Johann Schwarzer
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Johann Schwarzer (30 August 1880 – 10 October 1914) was an Austrian photographer and pioneer producer of adult films through his Saturn-Film ( de) company. Schwarzer was born in Javornik, then part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...
and now located in the
Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...
.


Career

In the early 1900s, Schwarzer resettled in
Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
and became a portrait and family photographer and chemist. To supplement his income, Schwarzer began making erotic photos which were used on naughty postcards common to the era. In 1906, he became interested in the men's-only theatre nights organized in Austrian cinemas that showed adult films, so-called ''Herrenabende'' ("night shows for men"). Seeing that money could be made from these types of films, Schwarzer organized the Saturn-Film company in 1906 to produce such films, in his Viennese roof-top studio, in competition to the French product then being exclusively shown. Before Schwarzer's productions, erotic films in Austria were supplied by the French
Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...
brothers. Saturn-Film was the first native film production company based in Austria. Schwarzer produced and directed these erotic feature films, with basic plots (artist and model, bath scene) which allowed for voyeurism and female nudity but not, he insisted, pornography. Each film contained young local women fully nude. * * * * Unlike his predecessors, Schwarzer conducted his business as a public company, advertising in local newspapers, motion picture trade journals and adding a logo to his films like any other European producer. Saturn-Film also published a regular film catalog within its first couple years of existence. Despite this effort, Saturn-Films often appeared shorn of their logos and rendered anonymous, like other, similar subjects once they got further afield of Vienna, possibly due to piracy, as the Saturn-Film
logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
appears as part of the
film set A set is artificially constructed scenery used in film and television. In the last two cases there are many reasons to build or use a set instead of travelling to a real location, such as budget, time, the need to control the environment, or the ...
, in all frames of some extent films. In 1911, Saturn-Film was raided and closed down by the police as a part of a crackdown on erotic materials in Vienna. The authorities destroyed the main film vault which at that time consisted of 52 productions. Censorship prevented Saturn from rising again. Johann Schwarzer tried to get a fresh start in film distribution, but without the ‘spicy’ films he had become famous for. After three months, he abandoned the effort and left Vienna for Africa. He resurfaced in April 1914, when he married the young Olga Emilie Jarosh-Stehlik. Schwarzer was an army reservist who was called up with the outbreak of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
on 28 July 1914. He was made a second lieutenant by the time he perished in battle at Wirballen, Poland on 10 October of that year.


Legacy

Saturn-Film consciously chose to advertise its films as being erotic, rather than pornographic. A quote from its 1907 catalog, probably written by Schwarzer, states "our films are of a purely artistic tendency, and we avoid tasteless subjects in favor of beauty." Schwarzer's adult films were more professional in quality then their French and Argentine counterparts and were the most widely distributed and popular adult films made in the first decade of the 20th century. Despite the destruction of the main film vault in 1911 about a half of the 52 films produced by the company still exist in archives throughout Europe. Filmarchiv Austria has included four of Schwarzer's works in the Europa Film Treasures site; ''Das Sandbad'' (1906), ''Baden Verboten'' (1906), ''Das Eitle Stubenmädchen'' (1908), and ''Beim Fotografen'' (1908).
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
has included over twenty of Schwarzer's works on their site.


Works

This list is incomplete * ''Aufregende Lektüre'' * ''Baden verboten'' * ''Beim Fotografen'' * ''Das eitle Stubenmädchen'' * ''Das Sandbad'' * ''Der Angler'' * ''Der Hausarzt'' * ''Der Traum der Bildhauers'' * ''Diana im Bade'' * ''Die Macht der Hypnose'' * ''Die Zaubereien des Mandarins'' * ''Eine aufregende Jagd'' * ''Eine lustige Geschichte am Fenster'' * ''Eine modern Ehe'' * ''Im Bade'' * ''Jugendspiele'' * ''Lebender Marmor'' * ''Schleiertanz'' * ''Sklavenmarkt'' * ''Sklavenraub'' * ''Vorbreitung auf das Rendez-vous'' * ''Weibliche Assentierung''


References


Further reading

* * * * * *


External links


Schwarzer films
hosted by the
Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schwarzer, Johann Austrian film directors Austro-Hungarian military personnel killed in World War I 1880 births 1914 deaths Silent film directors Cinema pioneers