Walter Janssen

Walter Janssen (1887-1976) was a German stage and screen actor and film director. Between the late 1910s and the late 1950s, Walter Janssen had a very prolific acting career in German cinema. He appeared in more than 160 films between 1917 and 1970.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 4794. Photo: Atelier Wasow, München.


German postcard by Verlag Ross, Berlin, no. 632/4. Photo: Maxim Film. Walter Janssen and Ria Jende in Der Tänzer/The Dancer (Carl Froehlich, 1919), based on the novel by Felix Holländer.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6176/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ufa. Walter Janssen as Vicomte Noailles in Yorck (Gustav Ucicky, 1931).


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5981. Photo: Lux Film-Verleih / D.L.S.

A young husband opposite Death

Walter Janssen was born Walter Philipp Janßen in 1887 in Krefeld, Germany. He began his theatre career in 1906 in Frankfurt am Main. He then worked from 1908 to 1910 in Kassel and from 1910 to 1915 again in Frankfurt.

In 1915, his daughter Signe von Scanzoni was born in Frankfurt, who grew out of Janssen's liaison with Amélie zu Fürstenberg. From 1915 to 1918 he worked in Munich and from 1919 at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Guest performances took him to London, among others.

In 1917 he made his first film appearance in Die entschleierte Maja/Maja unveiled (Ludwig Beck, 1917). In 1919 he played a reckless Casanova in Der Tänzer/The Dancer (Arthur Wollin, 1919). In 1921 he played the young husband in Fritz Lang's classic Der müde Tod/Destiny, but stood here in the shadow of Lil Dagover, who desperately struggles for his life as his wife, opposite Death, played by Bernhard Goetzke. Janssen also plays Dagover's lover in the three episodes set in the Middle Ages, the Renaissance and a fairy-tale-like China.

In Peter der Große/Peter the Great (Dimitri Buchowetzki, 1923), Janssen played the Zarevitch Alexis opposite Emil Jannings in the title role. In Zopf und Schwert/Braid and Sword (Victor Janson, Rudolf Dworsky, 1926) opposite Mady Christians as Princess Wilhelmine and Albert Steinrück. Janssen embodied Crown Prince Friedrich, the future Frederick II. In Maria Stuart (Friedrich Fehér, 1927), he was Lord Darnley, opposite Magda Sonja in the title role.

Other memorable parts Janssen had opposite Henny Porten in Struensee/Die Liebe einer Königin/The Love of a Queen (Ludwig Wolff, 1923) and Tragödie/Tragedy (Carl Froehlich, 1925), opposite Aud Egede Nissen in Karusellen/Carousel (Buchowetzki, 1923), and opposite Ellen Richter in Die tolle Herzogin/The Great Duchess (Willi Wolff, 1926) and Die Frau ohne Nerven/The Woman Without Nerves (Willi Wolff, 1929).

Walter Janssen easily made the passage to sound cinema, and with success. Initially, he was really on top, with the lead of operetta composer Toni opposite Gretl Theimer, Willi Forst and Oskar Karlweiss in the musical film Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel-Takt/Two Hearts in Waltz Time (Géza von Bolváry, 1930), probably Janssen's first sound film.

Janssen had more male leads in musical comedies in these early sound years, e.g. in Die singende Stadt/The Singing City (Carmine Gallone, 1930), Kaiserliebchen/Emperor Sweetheart (Hans Tintner, 1931), Die Faschingsfee/The carnival fairy (Hans Steinhoff, 1931), etc. In addition, he had supporting parts in period pieces such as Das Flötenkonzert van Sanssouci/The Flute Concert of Sanssouci (Gustav Ucicky, 1930) with Otto Gebühr, or romantic comedies such as Jeder fragt nach Erika/Everyone Asks for Erika (Fredric Zelnik, 1931), Lachende Erben/Laughing Heirs (Max Ophüls, 1933), Maskerade (Willi Forst, 1934), etc.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 656/1. Photo: Maxim-Film. Henny Porten and Walter Janssen in Struensee/Der Liebe einer Königin (Ludwig Wolff, 1923).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 41/5. Photo: Henny-Porten-Film. Henny Porten and Walter Janssen in the German silent drama Tragödie (Carl Froelich, 1925).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 125/8. Photo: Ufa. Walter Janssen and Hans Rehmann in the German early sound film Das Flötenkonzert von Sanssouci/The Flute Concert of Sanssouci (Gustav von Ucicky, 1930).


