The white horse

The white horse is an archetype that holds cultural and symbolic significance. It can mean heroism, spiritual enlightenment, and the triumph of good over evil. I found several postcards of female stars of the early German silent cinema, such as Henny Porten and Fern Andra, who were portrayed with a beautiful white horse. These dreamy portraits were made just before the First World War and they symbolise purity and innocence, which were soon lost at the front. And after the lost war, the cinema remembered the Germans of their heroic past when Siegfried rode his iconic white horse in the grand epic of the German silent cinema, Fritz Lang's Die Nibelungen (1924).

Fern Andra

German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 1885/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.


German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 2909/3. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.

'Modern' American Fern Andra (1893-1974) became one of the most popular film stars of German cinema in the 1910s and early 1920s. In her films she mastered tightropes, riding horses without a saddle, driving cars and motorcycles, bobsleighing, and even boxing.


German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 2920/3. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.


German postcard by Verlag Photochemie, Berlin / GGCo, no. 2920/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier.

Henny Porten

German postcard by GG co., no. 2428/11.

Sturdy and blond Henny Porten (1890-1960) was one of Germany's most important and popular film actresses of the silent cinema. She became the quintessence of German womanhood, ladylike yet kindhearted and a not a little petit bourgeois. She was also the producer of many of her own films.


German postcard by GG co., no. 2442/6. With a black horse!

Die Nibelungen (1924)

German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 673/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Publicity still for Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Siegfried (Paul Richter) in the forest.

Austrian actor Paul Richter (1895-1961) is best known as Siegfried, the hero who rides a shining white horse in the classic fantasy film Die Nibelungen (1924), situated in pre-Christian Germany. Die Nibelungen, directed by Fritz Lang, is one of the masterpieces of German silent cinema.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/1, 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 675/2, ca. 1924. Photo: Decla-Ufa-Film. Paul Richter in Die Nibelungen: Siegfried (Fritz Lang, 1924). Siegfried and Alberich in the fog meadow. The meadow Siegfried has to cross is clouded in mist and framed by the dark branches of a leafless tree. Then slowly, very slowly, the white horse emerges through the mist, ridden by Siegfried dressed in white.

Sources: Richard Blank (Film & Light: The History of Filmlighting is the History of Film), Kristen M. Stanton (UniGuide), and IMDb.