German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 804. Photo: B.J.G.
German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 139. Photo: B.J.G.
An experiment at 13
Martha Orlanda was born Matyha Schlinkmann in 1886 in Marchienne-au-Pont, Belgium. She first attended elementary school and then a secondary school for girls. There are claims that she auditioned at the age of 13 at the Residenz Theatre in Cologne to perform there. The girl was eventually hired for a monthly salary of 75 marks. However, her relatives ended this ‘experiment’ after a year.
In 1917, the 30-year-old Schlinkmann moved to Berlin with her mother, Josephine Schlinkmann. In the capital, director William Kahn discovered her and brought her in front of the camera as Martha Orlanda.
Martha Orlanda made her silent film debut as murder victim Izza Dombronowska in Der Fall Dombronowska-Clemenceau / The Clemenceau Case (William Kahn, 1917), alongside Carl Auen as the councillor and Ludwig Hartau as the murderer, Pierre Clemenceau.
The story is based on the novel 'L’affaire Clemenceau' (1866) by Alexandre Dumas fils. That year, another film adaptation was made of the novel in Italy, Il processo Clemenceau (1917), starring the diva Francesca Bertini.
Orlanda wrote the script for her next film, Wenn Frauen lieben und hassen / When Women Love and Hate (Jaap Speijer, 1917), also with Ludwig Hartau, Ernst Hofmann, Werner Krauss and Mia Pankau.
German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 1705. Photo: A. Binder.
German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 2255. Photo: Mac Walten, Berlin.
A highly speculative educational and social drama
By the end of 1921, Martha Orlanda had made twelve films, for which she sometimes also wrote the screenplays, including for Menschen, die durchs Leben irren / People who wander through life (William Wauer, 1918) and Die nach Liebe dürsten / Those Who Long For Love (Hubert Moest, 1919). Her scripts often aligned with her acting roles in similar melodramatic subjects, allowing her to shape narratives that reflected the era's interest in provocative and cautionary tales. Orlanda's dual role as performer and writer exemplified the fluid creative boundaries in early German cinema, where actors occasionally contributed directly to story development.
Otto Rippert's two-part drama Der Weg, der zur Verdammnis führt / The Road to Damnation (1919) caused a major scandal when it premiered. Orlanda did not contribute to the screenplay, which was written by Julius Sternheim. The film is regarded as one of the most significant and best-known Aufklärungsfilme (Enlightenment films about taboo subjects), which were made primarily in 1918–1919, during the period of upheaval after World War I, when there was no film censorship. Alongside Richard Oswald, Rippert was the best-known and most important figure in this genre. This highly speculative educational and social drama was intended as a warning against the dangers of the trafficking of young women, a popular theme in German and Danish cinema of the 1910s and 1920s.
Her other silent films also dealt predominantly with dramatic or melodramatic themes. Representative titles from her filmography include Stürme des Lebens (1918), Prärieblut (1920), and Die kleine Dagmar (1921). Her final film was Brudermord / Fratricide (Wolfgang Neff, 1922) with Robert Scholz. In 1922, Orlanda ended her short-lived film career.
On 26 September 1924, Martha Orlanda married Theodor Schulte-Holthausen (1889–1945), a lawyer and then senior government official at the Reichsversorgungsgericht. They had a son in 1926. Her husband died in Soviet captivity a few months after the end of the Second World War.
Martha Orlanda continued to live in Berlin-Wilmersdorf until the mid-1950s, before moving to Heessen in Westphalia to be with her son and his family. At the age of 80, she finally moved to a retirement home in the pilgrimage town of Neviges, where she had many friends. The former actress died there in May 1970.
German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, Berlin, no. 123/2. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.
German postcard in the Film-Sterne series by Rotophot, Berlin, no. 123/4. Photo: Nicola Perscheid, Berlin.
Sources: The German Early Cinema Database, IMDb and Wikipedia (German).
