Artur Brauner
Artur "Atze" Brauner was a German film producer and entrepreneur of Polish origin. He produced more than 300 films from 1946.
Life and career
He was born the oldest son of a Jewish family in Łódź, Poland. His father was a timber wholesaler. Brauner attended a general education liceum in Łódź, where he took the matura final exam, and then studied at a local polytechnic technical school until the German attack on Poland in September 1939. With his parents and four siblings, he fled to the Soviet Union and survived the Holocaust. Following the war, he and his brother, Wolf Brauner emigrated to Berlin; his parents and three of his siblings emigrated to Israel. Twelve of his relatives were killed at Babi Yar, among forty-nine who died at the hands of the Nazis.Brauner married Theresa Albert, called Maria, in 1947. They had four children.
As a young man, he saw Fritz Lang's film The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, which affected him greatly, making him interested in film. In September 1946, he founded the Central Cinema Company or CCC Films in the American sector of Berlin. He produced Sag' die Wahrheit, one of the first films produced in Germany after the war, followed by Morituri, which was a commercial failure and threw him into debt. Brauner realised that to produce critically successful films he had to make up their losses by producing critically derided films that were appreciated by the public. He lured back many Germans who had experience in Hollywood such as Robert Siodmak and later Fritz Lang who started a revival of Dr. Mabuse.
In 2009, Yad Vashem received a donation of 21 of Brauner's productions having to do with the Holocaust, including Die Weiße Rose, The Plot to Assassinate Hitler and Man and Beast. In 2010, Yad Vashem opened a media center in Brauner's name. Brauner called it the "crowning achievement of my film career".
Brauner was a prominent member of the Jewish community of Berlin and a recipient of the Bundesverdienstkreuz. At the 2003 Berlinale, he was awarded the Berlinale Kamera honouring his lifetime achievement. His many other awards included two Golden Globe Awards and an Academy Award for his co-production of the film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis by Vittorio De Sica. Brauner lived and worked in Berlin. He turned 100 in August 2018.
Brauner died on 7 July 2019 in Berlin.
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Selected filmography
Brauner produced over 250 movies. Here a list of selected films produced by him:| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| 1946 | Tell the Truth | Helmut Weiss | |
| 1947 | King of Hearts | Helmut Weiss | |
| 1948 | Morituri | Eugen York | |
| 1949 | Don't Play with Love | Hans Deppe | |
| 1949 | Girls Behind Bars | Alfred Braun | |
| 1950 | Five Suspects | Kurt Hoffmann | |
| 1950 | The Orplid Mystery | Helmut Käutner | |
| 1952 | All Clues Lead to Berlin | František Čáp | |
| 1953 | The Empress of China | Steve Sekely | |
| 1955 | The Star of Rio | Kurt Neumann | |
| 1955 | The Plot to Assassinate Hitler | Falk Harnack | German Federal Film Award |
| 1955 | Die Ratten | Robert Siodmak | Golden Bear |
| 1955 | The Captain and His Hero | Max Nosseck | |
| 1956 | Before Sundown | Gottfried Reinhardt | Golden Bear |
| 1957 | The Last Ones Shall Be First | Rolf Hansen | |
| 1957 | Kindermädchen für Papa gesucht | Hans Quest | |
| 1957 | Just Once a Great Lady | Erik Ode | |
| 1958 | Confess, Doctor Corda | Josef von Báky | |
| 1958 | It Happened in Broad Daylight | Ladislao Vajda | |
| 1958 | Münchhausen in Afrika | Werner Jacobs | |
| 1958 | Mädchen in Uniform | Géza von Radványi | |
| 1958 | Der Stern von Santa Clara | Werner Jacobs | |
| 1959 | Here I Am, Here I Stay | Werner Jacobs | |
