Max W. Kimmich

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Max Wilhelm Kimmich (b. 04 November 1893 in Ulm, d 16 January 1980 in Icking am Ammersee) was a German filmmaker, film director and screenwriter during the first half of the 20th century. He also was brother-in-law to Joseph Goebbels.

Contents 1 Early life (1893 - 1933) 2 During the Nazi era (1933 - 1945) 3 Until his death (1945 - 1980) 4 Filmography 5 External links 6 Sources

[edit] Early life (1893 - 1933)

He was born in Ulm in West Germany to the painter, art teacher and author Karl Kimmich senior and his wife Christine, née Autenrieth. He also had an older brother, also named Karl Kimmich, who was thirteen years his senior. While the latter started a bank career after finishing school, Max Kimmich first visited several military academies in Karlsruhe and Berlin after passing his school leaving exams and later fought as a regular officer in World War I. After the war he studied a few terms of medicine, but at the beginning of the 1920s he became attracted to the theatre and film, especially the American film. Therefore he worked at the beginning as an assistant and dramatic adviser with the German Cinema Company. After that he became associate producer and, later on, producer with the Rochus Gliese film company. In 1924, he went to Hollywood, where he worked at Universal Studios as a screenwriter and director. But as he could not really gain ground in the USA, in 1929, he went back to Germany. The following year, he composed the music to his first sound film Waves of passion (dt. Wellen der Leidenschaft). In the next few years, he edited screenplays for cloak-and-dagger films like Under false flag (1931/1932), The invisible front (1932) or On Secret Service (1933) with various partners.

[edit] During the Nazi era (1933 - 1945)

Kimmichs career really began to boom only after the Nazis reached power in 1933: He wrote the screenplays for several adventure films - sometimes with a nationalistic touch like Hangmen, Women and Soldiers (dt. Henker, Frauen und Soldaten) from 1935 - and worked for directors like Harry Piel and Paul Wegener. In 1938, he started his first film as director, a crime movie that was also produced as radio drama via the broadcasting station of Breslau the following year. In February 1938, he had also married the youngest sister of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. The latter seems to have been quite sceptical to him at first because he suspected that Kimmich was not really interested in his sister, but only in the good connections this marriage would grant him. (In fact, film was the main propaganda medium for the Nazis, so this was within the realms of possibility). Kimmich was, however, able to allay Goebbels´ doubts in a private conversation in summer 1937, so that the marriage could take place the following year. He also became an expert for anti-British propaganda films during this time, e.g. My life for Ireland from 1940/1941 or the biographical movie Germanin from 1942, which portrays some scientists developing a medicine against the sleeping sickness. While Nazi film magazines praised the film high, - shortly after release it was awarded not only "artificially valuable", but also "national-political valuable" by film checkers of the propaganda ministry -, today it is considered to be a rather weak movie. Several of Kimmichs other films gained recommendations, too, in these years. His works The fugitive of Chicago from 1933/1934, I sing myself into Thy heart from 1934, Hangmen, Women and Soldiers from 1935, The fox of Glenarvon from 1940 and Fourth man missing (dt. Der Vierte kommt nicht) from 1938/1939 were recommended as "artificially valuable". He earned most recommendations, however, for My life for Ireland. This 1940/1941 movie was recommended not only "artificially and national-political valuable", but additionally as "particularly suitable for adolescents" (dt. "jugendwert"). His last film, Peanuts (dt. Kleinigkeiten), which he started in 1944 with Tobis, could not be finished anymore due to the end of the war. It is considered that for working on this movie, Kimmich was in Vienna in spring 1945 and saw the invasion of the Allies, while Goebbels-biographer Curt Riess states he actually was in Berlin and escaped from the nearly encirceled town with his wife and mother-in-law on April 19th, 1945.

[edit] Until his death (1945 - 1980)

After the German surrender, Kimmich moved to the small village of Icking in Upper Bavaria with his family (he also had become father in late 1944 or early 1945). He seems to have got off de-nazification cheaply: Although the Allies had banned his films My life for Ireland, The fox of Glenarvon (another anti-British propaganda film) and Germanin at first, this ban was lifted in the early 1950s by the - then again independent - German film industry, so the films could be presented in cinemas again. His movie Moscow-Shanghai was also shown in West German cinemas again in 1949, now called The way to Shanghai. During the following years, he worked as an author, produced several screens for radio and television broadcasts and - until the late 1950s - also worked for the German film-ring (a Munich film company). He died on 16 January 1980 at the age of 86 in Icking.

[edit] Filmography

Silent movies

• Brother (Drama/Fantasy, 1922, production manager.)
• Im Namen des Königs (1923, production manager)
• Winterstürme (1924, production manager)
• Unter heißer Sonne (1924, producer)
• Liebfraumilch (1928, screenplay)
• Auf der Reeperbahn nachts um halb eins (adventure film, 1928/1929, production manager)
• Znás onen malý domek u jezera (Kennst du das kl. Haus am Michigansee?), (1929, Co-director, screenplay.)

Sound movies

• Kurs auf die Ehe/Wellen der Leidenschaft (adventure film, 1930, music)
• Under false flag (cloak-and-dagger movie, 1931/1932, screenplay)
• The invisible front (cloak-and-dagger movie, 1932, screenplay)
• Kleines Mädel - Großes Glück (1933, screenplay)
• On Secret Service (cloak-and-dagger movie/romance/war film, 1933, Co-screenplay)
• The fugitive from Chicago (adventure film, 1933/1934, Co-screenplay)
• Man nehme (1933/1934, director, screenplay)
• Artistes (adventure/drama/romantic movie, 1934/1935, screenplay)
• Ännchen von Tharau (romantic movie, 1935, screenplay)
• Hangmen, women and soldiers (propaganda film, 1935, Co-screenplay)
• Moscow - Shanghai (drama, 1936, assistant director, Co-screenplay)
• Row and joy about Kunnemann (1936/1937, Co-screenplay)
• Doppelselbstmord (1937, director)
• Der Mann an der Wand (1937, director, screenplay.)
• Die Fledermaus (1937, assistant director)
• Es leuchten die Sterne ((1937/1938, assistant director)
• Der Vierte kommt nicht (crime movie, 1938/1939, director, screenplay.)
• Der letzte Appell (1939, director, unfinished)
• Der singende Tor/Casa Lontana (drama, 1939, idea)
• The fox of Glenarvon (propaganda film, 1940, director.)
• My life for Ireland (drama/propaganda film, 1940/1941, director, Co-screenplay)
• Nacht ohne Abschied (1942/1943, model)
• Germanin - Die Geschichte einer kolonialen Tat (scientists´biography, 1942/1943, director, Co-screenplay, producer.)
• Kleinigkeiten (1944, unfinished)

[edit] External links

• Max W. Kimmich in the German National Library catalogue
• Max W. Kimmich at the Internet Movie Database
• www.filmportal.de Includes also summaries of films made by Max Kimmich (in German)

[edit] Sources

• Cinegraph: Encyclopedia for German-speaking film. Ed. by Hans Michael Bock. Edition Textkritik. 1984ff.
• Wer ist wer? The German "Who-is-who". Vol. 13, 1958.
• Weniger, Kay: The big people's encyclopedia for films. Vol. 4, 2004.