Heinz Rühmann assets

Short introduction

Heinz Rühmann is one of the most famous German actors of all time. He became famous for his comedic leading roles, in which he ironized the male superheroes that were usually seen on the screens.

About Rühmann’s fortune, it can be said that he was one of the best-earning German actors of his time early in his career. He got an exclusive contract with the film company UFA, did advertising and recorded successful records as a singer. In addition to a large Potsdam villa, his status symbols included numerous sports cars and his own plane.

Early life

Heinz Rühmann was born in Essen in 1902. His parents ran a train station. There he had his first appearances in front of the guests when he was young, reciting poems from the bar. Rühmann enjoyed the subsequent applause so much that he decided early on to become an actor.

After the first few years of his life went happily, Rühmann suffered a stroke of fate at the age of 13 due to the insolvency of his parents. While his father committed suicide, Rühmann moved to Munich with his mother due to the lower cost of living at the time. However, the family remained acutely at risk of poverty.

However, the precarious situation for Rühmann was no reason to give up his acting plans. While neglecting school, he invested his time in rehearsals and performances with a Munich amateur group. After several attempts, he managed to get lessons from the renowned drama teacher Friedrich Basil.

Career

In 1919, after only six weeks of acting lessons, Rühmann was hired by the Lobe Theater in Wroclaw for 80 marks a month. There Rühmann had to struggle with his small body size and his boyish appearance, which made it impossible for him to embody the role of the male hero credibly. As a result, the reviews turned out to be so bad that he soon left Wroclaw.

After a stopover at the Residenztheater in Hanover, Rühmann hired at the Bremen Theater, where he achieved his first great success in 1922 with the comedy “Der Mustergatte”. The audience was so enthusiastic that he was allowed to play the role over 2000 times in the next thirty years of his life. In 1937, the film version of the play became a box office hit.

Despite the success, there was still a disagreement with the management of the Theater Bremen in the first year. Due to the ongoing economic crisis, it took some time for Rühmann to find a new employer in the Munich Kammerspiele. Here, too, he shone above all in strange roles.

In the late twenties, Rühmann was offered film rolls more and more. The big breakthrough finally came with a leading role in “The Three of the Gas Station” (1930), which with 4.3 million Reichsmarks was the most successful film of the year. This was followed by other successful films such as “Burglar” or “The man who is looking for his killer”.

During the Nazi era, Rühmann briefly went astray. He sought proximity to influential Nazis and separated from his Jewish wife. However, he remained true to his funny roles and was not to be misused as a figurehead of Nazi ideology.

After the war and a successful “denazification”, Rühmann first toured Germany with a small theater group. However, he only made his comeback as a film actor in the 1950s. Again it was mainly entertainment films in which he shone.

Career highlights

The highlight in Heinz Rühmann’s career are the Pater Brown film adaptations “The Black Sheep” (1960) and “He Can’t Leave It” (1962). They represent the culmination of Rühmann’s comeback after the Nazi era. Both films are still very popular with audiences to this day.

Famous quotes

“An optimist is a person who finds everything half as bad or twice as good.”
“All women are masters of the whispered wish list.”
“Worries don’t drown in alcohol. They can swim.”

Amazing facts

At Rühmann’s wedding to Maria Bernheim, he replaced the wedding celebration with the festive premiere of the play “The Adults”

As a hobby pilot, Rühmann was a fervent admirer of pilot legend Ernst Udet, who was famous for his dogfights in the First World War. Rühmann had his own “flight room” in his villa, the walls of which were hung with photos of his joint flights with Udet

When the film “Feuerzangebowle” (1943) was to be banned by the Nazi Ministry of Culture due to defamation of the teaching staff, Rühmann traveled to the “Wolfsschanze” headquarters for a private special screening. After the demonstration in Hermann Göring’s possession, the ban was lifted

In 1966 Rühmann received the large Federal Cross of Merit