Early life

Rühmann was born in Essen as the son of a restaurateur. His father Hermann Rühmann moved to Berlin in 1915, where he probably committed suicide a little later. The exact circumstances of death could never be clarified.^[1] His son Heinz began his acting career during the early 1920s and appeared in numerous theatres in Germany during the following years. His role in the 1930 movie Die Drei von der Tankstelle (The Three from the Filling Station) led him to film stardom. He remained highly popular as a comedic actor (and sometime singer) throughout the 1930s and early 1940s. He remained in Germany and continued to work during the Nazi period, as did his friend and colleague, Hans Albers.

Career during the Third Reich

During the 1933-45 period, he acted in 37 films and directed four. After January 1933, Rühmann did not speak openly about German politics, but instead kept himself as neutral as possible. He never stated a word against or towards the Nazis in the press, although he had been a supporter of democracy. In 1938, he divorced his Jewish wife Maria Herbot, who then left Germany and traveled to Stockholm where she married a Swedish actor. The divorce caused Rühmann to be accused by some of wanting to secure his career; however, the marriage had probably already fallen apart, and some sources say that he wanted to protect his wife with the divorce.^[2] After 1945, Herbot defended her ex-husband against accusations of opportunism.^[3] His second wife, Hertha Feiler, whom he married shortly after, had a Jewish grandfather, a fact that caused Rühmann problems with the Nazi cultural authorities. Rühmann retained his reputation as an apolitical star during the entire Nazi era.

Heinz Rühmann as director (sitting on a stool, behind the camera), 1942

During the war years, Rühmann, like others, was co-opted by the State in some films. His role as lead actor in the comedy Quax the Crash Pilot was supposed to distract the populace from the war. In 1941, under the direction of Reichsfilmkammer president Carl Froelich, Rühmann played the title role in Der Gasmann, about a gas-meter reader who is suspected of foreign espionage. In 1944, the premiere of Die Feuerzangenbowle was forbidden by the Nazi film censor for "disrespect for authority". Through his good relationships with the regime, however, Rühmann was able to screen the film in public. He brought the film to the Führerhauptquartier Wolfsschanze for a private screening for Hermann Göring and others. Afterward, Göring was able to get the ban on the film lifted by Adolf Hitler. A nostalgic comedy of mistaken identities, the film was probably the most popular film of his career and later became a cult hit among college students. As a "state actor", the highest title for an actor during the Nazi era, Rühmann was not drafted into the Wehrmacht. He did have to take the basic training to become a military pilot of the reserves (as he happened to be a hobbyist pilot anyway), but for the State, Rühmann was more valuable as an actor and he was spared having to take part in the war effort. In August 1944, Joseph Goebbels put Rühmann on the Gottbegnadeten list of indispensable actors.^[4]

Rühmann was a favorite actor of Holocaust diarist Anne Frank, who pasted his picture on the wall of her room in her family's hiding place during the war, where it can still be seen today.^[5] The enormous range of Rühmann's popularity during the Nazi era is illustrated by the fact that he was also a favorite actor of Adolf Hitler and his propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

Postwar career

Rühmann had a difficult time resuming his career after the war, but by the mid-1950s, the former comedian had established himself again as a star, only this time as Germany's leading character actor. In 1956, Rühmann starred in the title role of the internationally acclaimed picture Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (The Captain of Köpenick), the true story of a Prussian cobbler, Wilhelm Voigt, who dressed up as an army officer and took over the town hall in Köpenick. In the days of the German Empire, the army had an exalted status and Voigt embarrassed the army officers and civil servants who obeyed him without question. Rühmann was also the leading man in the 1960 film version of The Adventures of the Good Soldier Schweik, after the novel by Czech author Jaroslav Hašek. He also played the role of Father Brown in three German films during the 1960s. In 1965, Rühmann was brought to Hollywood by producer Stanley Kramer for a supporting role as a German Jew in his all-star movie Ship of Fools.

His wife Hertha Feiler died in 1970 and Rühmann married his third wife Hertha Droemer in 1974. In his later years, he also worked as a recitator for German television. His last film was Faraway, So Close! (1993) by Wim Wenders, in which he played an old fatherly chauffeur named Konrad. Rühmann died in October 1994, aged 92 years. He was buried in Berg-Aufkirchen, Bavaria. His popularity with German audiences continues: In 1995, he was posthumously awarded the Goldene Kamera as the "Greatest German Actor of the Century"; in 2006, a poll voted him number one in the ZDF TV-show Unsere Besten – Favorite German Actors.

Film

Television

• Death of a Salesman (1968, based on Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, directed by Gerhard Klingenberg) (with Käthe Gold), as Willy Loman
• Sag’s dem Weihnachtsmann (1969, based on a play by Derek Bond), as Leslie Darwin
• Mein Freund Harvey (1970, based on Harvey by Mary Chase) (with Susi Nicoletti and Charles Régnier), as Elwood Dowd
• Photo Finish (1970, based on Photo Finish by Peter Ustinov) (with Hans Söhnker, Harry Meyen, and Erika Pluhar), as Sam Kinsale, 80 years old
• Der Pfandleiher (1971, based on Angel in a Pawnshop by A. B. Shiffrin) (with Sabine Sinjen), as Hilary
• The Caretaker (1973, based on The Caretaker by Harold Pinter, directed by August Everding) (with Gerd Baltus), as Davies
• Kein Abend wie jeder andere (1976, directed by Hermann Leitner) (with Peter Ustinov), as Roeder, Antiquitätenhändler
• Summa Summarum (1977), as Himself
• Diener und andere Herren (1978, anthology film, directed by Wolfgang Glück) (with Ferdy Mayne), as Kirchendiener / Butler / Edward / Ehemann
• Noch ’ne Oper (1979, based on a story by Heinz Erhardt) (with Rudolf Schock, Margit Schramm, Benno Kusche, Grit Boettcher, Gert Fröbe, Inge Meysel, Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff, Heidi Kabel, Vicco von Bülow, and Heinz Erhardt), as Golfspieler
• Balthasar im Stau (1979, anthology film, directed by Rudolf Jugert) (with Cornelia Froboess and Louise Martini), as Taxi driver Lefèvre / Taxi driver Balthasar van Krogg / Taxi driver Lord Barclay / Station master Brown
• Aller guten Dinge sind drei (1979, anthology film, directed by Rolf von Sydow) (with Günter Strack), as Friebe / Eberts / Weber
• Ein Zug nach Manhattan (1981, based on Holiday Song by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Rolf von Sydow) (with Ulrike Bliefert, Charles Brauer, Hans Hessling, and Bruni Löbel), as Kantor Leon Sternberger
• Es gibt noch Haselnußsträucher (1983, based on Il y a encore des noisetiers by Georges Simenon, directed by Vojtěch Jasný) (with Katharina Böhm, Marion Kracht, Luitgard Im, Anneliese Uhlig, and Sigmar Solbach), as Perret-Latour

As director

• All Lies (1938)
• Lauter Liebe (1940)
• Sophienlund (1943)
• Der Engel mit dem Saitenspiel (1944)
• Die kupferne Hochzeit (1948)