Peter Voss

Peter Voss (1891-1979) was a German character actor and occasional leading man. Following military service in World War I, he first appeared on stage. He was often seen as bon vivants, titled landowners or sea captains. Voss never quite established himself as a major star.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5712/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Atelier Bieber, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 9090/1, 1935-1936. Photo: Lloyd - Rota. Peter Voss in Mein Leben für Maria Isabell/My Life for Maria Isabella (Erich Waschneck, 1935).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 1782/1, 1937-1938. Photo: Arthur Grimm.

A lover and bon vivant

Peter Voss or Voß was born Heinrich Voss in 1891 in Fiefhusen, today a district of the Schleswig-Holstein municipality of Barmissen. In 1897, he moved with his parents Eduard Christian and Emilie Voß and his six siblings to Quarnbek-Stampe. There his father had acquired a farm with an inn.

In 1906, his parents ran the 'Landkrug' inn in the village. Peter initially worked in a commercial business. From 1914 on, the then 23-year-old had to do his military service. He survived the four years as a soldier unscathed. Discharged from the army, he finally realised his dream and took acting lessons.

Voss made his debut at the Stadttheater Kiel in the 1919-1920 season. His career took him to the United Theatres of Bochum and Duisburg, and the Stadttheater Basel In 1927 he moved to Berlin, where he performed at various theatres. In 1925, Peter Voss made his film debut in the amusing comedy Liebe und Trompetenblasen/Love and Trumpets (Richard Eichberg, 1925) starring Lilian Harvey, Harry Liedtke, and Harry Halm. Seven more silent productions followed.

In the German-Swiss silent drama Der Kampf ums Matterhorn/Struggle for the Matterhorn (Mario Bonnard, Nunzio Malasomma, 1928) he played Edward Whymper opposite Luis Trenker and Marcella Albani. The film depicts the battle between British and Italian climbers to be the first to climb the Matterhorn and is part of the popular cycle of Mountain films of the 1920s and 1930s.

Peter Voss often appeared as a lover and bon vivant in such silent films as Katharina Knie (Karl Grune, 1929) starring Eugen Klöpfer and Carmen Boni, and Spielereien einer Kaiserin/The Ring of the Empress (Wladimir Strijewski, 1929) with Lil Dagover.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5022/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Emanuel Loewenthal, Berlin / Greenbaum-Film. Peter Voss and Lil Dagover in Spielereien einer Kaiserin/The Ring of the Empress (Wladimir Strijewski, 1930).


German postcard. Photo: Europa Verleih. Peter Voss, Albert Lieven and Hertha Thiele in Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Carl Froehlich, 1933).

A dashing soldier in Nazi Propaganda films

Peter Voss appeared in the early sound film Zwei Welten/Two Worlds (Ewald André Dupont, 1930). In Grün ist die Heide/The Heath Is Green (Hans Behrendt, 1932), he was the leading actor as a young forester and partner of Camilla Spira. He also had a leading role in the drama Reifende Jugend/Ripening Youth (Carl Froelich, 1933) with Heinrich George and Hertha Thiele. It was well-received by the Nazi press on its release and drew inspiration from the earlier Madchen in Uniform/Girls in Uniform (Leontine Sagan, 1931) also with Thiele, which was admired by film journalists of the Third Reich.

Despite these and other leading roles, Voss never achieved the status of a film star like the similarly gifted Willy Fritsch. His portrayal of Death in the extremely dark film Fährmann Maria/Ferryman Maria (Frank Wisbar, 1935) starring Sybille Schmitz, was unusual. He also played Lord Henry Baskerville in the Sherlock Holmes crime film Der Hund von Baskerville/The Hound of the Baskervilles (Karl Lamac, 1937) with Bruno Güttner as Sherlock Holmes and Fritz Odemar as Dr Watson.

In the following years, Voß appeared as a dashing soldier in a series of Nazi Propaganda films. He played British officer Captain Cunningham in Alarm in Peking (1937), set at the time of the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900 and played Major Hagen in Kampfgeschwader Lützow (1941). Both productions are still counted among the so-called 'reserved films'. He also had a small role in the Propaganda film Titanic (Herbert Selpin, 1943) depicting the catastrophic sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912.

The actor was then drafted as a soldier and spent the end of the war in captivity. After his release and the war's end, he mainly acted in the theatre and took on a few roles in films such as Wenn die Abendglocken läuten/When the Evening Bells Ring (Alfred Braun, 1951) with Willy Birgel. His final film was the war drama Nacht fiel über Gotenhafen/Darkness Fell on Gotenhafen (Frank Wisbar, 1959) starring Sonja Ziemann. The film dramatizes the sinking of MV Wilhelm Gustloff, which was sunk after a Soviet torpedo attack while carrying German servicemen and around 6,000 civilian evacuees. He played the ship captain.

After losing his flat in Berlin during the war, Voss spent the rest of his life with his younger brother Paul Voss in Quarnbek-Stampe. There Paul ran their parents' pub 'Landkrug' from 1922 until he died in 1954. Peter Voß had learnt milking and beer tapping from his brother and turned the garden of the Landkrug into a piece of jewellery. Peter Voss died of pneumonia in 1979 in Nortorf, near Kiel in Schleswig-Holstein. He was 87.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4878/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Loewenthal, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. A 3415/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Tobis.


German collector card by Ross Verlag in the Moderne Schonheitsgalerie, Series 2, no. 257, issued by Kur Mark Cigarettes. Photo: Lloyd - Rota. Peter Voss in Mein Leben für Maria Isabell/My Life for Maria Isabella (Erich Waschneck, 1935).

Sources: Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.