Arnold Fanck

Arnold Fanck was born on 6 March 1889 in Frankenthal, Germany.

Together with Odo Deodatus Tauern, Bernhard Villinger and Rolf Bauer, Fanck established the company "Berg- und Sportfilm GmbH Freiburg" in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1920. Fanck, who held a PhD in geology, directed mountain films, sports films and ski films. He was assisted by Sepp Allgeier, a cameraman who later worked with Leni Riefenstahl, and worked mostly in the Alps in locations such as the Engadine, Zermatt and the Arlberg and on mountains such as Mont Blanc and Piz Palü.

His most popular and successful films of the period between the wars include The Holy Mountain (1926), The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929), Storm over Mont Blanc (1930), Der weisse Rausch (1931), and S.O.S. Eisberg (1933)—all starring Leni Riefenstahl.

During the National Socialist period, Fanck got in trouble with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, since he refused to cooperate — apparently because of the necessity of joining the party. In 1934, he also began working on his film, Der ewige Traum/Der König vom Mont-Blanc, which not only starred a French hero in French mountains, but also had a Jewish producer, Gregor Rabinowitsch. This conflict brought Fanck into economic difficulties, from which he was only able to escape by accepting a contract from the Japanese ministry of culture in 1936.

With The Daughter of the Samurai and other "culture films", Fanck decided to cooperate with the Nazi regime. Soon afterwards, he produced Ein Robinson (1938/39) a propaganda film for Bavaria Filmkunst. Arnold Fanck joined the NSDAP in April 1940.

In 1944 he made a documentary about the sculptor Arno Breker called Arno Breker – Harte Zeit, starke Kunst. After World War II, Fanck's main films of the National Socialist period were proscribed by the Allied military governments. Fanck received no further job offers and went to work as a lumberjack.

After the screening of his film Der ewige Traum at the mountain film festival in Trento in 1957, Fanck was once again recognized for his artistic achievements. In order to survive his economic difficulties, however, he was forced to sell the rights to his films to a friend, until TV broadcasts improved his situation.

Fanck died on 28 September 1974 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, at the age of 85. He is buried in the Hauptfriedhof in Freiburg.

• Das Wunder des Schneeschuhs (1920)
• Im Kampf mit dem Berge (1921)
• Das Wunder des Schneeschuhs, 2. Teil - Eine Fuchsjagd auf Skiern durchs Engadin (1922)
• Pömperlys Kampf mit dem Schneeschuh (1922)
• Mountain of Destiny (1924), Der Berg des Schicksals
• Die Weiße Kunst (1924, uncredited)
• Das Wolkenphänomen von Maloja (1924, short)
• The Holy Mountain (1926), Der heilige Berg
• The Great Leap (1927), Der Grosse Sprung
• Struggle for the Matterhorn (1928), Der Kampf ums Matterhorn, co-wrote
• The White Stadium (1928)
• Milak, the Greenland Hunter (1928)
• The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929), Die Weiße Hölle vom Piz Palü
• Storm over Mont Blanc (1930), Stürme über dem Montblanc
• The White Ecstasy (1931)
• S.O.S. Eisberg (1933)
• North Pole, Ahoy (1934)
• Die Seehunde (1934, short)
• Der ewige Traum (1934)
• Rêve éternel (1935), French release of Der ewige Traum
• The Daughter of the Samurai (1937), Atarashiki tsuchi
• Winterreise durch Südmandschurien (1938)
• Kaiserbauten in Fernost (1938, short)
• Hänschen Klein (1938, short)
• A German Robinson Crusoe (1940)
• Kampf um den Berg (1941 short)
• Josef Thorak, Werkstatt und Werk (1943, short)
• Atlantik-Wall (1944, short)

• In Eis und Schnee - Der Filmregisseur Arnold Fanck (1997) directed by Hans-Jürgen Panitz
• Zwischen weißem Rausch und Abgrund : über Arnold Fanck, den Extremregisseur (1998) directed by Andreas Berg