Peter Bosse

Actor, presenter and journalist Peter Bosse (1931-2018) was a popular child star of German cinema in the 1930s. The boy with his cheeky face made 28 films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9574/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9845/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa.


German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1276/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Manassée-Ricoll, Wien / Mondial.

Opera

Peter Bosse was born in Berlin, Germany, in 1931 as the son of silent film actress Hilde Maroff.

After some performances on the children's radio with Ilse Obrig, he entered the film business. He made his debut as the son of the great opera singer Beniamino Gigli in Vergiß mein nicht/Forget Me Not (Augusto Genina, 1935).

The next year he became a popular child star with Schloß Vogelöd/Vogelöd Castle (Max Obal, 1936) with Carola Höhn, and as the small Peter in Schlußakkord/Final Accord (Detlev Sierck/Douglas Sirk, 1936) with Willy Birgel and Lil Dagover.

Another popular film was Das Gäßchen zum Paradies/Paradise Road (Martin Fric, 1936) with Hans Moser, in which Peter won the hearts of the public as a little orphan.

Till the outbreak of the war followed more films, including Solo per te/Only for Thee (Carmine Gallone, 1937) with Opera singers Beniamino Gigli and Michael Bohnen, Frauenliebe - Frauenleid (Augusto Genina, 1937) with Magda Schneider, Mutterlied/Mother Song (Carmine Gallone, 1938) - again as the son of Beniamino Gigli, Asszony a valszuton/Die Frau am Scheidewege/The woman at the crossroads(Josef von Báky, 1938) with Ewald Balser an Magda Schneider, and Robert und Bertram/Robert and Bertram (Hans H. Zerlett, 1939).


With Magda Schneider. German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Cine-Allianz.


German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin / Ross Verlag. Photo: Europa.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1859/1, 1938-1939. Photo: Sandau, Berlin.

Radio

Peter Bosse’s film career ended when WW II started. The Nazis didn’t permit him to act in films anymore on 'account of racial and ideological reasons' according to Wikipedia.

After the war, he followed acting classes and started to work as a stage actor at the Schiffbauerdammtheater in Berlin. Later he switched to the radio and worked for the Berliner Rundfunk. He acted in many radio plays and worked also as a presenter.

He played a few small roles in East German films like the DEFA productions Der Prozeß wird vertagt/The Process is Adjourned (Herbert Ballmann, 1958) with Gisela Uhlen, and the adventure film Der Traum des Hauptmann Loy/The Dream of the captain Loy (Kurt Maetzig, 1961).

He also worked for the GDR television as the host of the long-running child show Unser Sandmännchen/Our Little Sandman (1958-). In the 1990s he founded the radio station 50 Plus (now Spreeradio), for which he was a presenter and the programme director.

So Peter Bosse finished his career where it started, on the radio. Peter Bosse passed away in 2018.


German Postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1859/2, 1937-1938. Photo: Sandau, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 2122/1, 1939-1940. Photo: Sandau, Berlin.


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Joerger.


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Tobis. Publicity still for Das Gäßchen zum Paradies/Paradise Road (Martin Fric, 1936).


Big German card by Ross Verlag. Photo: Cine-Allianz.

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

This post was last updated on 20 July 2023.