Stefan Lorant

Lorant’s partial estate chiefly documents Lorant’s cinematic works in the 1920s and his film-related journalism. It was given to the Deutsche Kinemathek in 1982 and followed by an extensive additional gift in 1999. There are numerous documents about the fairytale film production ‘Seine Majestät, das Kind’, now considered lost, which Lorant produced himself in 1923. These include the script, extensive correspondence, fee receipts, contracts, motif lists and intertitles. By the mid-1920s, Lorant was already dedicating himself to film history from a journalistic perspective and as a film professional. He wrote articles and co-created ‘Der Film im Film’ (1925) with Friedrich Porges, a documentary made from rare studio and production shots, for which he wrote the script and served as technical director. Correspondence about this project is found in Lorant’s archive. In addition, it also contains contracts with the “Universum Film AG”, for which Lorant designed the “Ufa Magazin” in 1926‒27 (including a feature on Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’), numerous original handwritten scripts, and correspondence with stars such as Gitta Alpar, Liane Haid, Oskar Homolka, Asta Nielsen, and Conrad Veidt. This correspondence was probably related to Lorant’s book “Wir vom Film”, published in 1928. A special feature is represented by documents for a presumably unrealized advertising film for the “Internationale Arbeiterhilfe” (International Workers’ Relief) from the early 1930s. (Text: Peter Mänz)