger (Hans Steinhoff, 1941).


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3887/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis / Star-Foto-Atelier.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. G 175, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.


Trailer for Danton (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1921). Source: Brian Pinette (YouTube).


Scene from Das Wachsfigurenkabinett/Waxworks (Paul Leni, 1924) with Emil Jannings as the Grand Vizier. Source: Flickr Alley Clips (YouTube).


Original trailer for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930). Source: Eurekaentertainment (YouTube).


1960s Re-release trailer for Der blaue Engel/The Blue Angel (Josef von Sternberg, 1930). Source: Eurekaentertainment (YouTube).

Sources: Filmportal.de, Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.