Werner Fuetterer

At 18, handsome German actor Werner Fuetterer (1907-1991) was discovered to play the young lover in a series of silent films. For more than four decades he went on to work as a supporting actor in nearly 100 films. Fuetterer remains best remembered for his role as the Archangel in F. W. Murnau's masterpiece Faust (1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1507/2, 1927-1928. Photo: Hans Natge.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 591. Photo: National. Werner Fuetterer in Kubinke, der Barbier, und die drei Dienstmädchen/Kubinke, the Barber, and the Three Maids (Carl Boese, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1662/1, 1927-1928. Photo: H. Gärtner. Werner Fuetterer in Durchlaucht Radieschen/Serene Radish (Richard Eichberg, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1718/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Hans Natge.


Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 5382. Photo: M. v. Bucovich / Atelier K. Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1925/1, 1927-1928. Photo: M. v. Bucovich / Atelier K. Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 3655/2, 1928-1929. Photo: Europäische Film-Production.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4050/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin / Europäische Film-Production. Publicity still for Morgenröte/Dawnings (Wolfgang Neff, Burton George, 1929).

Archangel Michael

Werner Fueterer was born in 1907 in Stralsund (or Barth according to some souces) in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany, but grew up in Guatemala, where his father managed a hacienda. In 1919 the family returned to Germany and went to live in Lübeck. In 1924 Werner started to study acting at the Berliner Schauspielschule.

He left the school prematurely in 1925 when he got a surprising offer for a role in the Swedish film Flygande holländaren/The Flying Dutchman (Karin Swanström, 1925). Soon, he became quite popular as a young lover in the German silent cinema of the 1920s.

He appeared in successful films like Kreuzer Emden/Cruiser Emden (Louis Ralph, 1926) and Die Brüder Schellenberg/The Brothers Schellenberg (Karl Grune, 1926), with Conrad Veidt and Lil Dagover.

His best-known role in this period was that of archangel Michael in the silent masterpiece Faust – eine deutsche Volkssage/Faust: A German Folk Legend (Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau, 1926) which was based on motifs from Goethe's 'Faust'. The film became a worldwide success and brought Emil Jannings a Hollywood career, but Fuetterer was merely offered supporting roles afterwards.

He appeared in films like Die keusche Susanne/The Innocent Susanne (Richard Eichberg, 1926), Du sollst nicht stehlen/Thou Art Not Steal (Victor Janson, 1928), and Das Mädel mit der Peitsche/The Girl With The Whip (Carl Lamac, 1929) with Anny Ondra.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1566/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Werner Fuetterer in Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I lost my heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/2, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926) with Dorothea Wieck.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 78/1. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Werner Fuetterer in Ich war zu Heidelberg Student/I was a student at Heidelberg (Wolfgang Neff, 1927).


German collectors card by Ross Verlag in the series Vom Werden deutscher Filmkunst - Der Stumme Film, picture no. 199, group 43. Photo: Eichberg-Film. Werner Fuetterer and Hans Junkermann in Durchlaucht Radieschen/Highness Radish (Richard Eichberg, 1927).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3655/1, 1928-1929. Photo: Europäische Film Production.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5363. Photo: Hugo Engel-Film. Publicity still for Das Girl von der Revue/The Girl of the Revue (Richard Eichberg, 1928) with Dina Gralla.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5025/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Hegewald-Film. Publicity still for Wiener Herzen/Viennese Hearts (Fred Sauer, 1930) with Lilian Ellis, a late silent film and a German-Austrian-Czech coproduction.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 5325/2, 1930-1931. Photo: Silva-Film. Publicity still for O alte Burschenherrlichkeit/Oh Those Glorious Old Student Days (Rolf Randolf, 1930) with Betty Amann.

Best Friend

Smoothly Werner Fuetterer continued his career into the sound era with roles opposite Anny Ondra in Die Grausame Freundin/The Cruel Girl Friend (Carl Lamac, 1932) and Die Tochter des Regiments/The Regiment's Daughter (1933).

Other examples of his popular early sound films were Nacht der Versuchung/Night of Temptation (Léo Lasko, Robert Wohlmuth, 1932) with Elga Brink, and Einmal eine große Dame sein/To Be a Grand Lady Once (Gerhard Lamprecht, 1934) starring Käthe von Nagy.

In the 1930s and 1940s he was often cast as the best friend of the leading man like in the Heinz Rühmann comedies Der Mustergatte/Model Husband (Wolfgang Liebeneiner, 1937) and Ich vertraue Dir meine Frau an/I Trust To You My Wife (Kurt Hoffmann, 1940). He became established as a popular film actor and also worked in the theatre.

From 1937 to 1939 he toured the USA. After World War II he continued his career without a problem. His films included the comedies Es geschehen noch Wunder/Miracles Still Happen (Willi Forst, 1951) and Das kann jedem passieren/This Can Happen To Everybody (Paul Verhoeven, 1952) starring Heinz Rühmann, the circus drama Salto Mortale (Viktor Tourjansky, 1953), Des Teufels General/The Devil's General (Helmut Käutner, 1955), and Liebling der Götter/Sweetheart of the Gods (Gottfried Reinhardt, 1960), a bio pic of film star Renate Müller.

