Heinrich Schroth was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 stage and film actor.

Career

Born Heinrich August Franz Schroth in Pirmasens

Pirmasens

Pirmasens is a district-free city in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, near the border with France. It is famous for the manufacture of shoes. The surrounding rural district was called Pirmasens from 1818 until 1997, when it was renamed Südwestpfalz....

, Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate

Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

, Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Schroth made his acting debut at the Sigmaringen

Sigmaringen

Sigmaringen is a town in southern Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg. Situated on the upper Danube, it is the capital of the Sigmaringen district....

 Royal Theatre in 1890. In 1894 he went to the Municipal Theatre in Augsburg

Augsburg

Augsburg is a city in the south-west of Bavaria, Germany. It is a university town and home of the Regierungsbezirk Schwaben and the Bezirk Schwaben. Augsburg is an urban district and home to the institutions of the Landkreis Augsburg. It is, as of 2008, the third-largest city in Bavaria with a...

, in 1896 to Mainz

Mainz

Mainz under the Holy Roman Empire, and previously was a Roman fort city which commanded the west bank of the Rhine and formed part of the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire...

 and in 1897 to the Royal Court Theatre in Hanover

Hanover

Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...

. From 1899 to 1905, he spent six years as a part of the ensemble of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus

Deutsches Schauspielhaus

The Deutsches Schauspielhaus is a theatre in the St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany. With a capacity for 1192 spectators, it places it as Germany's largest theatre...

 in Hamburg

Hamburg

-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...

 and from 1905 onwards at various Berlin theatres.

Schroth made his film debut in in the 1916 Walter Schmidthässler-directed drama Welker Lorbeer. He spent the 1910s in numerous German silent film productions, working with such directors as George Jacoby, Robert Wiene

Robert Wiene

Robert Wiene was an important film director of the German silent cinema.Robert Wiene was born in Breslau, as the elder son of the successful theatre actor Carl Wiene. His younger brother Conrad also became an actor, but Robert Wiene at first studied law at the University of Berlin. In 1908 he also...

 and Harry Piel

Harry Piel

Born Hubert August Piel, Harry Piel in Munich, Germany was a prolific German actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer who was involved in over 150 films....

. His career in the 1920s was prolific, and he appeared opposite such silent film actors as Lil Dagover

Lil Dagover

Lil Dagover was a German stage, film and television actress whose career spanned nearly six decades.-Early life:...

, Emil Jannings

Emil Jannings

Emil Jannings was a German actor. He was not only the first actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, but also the first person to be presented an Oscar...

, Paul Wegener

Paul Wegener

Paul Wegener was a German actor, writer and film director known for his pioneering role in German expressionist cinema.-Stage and early film career:...

 and Brigitte Helm

Brigitte Helm

Brigitte Helm was a German actress, best remembered for her dual role as Maria and her double, the Maschinenmensch, in Fritz Lang's 1927 silent film Metropolis.-Career:...

 and transitoned to sound film with ease.

During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 Heinrich Schroth participated in a large number of film productions for the Nazi Party, including propaganda film

Propaganda film

The term propaganda can be defined as the ability to produce and spread fertile messages that, once sown, will germinate in large human cultures.” However, in the 20th century, a “new” propaganda emerged, which revolved around political organizations and their need to communicate messages that...

s for the Nazi regime. In the final phase of the Second World War, Reich Minister of Propaganda

Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda

The Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda was Nazi Germany's ministry that enforced Nazi Party ideology in Germany and regulated its culture and society. Founded on March 13, 1933, by Adolf Hitler's new National Socialist government, the Ministry was headed by Dr...

 Joseph Goebbels

Joseph Goebbels

Paul Joseph Goebbels was a German politician and Reich Minister of Propaganda in Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. As one of Adolf Hitler's closest associates and most devout followers, he was known for his zealous oratory and anti-Semitism...

 placed Schroth on the Gottbegnadeten list

Gottbegnadeten list

The Gottbegnadeten list was a 36-page list of artists considered crucial to Nazi culture. The list was assembled in September 1944 by Joseph Goebbels, the head of the Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda, and Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler.The list exempted the designated artists from...

 ("God-gifted list" or "Important Artist Exempt List"), a 36-page list of artists considered crucial to Nazi culture. Schroth's most memorable role of the World War II era is possibly that of the role of Herr von Neuffer in the 1940 Veit Harlan

Veit Harlan

Veit Harlan was a German film director and actor.-Life and career:Harlan was born in Berlin. After studying under Max Reinhardt, he first appeared on the stage in 1915 and, after World War I, worked in the Berlin stage. In 1922 he married Jewish actress and cabaret singer Dora Gerson; the couple...

-directed, anti-Semitic

Anti-Semitism

Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...

 melodrama

Melodrama

The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...

 Jud Süß

Jud Süß (1940 film)

Jud Süß is an antisemitic propaganda film produced in 1940 by Terra Filmkunst at the behest of Joseph Goebbels. The movie was directed by Veit Harlan, who wrote the screenplay with Eberhard Wolfgang Möller and Ludwig Metzger, and starred Ferdinand Marian and Harlan's wife Kristina Söderbaum.The...

, commissioned by Joseph Goebbels.

Schroth's stage and film career spanned five decades. He died in January of 1945

Personal life

Heinrich Schroth was married three times. Little is known of his first wife. The couple had a son, Heinz Schroth (1902-1957). His second wife was Else Ruttersheim, with whom he had a son, actor and director Carl-Heinz Schroth

Carl-Heinz Schroth

Carl-Heinz Schroth was a German actor and film director. He appeared in 60 films between 1931 and 1989. He also directed seven films between 1953 and 1963....

 (aka Heinz Sailer) in 1902. His third wife was German actress Käthe Haack

Käthe Haack

Käthe Haack was a German actress. She appeared in over 200 films between 1915 and 1980.She was born Käte Lisbeth Minna Sophie Isolde Haack in Berlin, Germany and was previously married to actor Heinrich Schroth, with whom she had a daughter, actress Hannelore Schroth in 1922.-Selected...

, with whom he had a daughter, actress Hannelore Schroth

Hannelore Schroth

Hannelore Schroth was German film, stage and television actress whose career spanned over five decades.-Career:...

 in 1922.

External links