Silent_Water
Tribune
Sorry for possibly derailing this thread, but maybe this is interesting also for non-European reader's in memory of interesting persons in Germany's worst history.
Indeed, Heinz Rühmann was a German actor legend, because he was not only a really good actor, but he managed somehow to get through all bad times in German history of the 20th century. Although he knew almost all high-ranking Nazi-party-members, the Germans and the Allied officers who were responsible for De-Nazification and culture in Germany never really identified him with the propaganda of the Nazi-regime.
I think, it is because he was also in reality a man similar to his roles in cinema: a man who was sympathetic for everyone and you could not be angry with him for a longer time.
Just imagine this: Heinz Rühmann was married in the Nazi-times with Maria Bernheim, a woman who was regarded by the Nazis as Jewish and both were in danger.
But Rühmann knew via his friend Ernst Udet the Nazi-Air-Force-minister Göring and Göring himself adviced him to divorce and marry his wife to a Scandinavian actor who was constantly living in Germany. Heinz Rühmann paid the marriage of his former wife Bernheim and all the costs of her living later in Sweden. Maria Bernheim was also guest at Rühmann's later marriage-party, when he married the actress Hertha Feiler and Maria Bernheim congratulated him for his new wife and obviously wished both luck without any irony. After 1945, Maria Bernheim defended her ex-husband against all accusations of political opportunism.
Rühmann also only wrote positive remarks during his whole life about the persons he really was a friend of, for example about Ernst Udet, who helped him to learn how to fly and for some time in the 1980's, Rühmann was really the oldest private pilot of Germany.
Rühmann wrote about Ernst Udet, that he was unable to imagine this friendly man to be a war hero and Rühmann thought, Udet was becoming this man only because he was addicted to fly and a great aviator. Rühmann mentioned an event to show why and how much he liked Udet.
After a film premiere in one of Berlin's biggest cinemas, Rühmann and Udet were together with some other pilots and officers at a party in a Berliner "Biergarten", when a young waitress stumbled and four big beer glasses were poured over the head of Ernst Udet. The young waitress was looking like an Italian or a Greek girl, in any case not German and only saying: "Oh my God, of my God!"; trembling in fear because Udet was wearing his parade uniform with all his medals as a war hero from WW I and some more Nazi decorations. Everyone was silent, waiting how he might react and he slowly turned around, looked at the girl, started to laugh and said: "Dear girl, do you really think that so much beer will help against my hair loss?"
Everyone was laughing and this evening made Udet even more famous, who later became such a tragic figure that he was later "The Devil's General" in a theatre play and in a movie with Curd Jürgens.
Indeed, Heinz Rühmann was a German actor legend, because he was not only a really good actor, but he managed somehow to get through all bad times in German history of the 20th century. Although he knew almost all high-ranking Nazi-party-members, the Germans and the Allied officers who were responsible for De-Nazification and culture in Germany never really identified him with the propaganda of the Nazi-regime.
I think, it is because he was also in reality a man similar to his roles in cinema: a man who was sympathetic for everyone and you could not be angry with him for a longer time.
Just imagine this: Heinz Rühmann was married in the Nazi-times with Maria Bernheim, a woman who was regarded by the Nazis as Jewish and both were in danger.
But Rühmann knew via his friend Ernst Udet the Nazi-Air-Force-minister Göring and Göring himself adviced him to divorce and marry his wife to a Scandinavian actor who was constantly living in Germany. Heinz Rühmann paid the marriage of his former wife Bernheim and all the costs of her living later in Sweden. Maria Bernheim was also guest at Rühmann's later marriage-party, when he married the actress Hertha Feiler and Maria Bernheim congratulated him for his new wife and obviously wished both luck without any irony. After 1945, Maria Bernheim defended her ex-husband against all accusations of political opportunism.
Heinz Rühmann - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Rühmann also only wrote positive remarks during his whole life about the persons he really was a friend of, for example about Ernst Udet, who helped him to learn how to fly and for some time in the 1980's, Rühmann was really the oldest private pilot of Germany.
Rühmann wrote about Ernst Udet, that he was unable to imagine this friendly man to be a war hero and Rühmann thought, Udet was becoming this man only because he was addicted to fly and a great aviator. Rühmann mentioned an event to show why and how much he liked Udet.
After a film premiere in one of Berlin's biggest cinemas, Rühmann and Udet were together with some other pilots and officers at a party in a Berliner "Biergarten", when a young waitress stumbled and four big beer glasses were poured over the head of Ernst Udet. The young waitress was looking like an Italian or a Greek girl, in any case not German and only saying: "Oh my God, of my God!"; trembling in fear because Udet was wearing his parade uniform with all his medals as a war hero from WW I and some more Nazi decorations. Everyone was silent, waiting how he might react and he slowly turned around, looked at the girl, started to laugh and said: "Dear girl, do you really think that so much beer will help against my hair loss?"
Everyone was laughing and this evening made Udet even more famous, who later became such a tragic figure that he was later "The Devil's General" in a theatre play and in a movie with Curd Jürgens.
Ernst Udet - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org