Franz Schroedter

The 1969 purchase of Schroedter’s estate from his wife, actress Esther Carena, contains around 1000 drawings. It was augmented in 1999 with a gift from Schroedter’s collaborator Dörte Harms that includes documents, photographs, business documents and advertising material, as well as film copies. Contracts and certificates document Schroedter’s training at a trade school as well as an apprenticeship and work in diverse architectural offices. The genesis of many scene sequences can be traced through sketches and drawings, sovereignly carried out in pencil, chalk or charcoal. The designs for Carl Froelich’s ‘Die Nacht gehört uns’ (GER, 1929) and Hans Steinhoff’s ‘Angst. Die schwache Stunde einer Frau’ (GER, 1928) are inspired by the modern style used at the Bauhaus. Schroedter designed more than 30 films for Froelich and in 1930 he also took on constructing Froelich’s sound film studio in Berlin-Tempelhof (destroyed in the war). Designs, building plans and press articles related to his studio buildings are available. From Schroedter’s term as a Tobis director is a drawing series for the National Socialist propaganda film ‘Ohm Krüger’ (GER, 1941), in which the protagonists are drawn sequentially ‒ as in a storyboard. His production designs are also available for the postwar films ‘Die Sünderin’ by Willi Forst and ‘Der Verlorene’ by Peter Lorre (both FRG, 1951). There are extensive holdings on the production company Franz Schroedter-Studio KG and his work for VW. (Text: Kristina Jaspers)