Henny Porten, Part 1

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most important and popular film actresses of the silent cinema. She was also the producer of many of her own films. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted. Today, EFSP presents Part 1 of a post on her long career. Part 2 follows tomorrow.


German postcard by Autor Film Co. G.m.b.H., Berlin, no. 52.


Spanish minicard by Reclam Films, no. 6 of 6. Photo: Messter. Henny Porten in Eva (Curt A. Stark, 1913). Card 6 of 6. The success of this film provided the opportunity for Porten to have her own Henny Porten series at Messter. Until his death at the Western Front in 1916, Stark directed most of Porten's films and was also her first husband. In the back of this card is Frieda Richard as Mrs. Hartwig.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Die Räuberbraut (Robert Wiene, 1916).


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.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/7. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Der Ruf der Liebe / The Call of Love (Rudolf Biebrach, 1916).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/9. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Die Prinzessin von Neutralien / The Princess of Neutralien (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 500/11. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Der Liebesbrief der Königin / The Queen's Love Letter (Robert Wiene, 1916).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 506/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Gefangene Seele (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 507/1. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Gräfin Küchenfee / Countess Kitchen Fairy (Robert Wiene, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 508/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten and Reinhold Schünzel in the comedy Höhenluft / Mountain Air (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).

Queen of the Mutoskop peepboxes

Frieda Ulricke 'Henny' Porten was born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1890. She was the second daughter of Franz Porten, an opera baritone and actor-director at the Stadtheater of Magdeburg, and his wife Wincenzia, whose maiden name was Wybiral. Her older sister was the actress and script-writer Rosa Porten.

In January 1906, Franz Porten was engaged by film pioneer Oskar Messter to direct six Biophon-Sound Pictures. These were short early sound films that were projected with synchronously playing gramophone records. So Henny made her film debut in Apachentanz / Apache Dance (Oskar Messter, 1906). This made her one of the earliest film actresses anywhere in the world.

She went on to perform in numerous sound pictures, mostly for the Deutsche Mutoskop und Biograph GmbH, which also included her work in their Mutoskop peep boxes. Her work involved singing in three different languages by moving her lips in a synchronised fashion to a gramophone record. Despite having no training in acting, this work allowed her to become a highly experienced actress.

Five years later, audiences were clamouring to know the name of the blonde (and blind) girl in Das Liebesglück der Blinden / The Joy of Love of the Blind (Heinrich Bolten Baeckers, Curt A. Stark, 1911), a melodrama written for her by her sister, Rosa Porten.

In 1912, she married Curt A. Stark, who would direct most of her films until he died in 1916. In 1912, Messter concluded a one-month contract with her, which had been repeatedly extended. After the success of Eva (Curt A. Stark, 1913), she started the Henny Porten Film Star Series, beginning with Der Feind im Land / The Enemy in the Country (Curt A. Stark, 1913).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 509/2. Photo: Messter Film. Henny Porten and Paul Hartmann in Die Claudi vom Geiserhof (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne Series, no. 510/3. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Eduard von Winterstein in the two-part drama Die Faust des Riesen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1917).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 519/7. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Paul Bildt in Edelsteine (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 520/1. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Auf Probe gestellt / Put to the test (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 525/6. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Kurt Vespermann in Das Geschlecht derer von Ringwall (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 531/8. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Hermann Thimig in Agnes Arnau und ihre drei Freier / Agnes Arnau and her three suitors (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 541/7. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Bruno Decarli in Das Maskenfest des Lebens (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 552/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten and Rudolf Biebrach, and in the back, Paul Biensfeldt, Bruno Decarli and Arthur Bergen, in Die Sieger (Rudolf Biebrach 1918).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film-Sterne series, no. 567/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Ferdinand von Alten in Die blaue Laterne (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918), based on the novel by Paul Lindau. The two people in the back could be Karl Elzer and Johanna Zimmermann.


German postcard by Rotophot / Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 570/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten and Alfred Abel in the German silent comedy Die Dame, der Teufel und die Probiermamsell (Rudolf Biebrach, 1918). The film was released at the Berlin Mozartsaal on 17 January 1919. The film script was by Robert Wiene, cinematography by Karl Freund, and sets by Kurt Richter.

The ultimate Wilhelminian actress

Following the exodus in the film industry at the beginning of the First World War, Henny Porten initiated, as if personally, the renaissance of German cinema with Das Ende vom Liede / The end of the Song (Rudolf Biebrach, 1915) with Ludwig Trautmann.

Rudolf Biebrach, who in earlier films often played her father, now took on the job of the film director. The Porten films were at the peak of their success.

Henny Porten embodied the ultimate Wilhelminian actress, with her long, blond hair, her innocent-looking face and her round forms.

