Hans Albers | |
|---|---|
 Hans Albers | |
| Born | Hans Philipp August Albers 22 September 1891 |
| Died | 24 July 1960 (aged 68) Starnberg, West Germany |
| Occupation | Actor, singer |
| Years active | 1918–1960 |
| Partner(s) | Hansi Burg |
Hans Philipp August Albers (22 September 1891 – 24 July 1960) was a German actor and singer. He was the biggest male movie star in Germany between 1930 and 1960 and one of the most popular German actors of the twentieth century. [1]
Hans Albers was born in Hamburg, the son of a butcher, and grew up in the district of St. Georg. He was seriously interested in acting by his late teens and took acting classes without the knowledge of his parents. In 1915 Albers was drafted to serve in the German Army in World War I, but was wounded early on. After his release from the Hospital in Wiesbaden where he had been treated, he performed in the local Residenztheater in comedies, antics and operettas. [2] After the war Albers moved to Berlin, where he found work as a comedic actor in various Weimar-Era Berlin theatres. His breakthrough performance was that of a waiter in the play Verbrecher (Criminals). It was also in Berlin that Albers began a long-term relationship with Jewish actress Hansi Burg (1898–1975). The relationship ended only when he died in 1960. [2]
After roles in over one hundred silent films, Albers starred in the first German talkie Die Nacht gehört uns (The Night Belongs to Us) in 1929. Soon thereafter, Albers played big-mouthed strong man Mazeppa alongside Marlene Dietrich in her star-making classic Der blaue Engel (The Blue Angel). Albers himself shot to fame in 1930 with the movie The Copper and constantly enhanced his star status with similar daredevil roles in the 1930s. He was probably at his best when teamed-up with fellow German movie legend Heinz Rühmann, as in Bombs on Monte Carlo (1931) and Der Mann, der Sherlock Holmes war (1937). Many of Albers' songs from his movies became huge hits and some even remain popular to this day. [2]
When the Nazis came to power in 1933, Albers and his Jewish girlfriend Hansi Burg moved to Lake Starnberg in Bavaria. While Albers himself never showed public support for the Nazi regime, he became the most popular actor under Nazi rule. The actor nevertheless, avoided an overly close association in public. As the ultimate sign of his popularity, the Nazis even silently accepted his relationship with Hansi Burg for a long time. But Albers finally gave in to the pressure. Hansi Burg went to Switzerland and then to Great Britain in 1939, but they secretly remained a couple with him even managing to send her financial support. They were reunited after the war, when she returned to Germany in a British uniform. [2]
In 1943, Albers was paid a huge sum of money to star in UFA's big-budgeted anniversary picture Münchhausen but was careful not to give the impression that he was endorsing the National Socialist regime, which was indeed never asked of him. Also in 1943, Albers starred in another classic German film Große Freiheit Nr. 7 with actress Ilse Werner. Some of the scenes are said to have been shot in Prague because of bomb damage to Hamburg. The sailing ship Padua for the outdoor scenes of the film has survived under Soviet and Russian flag until this day as Kruzenshtern .
After World War II, well-funded Albers avoided the financial plight and professional banning many actors faced on account of his association with Hansi Burg. Nevertheless, German "heroes" were considered undesirable by the occupation government that wanted to promote their own. This accounted for a major break in his career and made him hard to cast. Eventually he found an opening with respectful wisdom-with-age type character parts with some public acclaim, but with these never again enjoyed the huge stardom of the 1930s and early 1940s. By the early 1950s, his age finally showed and his powerful presence and freshness was almost gone. This was promoted by his increasing alcoholism during the 1950s. Yet he remained active in movies until the very end. [2]
Hans Albers collapsed during a theater performance with massive internal bleeding [3] and died three months later on 24 July 1960 at a sanatorium in Kempfenhausen near Lake Starnberg at the age of 68. He was cremated and subsequently buried at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg, the city of his birth. [4] [2]
Albers' name will forever be closely associated with his hometown of Hamburg, in particular the district of St. Pauli where there is a square named Hans-Albers-Platz in his honour. Today he is probably better known for his music than his films; many of his songs remain familiar to young German people even today.
Outside of Northern Europe, Albers remains virtually unknown; however the image of an older man in a seaman's cap and raincoat playing accordion and singing remains familiar internationally. As a case in point, McDonald's used such an image in an American television ad campaign in 1986. Albers actually had no significant experience on the water, this being restricted to a one-day trip to Heligoland.
Many of Albers' songs were humorous tales of drunken, womanizing sailors on shore-leave, with double entendres such as "It hurts the first time, but with time, you get used to it" in reference to a girl falling in love for the first time. Albers' songs were often peppered with expressions in Low German, which is spoken in Northern Germany. One of his signature songs is Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins, ("On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight") which has become one of the best-known songs about Hamburg and also an unofficial anthem of the St. Pauli district where the Reeperbahn itself is located. Hans-Albers-Platz, one block south of the Reeperbahn, features a statue of Albers, created by the German artist Jörg Immendorff.
