Wolfgang Zeller was a German composer noted for his complex film music.

Early life

Born in Biesenrode, Germany, Zeller was the son of a vicar. As a child, he studied violin and showed an aptitude for composition. After graduating from high school in Potsdam, Zeller continued studies with violinist Felix Berger in Munich, and with composer Jean Paul Ertel, in Berlin. Zeller fought in the First World War. After being discharged from duty due to an injury, he made a living as a violinist with the Deutsches Opernhaus

Deutsche Oper Berlin

The Deutsche Oper Berlin is an opera company located in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin, Germany. The resident building is also home to the Berlin State Ballet.-History:...

. Between 1921 and 1929 he was violinist and in-house composer for the Berlin Volksbühne

Volksbühne

The Volksbühne is a theater in Berlin, Germany. Located in Berlin's city center Mitte on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in what was the GDR's capital....

 orchestra.

Film music

His film music career was launched with the orchestral score he composed for The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 German animated fairytale film by Lotte Reiniger. It is the oldest surviving animated feature film; two earlier ones were made in Argentina by Quirino Cristiani, but they are considered lost...

. The animated film created by Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger

Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger was a German silhouette animator and film director.- Early life :Lotte Reiniger was born in Berlin-Charlottenburg, German Empire, on June 2, 1899...

 premiered in Berlin in 1926. The score for Walter Ruttmann

Walter Ruttmann

Walter Ruttmann was a German film director and along with Hans Richter and Viking Eggeling was an early German practitioner of experimental film....

's Melodie der Welt, the first full-length German sound film, followed in 1929. During the Third Reich, Zeller wrote music for propaganda films such as 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...

 (1940) directed by 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...

. After the war, Mr. Zeller continued to work as a film composer and wrote music for anti-fascist films like Marriage in the Shadows

Ehe im Schatten

Ehe im Schatten is a East German film melodrama, directed by Kurt Maetzig. It was released in 1947 by DEFA. The film was described as an "attempt to confront the German people about the morals of the past", being the first film to to confront the people about the Persecution of the Jews and the...

 (1947). Zeller's last score was for the documentary Serengeti Shall Not Die

Serengeti Shall Not Die

Serengeti Shall Not Die is a 1959 German documentary film written and directed by Bernhard Grzimek.His son, the cinematographer Michael Grzimek, died on-location during the filming of the documentary when a plane he piloted collided with a vulture....

 (1959) by Bernhard Grzimek.

Wolfgang Zeller died in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 in 1967.

Selected filmography

• 1926: Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed
• 1927: Luther
• 1928: Melodie der Welt
• 1931: Menschen im Busch
• 1932: Vampyr
  Vampyr
  Vampyr is a 1932 horror film directed by Danish director Carl Theodor Dreyer. The film was written by Dreyer and Christen Jul based on elements from J. Sheridan Le Fanu's collection of supernatural stories In a Glass Darkly. Vampyr was funded by Nicolas de Gunzburg who starred in the film under...
  
  
• 1932: Die Herrin von Atlantis
• 1933: Insel der Dämonen
• 193?: Ewiger Wald
• 1935: Der alte und der junge König
  Der alte und der junge König
  Der alte und der junge König is a German historical film by Hans Steinhoff, made under Nazi rule in 1935....
  
  
• 1937: Der Herrscher
  Der Herrscher
  Der Herrscher is a 1937 German film directed by Veit Harlan. It was a propagandist demonstration of the Führerprinzip of Nazi Germany.-Plot:...
  
  
• 1937: Der zerbrochene Krug
• 1938: Fahrendes Volk
• 1940: 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...
  
  
• 1943: Immensee
• 1947: Ehe im Schatten
  Ehe im Schatten
  Ehe im Schatten is a East German film melodrama, directed by Kurt Maetzig. It was released in 1947 by DEFA. The film was described as an "attempt to confront the German people about the morals of the past", being the first film to to confront the people about the Persecution of the Jews and the...
  
  
• 1948: Morituri
• 1950: Die Lüge
• 1953: Rote Rosen, rote Lippen, roter Wein
• 1958: Die Landärztin
• 1959: Serengeti darf nicht sterben