Helga Molander (1896-1986) appeared in several German silent films. She often worked with her partner, producer and director Max Glass. After the rise of the Nazis, the Jewish actress had to go into exile.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 496/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Suse Byk.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2988. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.
Helga Molander was born as Ruth Werner in Königshütte, Germany (now Chorzów, Poland) in 1896. At 20, she fell in love with Eduard Anton Eysenck, an actor and nightclub entertainer who was once voted "handsomest man on the Baltic coast", according to Wikipedia. She got pregnant and gave birth to a son, Hans Jürgen. The boy was brought up by his grandmother, who was a fervent Catholic, though of Jewish ancestry. She later died in a concentration camp.
Helga Molander began her artistic career in 1918 at the Trianon Theater in Berlin. She was a success and could also make her film debut that year. Among her first films were Verlorene Töchter / Lost Daughters (William Kahn, 1918) and Im Zeichen der Schuld / In the Sign of Guilt (Richard Eichberg, 1918) with Bruno Decarli.
The following year, she played with Conrad Veidt in the groundbreaking drama Anders als die Anderen / Different from the Others (Richard Oswald, 1919). The film was based on a script by Richard Oswald and physician and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who was an outspoken advocate for sexual minorities. Raff-10 at IMDb: “It was banned after a short run in Germany, where theatregoers were harassed at showings. It seems very brave of Conrad Veidt and the makers of the film to make a sympathetic, sexually charged film about homosexuals in 1919. The story is about a man who is blackmailed after making advances on a stranger he meets at a men-only dance.”
During the 1920s, Molander performed in several silent films. These films include Feindliches Blut / Enemy blood (Willi Achsel, Klaus Fery, 1920) with Eugen Klöpfer, Sappho / Mad Love (1921) with Pola Negri, Der Alte Gospadar / The Old Gospodar (Rolf Randolf, 1922) starring Ernst Deutsch, Die drei Portiermädel / The Three Girl Porters (Carl Boese, 1925) with Hanni Weisse and Maly Delschaft, and the historical drama Königin Luise / Queen Luise (Karl Grune, 1927) featuring Mady Christians.
Molander played major roles for Berlin film producer and director Max Glass in Der Mann mit der Eisernen Maske / The Man with the Iron Mask (Max Glass, 1922) and Bob und Mary / Bob and Mary (Max Glass, 1923). Glass was the head of Terra Film, for which Molander often worked. According to German journalist Georg Fuchs, Terra Film owed its rise to international recognition to Glass. He was sometimes nicknamed ‘the dictator of cinema’ because of his iron will. In 1928, just before the introduction of sound film, Helga Molander’s film career stopped. The reason for this is unclear.
Conrad Veidt. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1426/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Vaida M. Pál, Budapest.
Hanni Weisse. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 765/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.
With the advent of the Nazis in Germany, Helga Molander and Max Glass got in trouble and both had to flee. Not only were they both Jews, but several of the actors that appeared in Glass’ films were too, like for example Szöke Szakáll and Grete Mosheim. In 1933, Glass’ film companies in Germany were shut down, and he went into exile in Paris. There, Glass founded a new production company, Flora Films.
Brigitte Berg writes at Les Indépendants du 1er Siècle: "According to some sources, Max Glass had "spent a fortune" buying his friend's freedom after - like most refugees from Germany - she had been rounded up by the French police and locked up in a French internment camp (prelude to Drancy, then Auschwitz for most of those who were handed over to the Nazis). Helga Molander eventually joined Max Glass in Brazil, then the United States." However, the sources we checked don't mention an internment nor an intervention from Max Glass to free her. Stephanie d'Heil writes at Steffi-Line (our translation): "With the onset of the Nazi regime, Helga Molander left Germany because of her Jewish roots and went into exile in France in 1933. A few months before the outbreak of World War II, she emigrated from Le Havre to the USA, arriving in New York on May 23, 1939. In France, she met Max Glass again, who also emigrated to America in May 1939."
In 1937, Max Glass and his two sons created a second French production and distribution company called Arcadia Films. It undertook two super-productions, La Tragédie Impériale / Rasputin (1938) with Harry Baur in the role of Rasputin, and the anti-Nazi Entente Cordiale (1939) after the novel by André Maurois. Both films were directed by Marcel L'Herbier. In 1939, a decree granted Glass French citizenship. However, in 1942, the Vichy Government issued another decree that stripped Glass of his French citizenship, according to Brigitte Berg.