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The Reeperbahn is a street and entertainment district in Hamburg's St. Pauli district, one of the two centres of Hamburg's nightlife and also the city's major red-light district. In German, it is also nicknamed die sündigste Meile and Kiez. The Reeperbahn Festival is among the largest club festivals.
St. Pauli is a quarter of the city of Hamburg belonging to the centrally located Hamburg-Mitte borough. Situated on the right bank of the Elbe river, the nearby Landungsbrücken is a northern part of the port of Hamburg. St. Pauli contains a world-famous red light district around the iconic Reeperbahn area. As of 2016 the area had 22,595 residents.
Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a German film legend. Rühmann is best known for playing the part of a comic ordinary citizen in film comedies such as Three from the Filling Station and The Punch Bowl. During his later years, he was also a respected character actor in films such as The Captain from Köpenick and It Happened in Broad Daylight. His only English-speaking movie was Ship of Fools in 1964.
Freddy Quinn is an Austrian singer and actor whose popularity in the German-speaking world soared in the late 1950s and 1960s. As Hans Albers had done two generations before him, Quinn adopted the persona of the rootless wanderer who goes to sea but longs for a home, family and friends. Quinn's Irish family name comes from his Irish-born salesman father, Johann Quinn. His mother, Edith Henriette Nidl, was an Austrian journalist. He is often associated with the Schlager scene.
Karl-Heinz Reincke was a German-born actor, long-based in Vienna.
Herbertstraße is a street in the St. Pauli district of Hamburg, located near the Reeperbahn, which is the main red-light district. It is the only street in the city where it is still possible to find prostitutes in windows as in the famous De Wallen district of Amsterdam. It is reputed to have Hamburg's best-looking and most expensive prostitutes. At its peak about 250 women worked there.
Große Freiheit Nr. 7 is a 1944 German musical drama film directed by Helmut Käutner. It was named after Große Freiheit, a street next to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli red light district.
The Große Freiheit is a cross street on the North Side to Hamburg's Reeperbahn road in the St. Pauli quarter. It is part of the red-light district.
The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes is a 1937 German mystery comedy film directed by Karl Hartl and starring Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann and Marieluise Claudius.
Große Freiheit is the seventh album by the Neue Deutsche Härte band Unheilig. It was released on February 19, 2010, as a standard 14-track album and a Fanbox Edition boxset which was limited to 5,000 copies that contains the following:
Bombs on Monte Carlo is a 1931 German musical comedy film directed by Hanns Schwarz and starring Hans Albers, Anna Sten, and Heinz Rühmann. The film is based on the novel Bomben auf Monte Carlo (1930) by Fritz Reck-Malleczewen. It premiered at the Ufa-Palast am Zoo in August 1931.
Ralph Arthur Roberts was a German film actor who also directed in the theatre and occasionally in film and wrote plays. From 1928 on, he headed the Berlin Theatre in Behrenstraße.
We Sing Deutsche Hits is a 2011 karaoke game part of the We Sing family of games, developed by French studio Le Cortex. The game features 100% German artists and is set to only be released in the German-speaking territories.
On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight may refer to:
On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight is a 1929 German silent adventure film directed by Fred Stranz and starring Eddie Polo, Lydia Potechina, and Harry Nestor. The film takes its name from the 1912 song of the same name, which refers to the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. The film's sets were designed by the art director Otto Moldenhauer. It was made by the German subsidiary of the Hollywood studio Universal Pictures.
"On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight" is a 1912 German song by Ralph Arthur Roberts, originally written for a musical revue. The song refers to the Reeperbahn, the red light district of the port city of Hamburg. The song's popularity received a major boost when it was used in the 1944 film Große Freiheit Nr. 7, sung by the star Hans Albers.
On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight is a 1969 West German drama film directed by Rolf Olsen and Al Adamson and starring Curd Jürgens, Heinz Reincke, and Jutta D'Arcy. It takes its title from a popular 1912 song of the same name about Hamburg, the setting of the film. It is also known by the alternative title Shock Treatment.
On the Reeperbahn at Half Past Midnight is a 1954 West German comedy drama film directed by Wolfgang Liebeneiner and starring Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann and Fita Benkhoff. The film is set in Hamburg and was one of two 1950s films starring Albers attempting to emulate the success of his 1944 hit Große Freiheit Nr. 7. The film takes its name from the 1912 song of the same name and is not a remake of the 1929 silent film of the same title. A further version was made in 1969 with Curd Jürgens.
Hans-Albers-Platz is a square in St. Pauli, Hamburg, Germany. It is one of the most popular places and tourist attractions within the red light district south of the famous street of Reeperbahn. It is named after the actor and singer Hans Albers.
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