| 1959 | Der Tiger von Eschnapur | Fritz Lang | |
| 1959 | Das indische Grabmal | Fritz Lang | |
| 1959 | And That on Monday Morning | Luigi Comencini | |
| 1959 | Menschen im Hotel | Gottfried Reinhardt | |
| 1959 | The Black Chapel | Ralph Habib | |
| 1959 | Abschied von den Wolken | Gottfried Reinhardt | |
| 1959 | The Day the Rains Came | Gerd Oswald | |
| 1959 | Old Heidelberg | Ernst Marischka | |
| 1960 | Sweetheart of the Gods | Gottfried Reinhardt | |
| 1960 | Mistress of the World | William Dieterle | 2 films |
| 1960 | The Thousand Eyes of Dr. Mabuse | Fritz Lang | |
| 1960 | Stefanie in Rio | Curtis Bernhardt | |
| 1960 | The Good Soldier Schweik | Axel von Ambesser | Nominated for a Golden Globe |
| 1960 | ' | Wilhelm Thiele | |
| 1961 | World in My Pocket | Alvin Rakoff | |
| 1961 | The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi | Kurt Hoffmann | |
| 1961 | Via Mala | Paul May | |
| 1961 | The Shadows Grow Longer | Ladislao Vajda | |
| 1961 | Das Riesenrad | Géza von Radványi | |
| 1961 | Robert and Bertram | Hans Deppe | |
| 1961 | The Return of Doctor Mabuse | Harald Reinl | |
| 1961 | ' | Géza von Radványi | 2 films |
| 1962 | The Brain | Freddie Francis | |
| 1962 | The Devil's Agent | John Paddy Carstairs | |
| 1962 | Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace | Terence Fisher | |
| 1962 | Doctor Sibelius | Rudolf Jugert | |
| 1963 | Station Six-Sahara | Seth Holt | |
| 1963 | Man and Beast | Edwin Zbonek | |
| 1963 | Scotland Yard Hunts Dr. Mabuse | Paul May | |
| 1964 | Old Shatterhand | Hugo Fregonese | |
| 1964 | Der Schut | Robert Siodmak | |
| 1964 | Fanny Hill | Russ Meyer | |
| 1965 | The Treasure of the Aztecs | Robert Siodmak | |
| 1965 | The Pyramid of the Sun God | Robert Siodmak | |
| 1966 | Long Legs, Long Fingers | Alfred Vohrer | |
| 1966 | ' | Žika Mitrović | |
| 1966/67 | Die Nibelungen | Harald Reinl | 2 films |
| 1967 | The Peking Medallion | James Hill | |
| 1968 | Tevye and His Seven Daughters | Menahem Golan | |
| 1968/69 | Kampf um Rom | Robert Siodmak | 2 films |
| 1970 | The Bird with the Crystal Plumage | Dario Argento | |
| 1970 | The Garden of the Finzi-Continis | Vittorio De Sica | Academy Award |
| 1971 | Black Beauty | James Hill | |
| 1971 | Vampyros Lesbos | Jess Franco | |
| 1972 | The Dead Are Alive | Armando Crispino | |
| 1975 | ' | Aleksander Ford | |
| 1977 | Es muss nicht immer Kaviar sein | Thomas Engel | TV miniseries |
| 1981 | Charlotte | Frans Weisz | |
| 1981 | ' | Wolf Gremm | |
| 1982 | The Passerby | Jacques Rouffio | |
| 1982 | Die Weiße Rose | Michael Verhoeven | |
| 1983 | S.A.S. à San Salvador | Raoul Coutard | |
| 1983 | A Love in Germany | Andrzej Wajda | |
| 1984 | ' | Jerzy Hoffman | |
| 1985 | Angry Harvest | Agnieszka Holland | Nominated Academy Award |
| 1987 | Der Stein des Todes | Franz Josef Gottlieb | |
| 1988 | Hanussen | István Szabó | Nominated Academy Award |
| 1989 | The Rose Garden | Fons Rademakers | |
| 1990 | Europa Europa | Agnieszka Holland | Golden Globe |
| 1992 | Warsaw – Year 5703 | ||
| 1996 | From Hell to Hell | Dmitri Astrakhan | |
| 2003 | Babiy Yar | Jeff Kanew | |
| 2006 | The Last Train | Joseph Vilsmaier and Dana Vávrová | |
| 2011 |
Publications
- Mich gibt's nur einmal. Munich, Berlin: Herbig
Awards
- 1965: Goldene Leinwand for Old Shatterhand
- 1965: Goldene Leinwand for Der Schut
- 1967: Goldene Leinwand for Die Nibelungen
- 1970: Golden Bear for The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
- 1972: Academy Award for The Garden of the Finzi-Continis
- 1983: Deutscher Filmpreis: Filmband in Silber for Die Weiße Rose
- 1990: Deutscher Filmpreis: Filmband in Gold for "long and outstanding work in German cinema"
- 1992: Golden Globe for Europa Europa
- 1993: Bundesverdienstkreuz I. Klasse
- 2000: Goldene Kamera