German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1958/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Sudfilm AG (SF). Fritz Kampers in Frühere Verhältnisse/Former conditions (Arthur Bergen, 1927).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 5387/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Aafa-Film.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6993/1, 1931-1932. Photo: O. Stein.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9965/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Ufa.
A cavalryman on the eastern front
Friedrich Kampers was born in München (Munich), Germany, in 1891. He was the son of a hotel owner and spent his early childhood in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. From 1901 on, Fritz attended a boarding school in Weilheim in Upper Bavaria, where he took part in student performances.
After finishing secondary school, he completed a commercial apprenticeship in a textile shop in Munich and at the same time took acting classes with Richard Stury, who presided as president of the Münchener Versuchsbühne (Munich experimental stage). After appearances there and at the Alhambratheater, he wandered through the province and finally found engagements in Alzey, Karlsruhe, Lucerne, Sondershausen, Helmstedt and Aachen.
Kampers made his film debut probably in the silent comedy Das Rosa Pantöffelchen/The Little Pink Slipper (Franz Hofer, 1913) starring Dorrit Weixler. He directed The Volkstyrann/The People's Tyrant (Fritz Kampers, 1913), in which he also played the main role opposite his famous colleague Albert Steinrück.
During the First World War, Fritz Kampers served as a cavalryman on the eastern front. After Kampers was wounded, he joined the front theatres in Warsaw and Łódź. In 1917 Kampers was committed to the Munich Volkstheater, where he got to know the director Franz Seitz, who gave him some engagements in silent films, including Verlorenes Spiel/Lost Game (Edgar Reitz, 1919).
He played in productions of the Munich Lichtspiel-Kunst (Emelka) such as Der Hauptmann-Stellvertreter/The Deputy Captain (Paul Ostermayr, 1915), and Der Rubin des Maharadscha/The Ruby of the Maharajah (Toni Attenberger, 1917). He also appeared in the historical film Der Ochsenkrieg/The War of the Oxen (Franz Osten, 1920). He also played in crime stories and Ganghofer adaptations, including Der Jäger von Fall (Franz Seitz, 1925) with Grete Reinwald.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1959/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Emelka, München. Fritz Kampers and Claire Rommer in Frühere Verhältnisse/Former conditions (Arthur Bergen, 1927).
Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5011. Photo: AAFA Film / Lux Film-Verleih. Maria Paudler and Fritz Kampers in Heiratsfieber/Marriage Fever (Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1928).
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 117/3. Photo: Brix / Henny Porten-Film Produktion. Henny Porten and Fritz Kampers in Die Herrin und ihr Knecht/The mistress and her servant (Richard Oswald, 1929), a drama taking place at the German-Russian border shortly before and during the First World War.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 126/3. Photo: Atelier Schmoll, Berlin / Nero-Porten-Film. Henny Porten and Fritz Kampers in Kohlhiesels Töchter/Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Hans Behrendt, 1930).
Robust, blunt characters showing wit, cunning, and unexpected depth
In 1920 Fritz Kampers moved to Berlin. He played the villain in a series of twelve crime films. He appeared in another historical drama Lola Montez, die Tänzerin des Königs/Lola Montez, the King's Dancer (Willi Wolff, 1922) starring Ellen Richter. He also had a supporting part in the silent adventure film Wilhelm Tell/William Tell (Rudolf Dworsky, Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1923) starring Hans Marr, Conrad Veidt, and Erich Kaiser-Titz. The film portrays the story of the legendary Swiss national hero Wilhelm (William) Tell.
Kampers played the male lead opposite Mary Johnson in the drama Die Stimme des Herzens/The Voice of the Heart (Hanns Schwarz, 1924). Another leading followed in the silent drama Menschen am Meer/People of the Sea (Léo Lasko, 1925) also with Elisabeth Pinajeff and Fritz Rasp. He acted in Die Flucht in den Zirkus/The Circus of Life (Mario Bonnard, Guido Parish, 1926) starring Marcella Albani, and Vladimir Gajdarov.
At the same time, he performed on stages such as the Kleinen Schauspielhaus, the Lessingtheater, the German Theater and the Revue Theater Admiralspalast. Kampers also became popular as a cabaret artist. For a time he was part of the ensemble of Trude Hesterberg's political-literary cabaret 'Die Wilde Bühne'.
