Hans Ertl (cameraman)
Hans Ertl (21 February 1908 in Munich, Germany – 23 October 2000 in Chiquitania, Bolivia) was a German mountaineer and cinematographer.
Biography
He was a cameraman during the Nazi era, and worked with Leni Riefenstahl on several of her Nazi propaganda films as well as on her Olympia film. During World War II he was among the preferred cameramen accompanying (then) General Rommel which earned him a reputation as "Rommel's photographer".
In the mid-1950s he resettled in Bolivia where he made two "expedition film"-like documentaries of feature length. He embarked on a third, but ceased after his tractor crashed through a wooden bridge with two thirds of the (uninsured) exposed footage on board. Frustrated he then decided to become a farmer and retired to a piece of semi-jungle land in Eastern Bolivia.
Ertl was the father of the guerrillera Monika Ertl, he was also an acquaintance of Klaus Barbie and, earlier, supposedly a lover of Riefenstahl. He rarely returned to Germany where he felt cheated out of an important film award, but days before his death he reportedly asked his daughter in Bavaria to send him a bag of German soil. Ertl died in 2000 and he was buried on his farm which is now a museum.[1][2]
Famous ascents
- 1930 First ascent of the Königspitze north face
- 1931 First ascent of the Ortler north face
- 1934 First ascent of Sia Kangri
- 1950 First solo-climb of Illimani South, first ascent of Illimani North
- 1951 Second ascent of Illampu
- 1953 Camp 5 (6900 m) on Nanga Parbat, where he took the famous pictures of Hermann Buhl returning from his solo first ascent
Works
- 1932 Assistant at Arnold Fancks S.O.S. Eisberg
- 1934 Assistant at Arnold Fancks Der ewige Traum
- Demon of the Himalayas (1935)
- 1936 Main cameraman at Leni Riefenstahls Olympia - Teil 1: Fest der Völker, Teil 2: Fest der Schönheit
- 1938 cameraman at Luis Trenkers Liebesgrüße aus dem Engadin
- 1939 cameraman at Arnold Fancks A German Robinson Crusoe
- 1939 Assistant at BDM-Werk Glaube und Schönheit mit dem Film Glaube und Schönheit
References
- ↑ Friedman-Rudovsky, Jean (September 23, 2008). "The Last Days of a Nazi-Era Photographer". Time magazine. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
- ↑ "Nazi-era photos surface in Bolivia". BBC. September 9, 2008. Retrieved 2008-09-23.
External links
- Hans Ertl in the German National Library catalogue
- Hans Ertl at the Internet Movie Database
- Folio, Marta (2005). "Ertl, Hans". In Adam, Thomas. Germany and the Americas. ABC-CLIO. pp. 316–318. ISBN 1-85109-628-0.
- Short biography at the Herrligkoffer institute (in German)
- Times article
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