- Born
- Died
- Birth nameHans Philipp August Albers
- Nicknames
- Hans Dampf in allen Gassen
- Hanne
- Der blonde Hans
- Life companion was the actress Hansi Burg. Their relationship started in 1925. They separated in 1935 due to the pressure of the German Nazi government. In 1938 she went into exile in Switzerland (later London). Shortly after this she married the Norwegian Erich Blydt. Burg returned to Germany and Albers in 1946. They lived together until his death 1960. She died 15 years later.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Thorsten Scheffner
- I was surprised there wasn't a biography for Hans Albers, one of the most famous, if not the most famous, German actors of the 20th century. I found this below on another site; they culled it from the "All Movie Guide". Maybe you would be able to use it? I don't know, but here it is in case. Love your site!
For nearly four decades, jovial, pleasantly plump Hans Albers was one of Germany's favorite movie stars. Starting out in films in 1911, Albers interrupted his career to serve in WWI, where he was seriously wounded. After a lengthy recovery, he resumed his film work and also appeared on-stage to great acclaim with Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater. His movie roles ranged from Demetrius in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1924) to the title characters in Rasputin (1928) and Peer Gynt (1931). In the 1930s, he starred in a number of rugged adventure films and Westerns (!), and also did an amusing turn as a Sherlock Holmes wannabe in the musical farce The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes (1938). His vehicles during the Hitler regime remained more or less apolitical, though there was a bit of soft-pedalled propaganda in his 1943 hit Munchausen. After the war, Albers continued to thrive in character roles right up to his death in 1960. In 1989, Hans Albers was the subject of a biographical docudrama, In Meinem Hertzen Schatz. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hal Erickson - Albers grew up at Langen Reihe 71 in the St. Georg district of Hamburg as the youngest of six children. Albers already had the desire to become an actor when he was at school. He attended the Uhlenhorst secondary school and was expelled from school as a quarantiner after a physical conflict with a beating teacher. Albers experienced something similar at the St.Georgs secondary school. He then began an apprenticeship as a merchant and worked in a silk company in Frankfurt am Main. He began his theater career at the New Theater there. Meanwhile, he took private acting lessons. In 1915 he received his first film role in "Seasons of Life". After Albers was drafted into the army that same year, he was seriously wounded as a soldier on the Western Front in the First World War. After the First World War, Albers played at various Berlin theaters, such as the Komische Oper.
In 1918 he received his first major supporting role in "Rauschgold". After numerous silent film roles, he played the lead role in the first German sound film, "The Night Belongs to Us", in 1929. Shortly afterwards, his breakthrough came in April 1930 alongside Marlene Dietrich in "The Blue Angel". Albers became a star overnight as the artist "Mazeppa" and to this day "The Blue Angel" is still one of the most important German films of the 1930s. In the same year, 1930, Albers shot the comedy "Hans in Allen Gassen" under the direction of the later President of the Reich Film Chamber, Carl Froelich. In the early 1930s, Albers developed his typical film role of the daring daredevil in films such as "Bombs on Monte Carlo" with Heinz Rühmann, "F.D.1 does not answer" and "The Victor". After the NSDAP came to power under Adolf Hitler in January 1933, Albers often showed himself to be an opponent of the National Socialists. Nevertheless, he was also found in works such as "Blonder Hannes", where he took on a heroic role according to "brown" tastes.
It is undeniable that Albers had a brilliant acting career in the so-called Third Reich and especially after the outbreak of the Second World War from 1939 to 1945. In 1933 he shone in the films "Today it depends" and "Refugees". A year later and in 1935, Albers was in front of the camera for "Gold" and "Peer Gynt". At the end of the 1930s, Albers changed genres with films like "The Man Who Was Sherlock Holmes." The political situation around him became tense when war broke out. The National Socialist camp accused him of living with a woman of "half-Jewish" descent. As a consequence, his partner Hansi Burg fled into exile in London in 1938. Albers remained in Nazi Germany, where he made a significant contribution to the pacification and morale of the "home front" during the war years. In fact, some of his most popular works were created with films such as "Trenck, the Pandur", "Münchhausen" and "Große Freiheit No. 7". After the war, Albers' partner Hansi Burg returned from London in 1946. With his fatherly role in "And Above Us the Sky" he celebrated a brilliant new beginning.
In his works, Albers has long embodied in an inimitable manner the robust, rough comrade who could arouse longing and melancholic moods like no other. His post-war successes included "Nights on the Streets" in 1952 and his star role in the film "On the Reeperbahn at half past one", in which he also sang the song of the same name. In 1956 Albers played "Before Sunrise". At the Berlin International Film Festival in 1956, Albers was awarded the Golden Bear for "Best Actor". On June 23, 1960, Albers received the Federal Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from Federal President Heinrich Lübke. His last film, "No Angel is So Pure," was released in 1960. He ends with the sentence spoken by Hans Albers: "This is the end".
Hans Albers died on July 24, 1960 at the age of 68 in Kempfenhausen. In April 1964, in his memory, the city of Hamburg renamed the former Wilhelmplatz in the St. Pauli district Hans-Albers-Platz.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth
- His acting teacher Eugen Burg, father of his girlfriend Hansi, was killed in the concentration camp Theresienstadt (1944).
- Stopped working in theater to distance himself from the Hitler regime, but the Nazis forced him to end his relationship with his longtime companion Hansi Burg, who finally emigrated to England via Switzerland. After World War II, they lived together again at Lake Starnberg until his death.
- After his death the Wilhelmplatz, a square in Hamburg, Germany, was named after him.
- Was drafted in 1915 and served at the Western front in World War I.
- A vaudeville comedian and dancer, he became a theatrical star after appearing in plays by Max Reinhardt. He then made a successful transition to films after being cast by Josef von Sternberg in The Blue Angel (1930), eventually becoming the preeminent German film star of the 1930's and 40's..
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