Alexander Kolowrat

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Alexander Graf Kolowrat-Krakowski at work around 1916.
Alexander Graf Kolowrat-Krakowski at work around 1916.

Count Alexander Joseph Graf Kolowrat-Krakowsky (January 29, 1886 in New York, USA - December 4, 1927 in Vienna), better known as "Sascha", was a Bohemian-Austrian film producer and pioneer of the Cinema of Austria, responsible for creating the first major film studio Sascha-Film in Vienna. His father was Count Leopold Philipp von Kolowrat-Krakowsky and his mother was Nadine Freiin von Huppmann-Valbella, the daughter of a cigarette manufacturer from St. Petersburg. He had three siblings: Bertha, Friedrich and Heinrich.

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[edit] Life

The reason Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky was born in the USA is described in a letter from Mr. Colloredo-Mannsfeld to the Austrian film scholar Walter Fritz from March 30, 1984:

“ Due to a supposed or actual 'defamation' of his bride, my grandfather [Leopold] shot his adversary, a Prince Auersperg, in a duel, which had to be atoned for by an exile of several years, according to the customs of that time. This old Austrian, very Schnitzler-like drama could have provided his son [Sascha] with a good film subject.[1] ”

He studied at the Catholic University Leuven (Belgium) and there he became member of the Catholic fraternity K.A.V. Lovania Leuven. He served in the army and was able to speak many European languages. After he had met Charles Pathé in Paris in 1909, he got into cinematography, besides his interests in motorcycle and car racing, aviation and ballooning. In 1909, he privately filmed a car race at the Semmering.

After the death of his father in 1910 and the inheritance his father's estate in Bohemia, Alexander Kolowrat founded the Sascha-Film-factory and a film laboratory in Castle Groß Meierhöfen in Pfraumberg. In 1912, he moved to Vienna and founded the "Sascha-Filmfabrik" (Sascha-Film-Factory) in the Pappenheimgasse 2/Treustraße in Vienna-Brigittenau. One of his first productions with Sascha-Film was the film, "Die Gewinnung des Erzes am steirischen Erzberg in Eisenerz" (The Ore Mining in the Styrian Erzberg). In 1915, he took over the film branch of the k.u.k. Kriegspressequartier (War Media Quarters) in Vienna and also produced several propaganda movies during World War I.

Kolowrat-Krakowsky discovered many actors, e.g. Willi Forst and Marlene Dietrich. He did important pioneering work in all film genres of the time. The high points of his artistic work were the productions of monumental silent movies on the Viennese Laaer Berg. In 1916, he erected Austria's first huge studio in Vienna-Sievering. Together with his Sascha-Film company, he was the owner of several cinemas. He personally loved to attend the Münstedt Cinema, as well as the Burgkino and the Opernkino.

In the Vienna Prater, west of the rotunda, he erected "Old London" in 1920 in order to shoot a film, similar to the film set town, "Venice in Vienna", but smaller. The count had a big palace on the Wenceslas Square in Prague.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Literature

All books are in German

  • I. M. Hübl, S. K. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der österreichischen Kinematographie, 1950
  • W. Fritz and M. Zahradnik (publ.), Erinnerungen an S. Kolowrat, Schriftenreihe des Österreichen Filmarchivs 31, 1992

[edit] References

  1. ^ Fritz Walter: Im Kino erlebe ich die Welt. Vienna, 1996, p. 38

[edit] External links


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