German collectors card in the series 'Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Tonfilm', album no. 11, picture no. 20. Photo: Super-Film / Ross Verlag. Walter Janssen and Gretl Theimer in Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel-Takt/Two Hearts in Waltz Time (Géza von Bolváry, 1930).

A machine for dangerous work

In 1934, Walter Janssen starred in Harry Piel's S-F film Der Herr der Welt/The Master of the World (Harry Piel, 1934) as a German scientist who designs and builds a machine that will do dangerous work instead of placing humans in jeopardy. But the machine itself turns out to have disastrous effects on the people involved...

However, by the mid-1930s, Walter Janssen's roles became smaller, even though he continued to act in many more films. Substantial parts he still had in Geld fällt vom Himmel/Money from Heaven (Heinz Helbig, 1938), and in Wen die Götter lieben/Whom the Gods Love (Karl Hartl, 1942) as Mozart's father Leopold, Die schwache Stunde/The weak hour (Vladimír Slavínsk, 1943), Warum lügst Du, Elisabeth?/Why are you lying, Elisabeth? (Fritz Kirchhoff, 1944), and Das Hochzeitshotel/The Wedding Hotel (Carl Boese, 1944).

Janssen's first film after the war was an American release of Wen die Götter lieben/Whom the Gods Love, titled The Mozart Story (1948). IMDb mentioned this was a prewar, shelved Austrian film, but it has exactly the same cast as the 1942 film. According to IMDb, the film was dubbed in English, and new shots were added for the American release.

Janssen's real first postwar performance was in Morgen ist alles besser/Everything Will Be Better in the Morning (Arthur Maria Rabenalt, 1948). Janssen's postwar roles were mostly small, but more substantial ones he had e.g. in Tödliche Liebe/Deadly love (Fred Barius, Paul Pfeiffer, 1953) starring Rolf Möbius. In the 1930s and also the early 1950s Janssen also directed a few times, mostly light entertainment such as the Heinz Rühmann comedy Wer wagt – gewinnt/Who dares Wins (1935), and two fairy tale films in the 1950s.

In the 1960s Janssen participated in television plays and series. He again concentrated more on the world of theatre, was director of the Vienna Kammerspiele in the 1940s and directed the Marburg Festival. His last theatrical appearance was in 1971 in 'The Cherry Orchard' by Anton Chekhov at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. In 1968, he received the Filmband in Gold for many years of excellent work in German film, having acted in over 180 film and TV productions.

Walter Janssen died in Munich in 1976.


German postcard. Photo: Cicero Film / Distribution Deutsche Tonfilme. The 'fine fleur' of late silent German cinema stars, united for a photo for an early sound film company. Standing left to right: Franz Lederer, Walter Rilla, Theodor Loos, Camilla Horn, Fritz Rasp, and Walter Janssen. Sitting left to right: Paul Heidemann, Charlotte Susa, Betty Amann, Olga Tschechova, Maria Paudler, and Jack Trevor. Might be publicity for the early sound comedy Die grosse Sehnsucht/The Great Longing (Stefan Szekely/Steve Sekely, 1930), in which all acted, mostly as themselves - only Loos and Horn played characters. The plot was an excuse for 35 stars to debut in a talking picture.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5111/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Super-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5491/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Super-Film.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 6531/1, 1931-1932. Photo: Ernst Förster, Wien (Vienna).

Sources: Wikipedia (German and English), and IMDb.