Grete Reinwald

Grete Reinwald (1902-1983) was a German stage and film actress. As a child, due to her sweet, appealing features, she modelled for many monochrome, hand-tinted and autochrome postcards. Her siblings Hanni Reinwald and Otto Reinwald were also actors.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 491/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Balázs.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 536/1, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Balázs.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 536/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Atelier Balázs.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1136/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder. Signed postcard.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 1912/1, 1927-1928. Photo: A. Binder, Berlin.

Passionate women in love or faithful wives

Grete Reinwald was born Malwina Margarete Reinwald in 1902 in Stuttgart, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire. She was the daughter of court stucco artist Otto Reinwald. Grete danced in the children's ballet at the Berlin theatre. As a child, she became famous for being Germany's most prolific child model for postcards between 1906 and 1914. Her younger sister Hanni also modelled for postcards. Grete, Hanni and their brother Otto later all became successful actors.

During the First World War, she performed at the Kristall-Palast in Leipzig and at the Palast-Theater am Zoo in Berlin. Together with her siblings Otto and Hanni, she made her film debut as an elfin in Ein Sommernachtstraum unserer Zeit / A Midsummer Night's Dream in Our Time (Stellan Rye, 1913) starring Carl Clewing as Lysander. The plot is largely based on William Shakespeare's original play but attempts to take the play away from the theatre and make it more cinematic with the technical possibilities available at the time.

From 1919 onwards, Grete Reinwald played passionate women in love or faithful wives in numerous silent films. She appeared in such films as Die Schuld (1919), the drama Die Nacht der Entscheidung / The Night of Decision (Franz Osten, 1920) starring Erich Kaiser-Titz, and the Stuart Webbs film Das Rattenloch /The Rat Hole (Max Obal, Ernst Reicher, 1921).

She was the star of Jugend / Youth (Fred Sauer, 1922) opposite Fritz Schulz, Theodor Loos and Fritz Rasp. She also played the female lead in Das Weib auf dem Panther / The Woman on the Panther (Alfred Halm, 1923) with Hermann Thimig. She played supporting parts in well-known silent films such as Wilhelm Tell / William Tell (Rudolf Dworsky, Rudolf Walther-Fein, 1923) starring Hans Marr and Conrad Veidt, the Goethe adaptation Götz von Berlichingen zubenannt mit der eisernen Hand / Goetz von Berlichingen of the Iron Hand (Hubert Moest, 1925) starring Eugen Klöpfer, Goldjunge / Golden Boy (Henk Kleinman, 1925) with Henkie Klein, and the historical film Die elf Schill'schen Offiziere / The Eleven Schill Officers (Rudolf Meinert, 1926).

Grete Reinwald was the star of the drama Der Jäger von Fall /The Hunter of Fall (Franz Seitz, 1926) with Wilhelm Dieterle and Fritz Kampers. The film is based on a novel of the same title by Ludwig Ganghofer which has been made into films several times.


British postcard in the Rotary Photographic Series, no. A 607. 2.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 33/3. Photo: Ass-Film, Berlin / Ring-Film. Grete Reinwald in Götz von Berlichingen zubenannt mit der eisernen Hand / Götz von Berlichingen and the Iron Hand (Hubert Moest, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1136/3, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1574/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

More than 50 years married to a heartthrob

Grete Reinwald met heartthrob Fred Louis Lerch during the production of the British-German silent drama Rutschbahn / Whirl of Youth (Richard Eichberg, 1928) starring Fee Malten, Heinrich George and Lerch. They soon married.

She later also appeared as a supporting actress in sound films. One of her first sound films was Hans Westmar (full title: Hans Westmar. Einer von vielen. Ein deutsches Schicksal aus dem Jahre 1929 / Hans Westmar. One of many. A German Fate from the Year 1929) (Franz Wenzler, 1933). It was the last of an unofficial trilogy of films produced by the Nazis shortly after coming to power in January 1933, celebrating their Kampfzeit – the history of their period in opposition, struggling to gain power. The film is a partially fictionalised biography of the Nazi martyr Horst Wessel.

Reinwald also played small roles in big entertainment films like the drama Frauen für Golden Hill / Women for Golden Hill (Erich Waschneck, 1938) starring Kirsten Heiberg and Viktor Staal, and the comedy thriller Stern von Rio / The Star of Rio (Karl Anton, 1940) starring La Jana, and the drama Die große Liebe / The Great Love (Rolf Hansen, 1942) with Zarah Leander.

In 1944, she was on the list of those honoured by the Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. Reinwald appeared in West German films well into the 1950s, mostly in supporting roles such as in the drama Der Kaplan von San Lorenzo / The Chaplain of San Lorenzo (Gustav Ucicky, 1953) starring Willy Birgel, and her final film Die Prinzessin von St. Wolfgang / The Princess of St. Wolfgang (Harald Reinl, 1957) with Marianne Hold.

She remained married to Fred Louis Lerch till she died. Grete Reinwald died in 1983 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. She was 81. During her long career, Reinwald acted in over 90 films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1574/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3012/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3313/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Atelier Badekow, Berlin.


Austrian postcard by Ghwala Druck, Vienna. Postcard for the Persil industrial film and early sound film Wäsche - Waschen - Wohlergehen (Johannes Guter, 1932), commissioned by the company Henkel, produced in 1931 and first publicly shown on 24 January 1932 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. On this card: the professor and his wife (Paul Henckels, Grete Reinwald) get a tour around the Henkel factory by Dr. Breuer (Fritz Alberti).


Austrian postcard by Ghwala Druck, Vienna. Postcard for the Persil industrial film and early sound film Wäsche - Waschen - Wohlergehen (Johannes Guter, 1932), commissioned by the company Henkel, produced in 1931 and first publicly shown on 24 January 1932 at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in Berlin. On this card: the female travelling demonstrator (Lotte Spira) explains the professor's wife (Grete Reinwald) how to do the washing with new Persil detergent.

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English) and IMDb.