Our own Ms. Sherlock, Marlene Pilaete, comments: "Molander and Glass spent the war years in Brazil and the USA, only returning to Europe at the end of 1945. Steffi-Line says that Molander went into exile in France in 1933 and that she then went into exile to the U.S.A. and arrived there on the 23rd of May 1939. The date is precise, so I assume that d'Heil has good sources. To my knowledge, French authorities didn't put German refugees in internment camps during the 1930s, and, for example, the Drancy camp only became an internment camp for Jewish people in 1941. There was a French decree on the 1st of September 1939, which permitted the internment of all the strangers coming from countries that were at War with France. So, Molander, being German, could have been interned from September 1939 on, but, according to Steffi-Line, she was already in the U.S.A. at the time. The dates don't match."
Little is known of the sojourns of Glass and Molander in Brazil and the United States. Glass seems to essentially have devoted himself to writing. After the war, they returned to France. Glass discovered that during his exile, his companies, Flora Films and Arcadia Films, had been declared bankrupt and dissolved by a provisional administrator. He obtained an agreement that permitted him to recover some of the French films he had produced before the war. In 1948, Max Glass created his last company, the Max Glass Films, and produced three more feature films. In 1957, Helga Molander and Max Glass finally married, after he could divorce his first wife, Helene Münz. Glass died in 1965 and Molander in 1986. She was 89. Her son, Hans Eysenck, was Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, and became famous for his I.Q. tests. Her grandson, Michael Eysenck, is also a noted psychology professor.
Scene from Sappho / Mad Love (1921) with Pola Negri and Alfred Abel. Source: Radio Santos (YouTube).
Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Brigitte Berg (Les Indépendants du 1er Siècle, Stephanie d'Heil (Steffi-Line - German), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 12 October 2025.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 496/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Suse Byk.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 2988. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin. Collection: Didier Hanson.
The handsomest man of the Baltic Coast
Helga Molander was born as Ruth Werner in Königshütte, Germany (now Chorzów, Poland) in 1896. At 20, she fell in love with Eduard Anton Eysenck, an actor and nightclub entertainer who was once voted "handsomest man on the Baltic coast", according to Wikipedia. She got pregnant and gave birth to a son, Hans Jürgen. The boy was brought up by his grandmother, who was a fervent Catholic, though of Jewish ancestry. She later died in a concentration camp.
Helga Molander began her artistic career in 1918 at the Trianon Theater in Berlin. She was a success and could also make her film debut that year. Among her first films were Verlorene Töchter / Lost Daughters (William Kahn, 1918) and Im Zeichen der Schuld / In the Sign of Guilt (Richard Eichberg, 1918) with Bruno Decarli.
The following year, she played with Conrad Veidt in the groundbreaking drama Anders als die Anderen / Different from the Others (Richard Oswald, 1919). The film was based on a script by Richard Oswald and physician and sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, who was an outspoken advocate for sexual minorities. Raff-10 at IMDb: “It was banned after a short run in Germany, where theatregoers were harassed at showings. It seems very brave of Conrad Veidt and the makers of the film to make a sympathetic, sexually charged film about homosexuals in 1919. The story is about a man who is blackmailed after making advances on a stranger he meets at a men-only dance.”
During the 1920s, Molander performed in several silent films. These films include Feindliches Blut / Enemy blood (Willi Achsel, Klaus Fery, 1920) with Eugen Klöpfer, Sappho / Mad Love (1921) with Pola Negri, Der Alte Gospadar / The Old Gospodar (Rolf Randolf, 1922) starring Ernst Deutsch, Die drei Portiermädel / The Three Girl Porters (Carl Boese, 1925) with Hanni Weisse and Maly Delschaft, and the historical drama Königin Luise / Queen Luise (Karl Grune, 1927) featuring Mady Christians.
