Richard Angst

An avid skier and mountain climber, in 1923, Angst was made an assistant on Arnold Fanck’s skiing and mountain films through the support of cameraman Sepp Allgeier. Angst quickly became one of Fanck’s leading cameramen, and he was jointly responsible for the imagery of mountain film classics, such as ‘Die weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü’ (1929) and ‘Der weiße Rausch’ (1931). Some of his Alpine equipment, ice picks and crampons in the Kinemathek collection are on display in the Permanent Exhibition. Several photo albums document film shoots for expedition films in Asia that Angst accompanied as a cameraman starting in 1933. During that period, he earned the reputation of a professional and independent, sometimes also impulsive and feared cameraman. Affidavits from 1947 refer to an individualistic and tension-filled working style. They pertain to his collaboration with the documentary filmmaker Friedrich Dalsheim for the German-Dutch film ‘Die Kopfjäger von Borneo’ (1936) and also provide insights into the situation Jewish film professionals faced while working under National Socialism. Dalsheim, a Jew banned from working who fled to Switzerland in 1936, committed suicide shortly after. Angst’s possible co-responsibility leading to Dalsheim’s death was investigated in 1947. Following the end of the Second World War, Angst settled in Ticino (Switzerland) until he returned to Berlin in the late 1950s. He proved his skills in numerous West German films realized in the most diverse genres. Complaining about the decline of German cinema, Angst withdrew from the film industry in the 1960s. In 1971 he founded a local pub called Provinz in Berlin-Moabit, which he ran himself. That same year, in 1971, Angst was awarded the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) for his life’s work. In the collection, purchased from Angst’s wife Ilse in 1985, there are several manuscripts, including his unpublished memoirs with the title “Sieben[un]dvierzig Jahre Objektiv gesehen. Angst heissen – heisst nicht Angst haben” [Viewing Objectively for Forty-Seven Years: To be Called ‘Angst’ (Fear) – Means Not Being Afraid]. Titles like this, and “Hat es sich gelohnt? – Ein lebenlang deutsche Filmgeschichte” [Was It Worth It? – A Life Spent in German Film History] illustrate the “confident” cameraman Richard Angst’s image of himself. (Text: Georg Simbeni)