For many years, Werner Fuetterer was chairman of the Film Actor’s Union in Germany. From 1957 on he lived in Spain, where he managed a camping and bungalow park. His last supporting part was in the adventure film Mister Dynamit - morgen küßt Euch der Tod/Die Slowly, You'll Enjoy It More (Franz Josef Gottlieb, 1967) starring Lex Barker. In 1991 Werner Fuetterer died in Benidorm, hardly noticed by the media. He was 85. None of the sources note if he was married.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 5193.


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, Berlin, no. 5803. Photo: Hegewald Film / Lux Film Verleih. Werner Fuetterer in Im Prater blühen wieder die Bäume/In the Prater the trees are blossoming again (E.W. Emo, 1929).


Austrian postcard by Iris-Verlag, no. 6009. Photo: Atlantis Film. Werner Fuetterer in Ich glaub nie mehr an eine Frau/Never Trust a Woman (Max Reichmann, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 3655/1, 1928-1929. Photo Europäische Film Production.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4068/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Atelier Balázs, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4851/1, 1929-1930. Photo: Tauber Tonfilm G.m.b.H / Emelka. Publicity still for Ich glaub nie mehr an eine Frau/Never Trust a Woman (Max Reichmann, 1930).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 8002/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Probably publicity still for the Emelka production Nacht der Versuchung/Night of Temptation (Léo Lasko, Robert Wohlmuth, 1932).


German postcard by Ross Verlag. Photo: Atelier Balasz, Berlin. (The edges of this card were cut off. We've photoshopped them for this scan).


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, Berlin, no. A 3701/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Baumann / Terra.


German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. 3930/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Star-Foto-Atelier / Tobis.


German postcard by Kunst und Bild, Berlin, no. A 838. Photo: T. von Mindszenty / Deutsche London Film. Still for Keine Angst vor grossen Tieren/Don't Fear Big Animals (Ulrich Erfurth, 1953).

Sources: Stephanie D'heil (Steffi-line - German), José L Bernabé Tronchoni (Find A Grave), Wikipedia, Thomas Staedeli, and IMDb.

Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren... (1926)

Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren.../I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (1926) was a German silent comedy directed by Arthur Bergen. It was produced by the Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka), one of the few German film studios which was not located in Berlin but in Munich. The young lovers were played by Werner Fuetterer and Dorothea Wieck, both at the start of a promising career.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/2, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).

An immediate popular hit

Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren took its title from a German song composed in 1925 by Fred Raymond with lyrics by Fritz Löhner-Beda and Ernst Neubach. The song was an immediate popular hit, and in 1927 Raymond included it in a musical of the same name.

The refrain goes:
"Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren,
In einer lauen Sommernacht.
Ich war verliebt bis über beide Ohren
Und wie ein Röslein hat ihr Mund gelacht.
Und als wir Abschied nahmen vor den Toren
Beim letzten Kuß, da hab ich's klar erkannt:
Daß ich mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren.
Mein Herz, es schlägt am Neckarstrand."

"I lost my heart in Heidelberg
on a warm summer night.
I was in love head over heels
and like a rosebud her lips laughed
And as we bid farewell at the gates
during the last kiss
I knew clearly right there
that I lost my heart in Heidelberg
My heart beats on the beach of Neckar!"


Dorothea Wieck. Austrian postcard by Iris Verlag, no. 995. Photo: Emelka.


Werner Fuetterer. German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 1507/1, 1927-1928. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).

Sequel and remake

The film Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren (1926) was directed by Arthur Bergen, and written by German playwright Max Ferner. Arthur Bergen was an Austrian actor-director, active in the film industry since 1915. Max Ferner was the screenplay co-writer for what would later become Alfred Hitchcock's film The Mountain Eagle (1927).

The cast of Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren (1926) included apart from Werner Fuetterer and Dorothea Wieck also Emil Höfer, Gertrud de Lalsky, Mary Parker and Harry Halm. The production company was Emelka or Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG, a Munich based film studio which was active from 1919 till 1932. The company was a direct competitor to UFA, which had started in Berlin in 1917, and quickly absorbed several other film industry companies in the region.

In 1930 investor Wilhelm Kraus and a consortium of banks bought a major shareholding in Emelka, and on 21 September 1932 the group took control of the company and renamed it Bavaria Film AG. In 1938 the Bavaria Film was nationalised but privatised again in 1956. Bavaria is still one of Europe's largest film production companies, with some 30 subsidiaries.

Emelka produced a sequel to Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren (1926), Mein Heidelberg, ich kann Dich nicht vergessen/My Heidelberg, I can't forget you (James Bauer, 1927). Many in the cast returned but instead of Fuetterer and Parker now Hans Adalbert Schlettow and Vivian Gibson joined the cast.

After the Second World War, another film took its title from the song: the West German romantic musical Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Ernst Neubach, 1952).

The film starred Eva Probst and Adrian Hoven as the young lovers and Paul Hörbiger. It premiered in Heidelberg on 29 October 1952. This musical was part of a strong trend towards Heimatfilms set in romanticised Southern Germany, Austria or Switzerland.

The song Ich hab' mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren has become an evergreen and remains the theme song of the city of Heidelberg.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/1, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 61/3, 1926. Photo: Münchner Lichtspielkunst AG (Emelka). Publicity still for Ich hab mein Herz in Heidelberg verloren/I Lost My Heart in Heidelberg (Arthur Bergen, 1926).

Sources: Cuppachino, Wikipedia and IMDb.
Hear the song.