Ralph Scotoni (1901–1955) was a Swiss businessman notable for his involvement in the

German film industry The film industry in Germany can be traced back to the late 19th century. German cinema made major technical and artistic contributions to early film, broadcasting and television technology. Babelsberg Studio, Babelsberg became a household synon ...

. He was the son of

Eugen Scotoni Eugen Scotoni (1873–1961) was an influential Austrian-born Swiss businessman from the construction, real estate and film industries. He built the first Swiss skyscraper in Lausanne in the 1930s. In the early 1930s, he acquired control of the lar ...

. Between 1930 and 1935, when it was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to pri ...

by the German government, he oversaw his family's interest in Terra Film – the second most important German production company behind UFA. Scotoni automatically became a member of the Nazi Party (as was common for owners of large companies) but never picked up his membership card. Many of his later films depicted similarities between

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. He left Germany in 1935 after the nationalization of Terra.

Selected filmography

* '' The Man Who Murdered'' (1931) * ''

William Tell William Tell (german: Wilhelm Tell, ; french: Guillaume Tell; it, Guglielmo Tell; rm, Guglielm Tell) is a folk hero of Switzerland. According to the legend, Tell was an expert mountain climber and marksman with a crossbow who assassinated Albr ...

'' (1934) * ''

The Champion of Pontresina ''The Champion of Pontresina'' (german: Der Springer von Pontresina) is a 1934 German-Swiss comedy film directed by Herbert Selpin and starring Sepp Rist, Rudolf Klicks and Eric Helgar.Clarke & Doel p. 152 Production It is also known by the alt ...

'' (1934)

Bibliography

* Killy, Wather. ''Dictionary of German Biography, Volume 9''. Walter de Gruyter, 2005.

External links

* 1901 births 1955 deaths Businesspeople from Zürich Nazi Party members Swiss film producers 20th-century Swiss businesspeople {{Switzerland-business-bio-stub