Though she often performed as the tragic, self-sacrificing woman, tormented by class conflicts and evil men, like in Alexandra (Curt A. Stark, 1915), she also proved to be an able comedienne, like in Gräfin Küchenfee (Robert Wiene, 1918) with Ernst Hofmann.

In 1916, Henny Porten's husband and director Curt Stark died on the Western Front.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 350/4. Photo: Becker & Maass / Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Rose Bernd (Alfred Halm, 1919), adapted from the eponymous play by Gerhard Hauptmann.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 356/4. Photo: Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten Die lebende Tote / The Living Dead (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919). Porten appeared in this film in a tableaux vivant-like series of 'Lebendes Porzellan' (living china).

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 401/3, 1919-1924. Photo: Rembrandt Phot. / Messter Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard Berlin by Ross Verlag, no. 594/4. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten, Gustav Czimeg and Harry Liedtke in the German silent drama Irrungen (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 609/2. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten in the romantic comedy Ihr Sport / Her Sport (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 630/3. Photo: Messter-Film, Berlin. Henny Porten 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. To the right, Emil Jannings as the brutal suitor Arthur Streckmann.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 633/2. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten in the German silent period piece Monika Vogelsang (Rudolf Biebrach, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no, 636/2. Photo: Messter Film. Henny Porten and Georg Alexander in Die Fahrt ins Blaue (Rudolf Biebrach, 1919). The film was scripted by Hanns Kräly and cinematographed by Willy Gaebel.


German postcard by Verlag Ross Film, Berlin, no. 639/1. Emil Jannings and Henny Porten in Kohlhiesels Töchter / Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 640/2. Photo: Messter-Film. Henny Porten in Die goldene Krone (Alfred Halm, 1920).

Invitation for Hollywood

Henny Porten reached a new height of her screen career under the gentle guidance of Ernst Lubitsch, who cast her as the title character in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920), a biopic on the ill-fated second wife of the English King Henry VIII (Emil Jannings), and the comedy Kohlhiesels Töchter / Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920) in which Porten played both Liesel the ugly daughter as well as her beautiful sister Gretel.

The success of these films resulted in an invitation for Porten and her co-star Emil Jannings to come to Hollywood, but Henny remained in Germany. In March 1921, she established the company Henny Porten Films GmbH, and that year she also married doctor Wilheim von Kauffman.

After the box office hit Die Geierwally / Wally of the Vultures (Ewald André Dupont, 1921) with Wilhelm Dieterle, Porten produced the highly ambitious studio film Hintertreppe / Backstairs (Paul Leni, Leopold Jessner, 1921). While highly praised by critics, the film was financially unsuccessful.


In 1921, Henny Porten married Wilhelm von Kaufmann (1888–1959), a doctor of Jewish origin, then director of the Sanatorium 'Wiggers Kurheim', in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From then on, he took charge of the production of Porten's films.

After three further years of rather unsuccessful films, Henny Porten's film company went bankrupt in 1923. Despite this, she continued to have a longstanding and prolific acting career throughout the 1920s with films like Gräfin Donelli / Countess Donelli (Georg Wilhelm Pabst, 1924), andMutter und Kind / Mother and Child (1924) with Friedrich Kayssler, the first of a series of films directed and produced by her former director of photography, Carl Froelich.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 645/8. Photo: Union Film. Henny Porten in Anna Boleyn (Ernst Lubitsch, 1920).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 646/1. Photo: HPF (Henny Porten Film). Henny Porten in Die Geyer-Wally (E.A. Dupont, 1921), based on the novel by Wilhelmine von Hillern. The sets were by Paul Leni. Henny Porten as Wally.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 649/1. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in the classic Kammerspiel film Hintertreppe (Leopold Jessner, 1921).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 650/2. Photo: HPF (Henny Porten Filmproduktion). Henny Porten in Frauenopfer (Karl Grune, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 652/4. Photo: Henny Porten-Film. Henny Porten in Sie, und die Drei (E.A. Dupont, 1922).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/2. Photo: Maxim-Film. Henny Porten and Harry Liedtke in Struensee / Der Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 659/1, 1923-1924. Photo: Rembrandt / Peter Paul Felner-Film Co. Henny Porten as Porzia (Portia) in Der Kaufmann von Venedig (Peter Paul Felner, 1923), based on the play 'The Merchant of Venice' by William Shakespeare.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 663/9. Photo: Hans Natge, Berlin. Henny Porten in Das alte Gesetz (E.A. Dupont, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 666/1. Photo: Neumann. Henny Porten as Mary in the Biblical film I.N.R.I. (Robert Wiene, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 671/3. Photo: Maxim-Film. Henny Porten in Das Geheimnis von Brinkenhof (Svend Gade, 1923).

To be continued tomorrow.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Hans J. Wollstein (AllMovie - Page now defunct), Denny Jackson (IMDb), Filmportal, Wikipedia and IMDb.