Rolf Wenkhaus (9 September 1917 – 31 January 1942)Movie Kids
/ref> was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

child actor The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage, television, or in film, movies. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associa ...

who is best remembered for his role of Emil Tischbein in the 1931 film ''

Emil and the Detectives ''Emil and the Detectives'' () is a 1929 novel set mainly in Berlin, by the German writer Erich Kästner and illustrated by Walter Trier. It was Kästner's first major success and the only one of his pre-1945 works to escape Nazi censorship. The ...

''.

Early life

Born in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, Rolf Wenkhaus was the son of actor Kurt Wenkhaus (1891–1965).

Film career

Wenkhaus made his film debut at age 14 in 1931 as a

in the starring role of Emil in the

Gerhard Lamprecht Gerhard Lamprecht (6 October 1897 – 4 May 1974) was a German film director, screenwriter and film historian. He directed 63 films between 1920 and 1958. He also wrote for 26 films between 1918 and 1958. Life and career Lamprecht was fasci ...

-directed adventure film ''

'' () for

Universum Film AG UFA GmbH, shortened to UFA (), is a film and television production company that unites all production activities of the media conglomerate Bertelsmann in Germany. The original UFA was established as on December 18, 1917, as a direct response t ...

. The film was based on

Erich Kästner Emil Erich Kästner (; 23 February 1899 – 29 July 1974) was a German writer, poet, screenwriter and satirist, known primarily for his humorous, socially astute poems and for children's books including ''Emil and the Detectives'' and '' Lisa an ...

's 1929 novel of the same name, and proved to be commercially successful. He won the casting against thousands of other boys. ''Emil'' was followed by the film comedy ''

Spoiling the Game ''Spoiling the Game'' (German: ''Strich durch die Rechnung'') is a 1932 German comedy film directed by Alfred Zeisler and starring Heinz Rühmann, Toni van Eyck, and Hermann Speelmans.Wadlman p.46 Its hero is a young cyclist who enters a race. ...

'' (1932) with

Heinz Rühmann Heinrich Wilhelm "Heinz" Rühmann (; 7 March 1902 – 3 October 1994) was a German film actor who appeared in over 100 films between 1926 and 1993. He is one of the most famous and popular German actors of the 20th century, and is considered a Ge ...

, but Wenkhaus' role in this film was only of minor nature. In 1933 he appeared in one of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

's first

propaganda film A propaganda film is a film that involves some form of propaganda. Propaganda films spread and promote certain ideas that are usually religious, political, or cultural in nature. A propaganda film is made with the intent that the viewer will ad ...

s '' S.A.-Mann Brand'' as Erich Lohner, a juvenile member of the

Hitler Youth The Hitler Youth ( , often abbreviated as HJ, ) was the youth wing of the German Nazi Party. Its origins date back to 1922 and it received the name ("Hitler Youth, League of German Worker Youth") in July 1926. From 1936 until 1945, it was th ...

who selflessly sacrifices himself at film's end to save a comrade. Like many Nazi propaganda films of the period, ''S.A.-Mann Brand'' was banned from viewing for many years following

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. ''S.A.-Mann Brand'' was his last film.

Death

After the outbreak of World War II, Wenkhaus enlisted in the military. At the time of his death, aged 24, he was in the

aircrew Aircrew are personnel who operate an aircraft while in flight. The composition of a flight's crew depends on the type of aircraft, plus the flight's duration and purpose. Commercial aviation Flight deck positions In commercial aviatio ...

of a

Focke-Wulf Fw 200 The Focke-Wulf Fw 200 ''Condor'', also known as ''Kurier'' (German language, German for ''courier'') to the Allies of World War II, Allies, is an all-metal four-engined monoplane designed and produced by the German aircraft manufacturer Focke-Wul ...

Condor, a four-engine bomber that specialized in attacks on shipping. Wenkhaus's plane, with identification code F8 MH 0093, was shot down on 31 January 1942, off the coast of Bloody Foreland in

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, Ireland by HMS ''Genista'', a British being utilized as a convoy escort vessel. The entire aircrew of six was killed. The body of the pilot, Werner Bornefeld, washed up at

Bunbeg ''An Bun Beag'' (anglicised as Bunbeg), meaning "the small river mouth", is a small Gaeltacht village and townland in County Donegal, Ireland. It is officially the smallest townland in ''Gaoth Dobhair'' (Gweedore), but today the name Bunbeg is ...

two weeks later, and was eventually reburied at a German War Cemetery at

Glencree Glencree ( from the older Gleann Criothach, which translates as Valley of the Shaking Bog) is a valley in the Wicklow Mountains in eastern Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is the third-closest valley in the mountains to Dublin city, the first be ...

, Ireland.''Emil, Lottchen und der kleine Mann. Erich Kästners Kinderwelt.'' Bearbeitet von Ute Harbusch. Marbacher Magazin 86/1999, . Wenkhaus would be one of three young actors from ''Emil and the Detectives'' to be killed while serving in the military in World War II. Co-stars

Hans Joachim Schaufuß Hans Joachim Schaufuß (transliterated: Schaufuss) (28 December 1918 – 27 October 1941) was a German actor. Schaufuß began as a child actor, appearing in ''Emil and the Detectives'' (1931) and ''The White Demon'' (1932). From the mid-1930s he b ...

would be killed in action at age 22 in October 1941 in

Oryol Oryol ( rus, Орёл, , ɐˈrʲɵl, a=ru-Орёл.ogg, links=y, ), also transliterated as Orel or Oriol, is a Classification of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative center of Oryol Oblast, Russia, situated on the Oka Rive ...

and Hans Albrecht Löhr would be killed in action at age 21 in August 1942 on the Eastern Front.

Filmography

References

Bibliography

* John Holmstrom, ''The Moving Picture Boy: An International Encyclopaedia from 1895 to 1995'', Norwich, Michael Russell, 1996, p. 80.

External links

* 1917 births 1942 deaths German male film actors German male child actors Male actors from Berlin Luftwaffe personnel killed in World War II 20th-century German male actors Military personnel from Berlin Aviators killed by being shot down {{Germany-film-actor-1910s-stub