In the mid-1920s, Fritz Kampers started to play supporting roles as comic folk types, such as a farmer, a policeman, and a soldier - often with a Bavarian touch. Examples are Nanette macht alles/Nanette Makes Everything (Carl Boese, 1926) starring Mady Christians and Heiratsannoncen/Marriage Announcement (Fritz Kaufmann, 1926) with Max Landa and Hermann Picha.
A hit was Der Hauptmann von Köpenick/The Captain from Köpenick (Siegfried Dessauer, 1926) starring Hermann Picha. The film is based on the case of Wilhelm Voigt. Kampers co-starred with Henny Porten in the comedies Die Frau, die jeder liebt, bist du/The Woman Everyone Loves Is You (Carl Froelich, 1929) and Kohlhiesels Töchter/Kohlhiesel's Daughters (Hans Behrendt, 1930). His characters were robust and blunt on the one hand - Kampers' gestures were thrifty, his short sentences dry and almost deliberate - and showed wit, cunning, and unexpected depth on the other hand. Kampers successfully portrayed these likeable guys until the end of his film career.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3123/1, 1928-1929. Photo: AAFA Film.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 6261. Photo: Becker & Maass, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3182/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Bieber, Berlin.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4626/1, 1929-1930. Photo: AAFA Film.
A suitable replacement
The change to the sound film fell to Fritz Kampers easily. He had great roles in two films by Georg Wilhelm Pabst, Westfront 1918/West Front 1918 (G.W. Pabst, 1930) and Kameradschaft/Comradeship (G.W. Pabst, 1931). He also had success with the musical Drei von der Stempelstelle/The Three from the Unemployment Office (Wilhelm Thiele, 1932) with Paul Kemp and Adolph Wohlbrück, and the war comedy Zwei gute Kameraden/Two Good Comrades (Max Obal, 1933) with Paul Hörbiger.
After the Nazis took the power in Germany in 1933, many film artists went abroad. The film industry was desperately looking for a suitable replacement. Kampers had occasionally directed in the period after the First World War, and he was given the opportunity to stage two of his own films: Schwank Konjunkturritter/Knights of the Economy (Fritz Kampers, 1933/34), with Weiss Ferdl and Sabine Peters, and the comedy of errors Ich sing' mich in dein Herz hinein/I sing into my heart (Fritz Kampers, 1934), with Lien Deyers and Hans Söhnker.
He also continued his acting career under the Nazi regime. In 1934 he was engaged by Eugen Klöpfer at the Volksbühne Berlin. In the cinema, Kampers played in such Nazi propaganda films as Drei Kaiserjäger/Three Emperor Hunters (1933), Die vier Musketiere/The Four Musketeers (Heinz Paul, 1934), Urlaub auf Ehrenwort/Holiday on Honor (Karl Ritter, 1938), Im Namen des Volkes/In the Name of the People (Erich Engels, 1939), Robert und Bertram/Robert and Bertram (Hans H. Zerlett, 1939), Der Feuerteufel/The Fire Devil (Luis Trenker, 1940), the drama Über alles in der Welt/Above All Else in the World (Karl Ritter, 1941) starring Paul Hartmann, and the thriller Anschlag auf Baku/Attack on Baku (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1942) starring Willy Fritsch.
Kampers was appointed Staatsschauspieler (state actor) by Joseph Goebbels in 1939, but he seems to have rejected roles in propaganda films from 1942 on. After the war, Kampers soon found employment with supporting roles in films like the crime comedy Sensation in Savoy (Eduard von Borsody, 1950) with Sybille Schmitz and the Operetta film Schwarzwaldmädel/The Black Forest Girl (Hans Deppe, 1950) with Sonja Ziemann. The film's success revived the popularity of Heimatfilm, which came to dominate the German box office over the coming decade.
Fritz Kampers passed away in 1950 in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria at the age of 59. His resting place is in the Evangelical Cemetery in Neubeckum. Kampers was one of the most active actors in German film. Between 1918 and 1950 he has been involved in more than 260 films, that is every 17th film produced during this period.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5439/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Gerstenberg.
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3150/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Dührkoop, Berlin.
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Tobis.
German postcard by Ross / Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Ufa.
German postcard by Das Programm von Heute, Berlin. Photo: Tobis.
Sources: Hans Michael Bock (Filmportal.de - German), Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.
No comments:
Post a Comment