Molander played major roles for Berlin film producer and director Max Glass in Der Mann mit der Eisernen Maske / The Man with the Iron Mask (Max Glass, 1922) and Bob und Mary / Bob and Mary (Max Glass, 1923). Glass was the head of Terra Film, for which Molander often worked. According to German journalist Georg Fuchs, Terra Film owed its rise to international recognition to Glass. He was sometimes nicknamed ‘the dictator of cinema’ because of his iron will. In 1928, just before the introduction of sound film, Helga Molander’s film career stopped. The reason for this is unclear.
Conrad Veidt. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1426/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Vaida M. Pál, Budapest.
Hanni Weisse. German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 765/2, 1925-1926. Photo: Alex Binder.
Locked up in a French internment camp
With the advent of the Nazis in Germany, Helga Molander and Max Glass got in trouble and both had to flee. Not only were they both Jews, but several of the actors that appeared in Glass’ films were too, like for example Szöke Szakáll and Grete Mosheim. In 1933, Glass’ film companies in Germany were shut down, and he went into exile in Paris. There, Glass founded a new production company, Flora Films.
Brigitte Berg writes at Les Indépendants du 1er Siècle: "According to some sources, Max Glass had "spent a fortune" buying his friend's freedom after - like most refugees from Germany - she had been rounded up by the French police and locked up in a French internment camp (prelude to Drancy, then Auschwitz for most of those who were handed over to the Nazis). Helga Molander eventually joined Max Glass in Brazil, then the United States." However, the sources we checked don't mention an internment nor an intervention from Max Glass to free her. Stephanie d'Heil writes at Steffi-Line (our translation): "With the onset of the Nazi regime, Helga Molander left Germany because of her Jewish roots and went into exile in France in 1933. A few months before the outbreak of World War II, she emigrated from Le Havre to the USA, arriving in New York on May 23, 1939. In France, she met Max Glass again, who also emigrated to America in May 1939."
In 1937, Max Glass and his two sons created a second French production and distribution company called Arcadia Films. It undertook two super-productions, La Tragédie Impériale / Rasputin (1938) with Harry Baur in the role of Rasputin, and the anti-Nazi Entente Cordiale (1939) after the novel by André Maurois. Both films were directed by Marcel L'Herbier. In 1939, a decree granted Glass French citizenship. However, in 1942, the Vichy Government issued another decree that stripped Glass of his French citizenship, according to Brigitte Berg.
Our own Ms. Sherlock, Marlene Pilaete, comments: "Molander and Glass spent the war years in Brazil and the USA, only returning to Europe at the end of 1945. Steffi-Line says that Molander went into exile in France in 1933 and that she then went into exile to the U.S.A. and arrived there on the 23rd of May 1939. The date is precise, so I assume that d'Heil has good sources. To my knowledge, French authorities didn't put German refugees in internment camps during the 1930s, and, for example, the Drancy camp only became an internment camp for Jewish people in 1941. There was a French decree on the 1st of September 1939, which permitted the internment of all the strangers coming from countries that were at War with France. So, Molander, being German, could have been interned from September 1939 on, but, according to Steffi-Line, she was already in the U.S.A. at the time. The dates don't match."
Little is known of the sojourns of Glass and Molander in Brazil and the United States. Glass seems to essentially have devoted himself to writing. After the war, they returned to France. Glass discovered that during his exile, his companies, Flora Films and Arcadia Films, had been declared bankrupt and dissolved by a provisional administrator. He obtained an agreement that permitted him to recover some of the French films he had produced before the war. In 1948, Max Glass created his last company, the Max Glass Films, and produced three more feature films. In 1957, Helga Molander and Max Glass finally married, after he could divorce his first wife, Helene Münz. Glass died in 1965 and Molander in 1986. She was 89. Her son, Hans Eysenck, was Professor of Psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, and became famous for his I.Q. tests. Her grandson, Michael Eysenck, is also a noted psychology professor.
Scene from Sappho / Mad Love (1921) with Pola Negri and Alfred Abel. Source: Radio Santos (YouTube).
Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Brigitte Berg (Les Indépendants du 1er Siècle, Stephanie d'Heil (Steffi-Line - German), Wikipedia (English and German) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 12 October 2025.
3 comments:
What an amazing story. Quite a life. Thanks Bob/
Thank you.
Scott Lord
Truly remarkable. The beautiful and talented mother of the most renowned psychologist of our time.
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