Remembering Peter Märthesheimer
Today we would like to remind you of the tenth anniversary of Peter Märthesheimer’s death, who was one of RWF’s most important supporters and collaborators. Born in Kiel, he studied economics and sociology before starting in 1964 as a commissioning producer at the WDR (the German State TV station, based in Cologne). During his WDR tenure he met RWF, beginning a close collaboration on Fassbinder’s first TV production THE NIKLASHAUSEN JOUNREY (1970).
Impossible to envision today, the German State TV then played a major role in creating films in the 1970s for young author/filmmakers of the NEW GERMAN CINEMA. Among the films Fassbinder developed with Märthesheimer together are unprecedented TV formats and milestones of German TV history: EIGHT HOURS DON’T MAKE A DAY, WORLD ON A WIRE, MARTHA, FEAR OF FEAR. Later, when Märthesheimer became a producer for Bavaria Film in Munich he was responsible for I ONLY WANT YOU TO LOVE ME, DESPAIR – JOUNREY INTO LIGHT and the fourteen part masterpiece BERLIN ALEXANDERPLATZ. The first screenplay Mr. Märthesheimer wrote in tandem with his wife Pea Fröhlich was part one of Fassbinder’s Trilogy of the BRD (Federal Republic of Germany) THE MARRIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN, followed by LOLA and VERONICA VOSS. Peter Märthesheimer wrote novels, s.a. Ich bin die Andere (I am the Other Woman), which became a movie, directed by Margarethe von Trotta in 2005/2006.
With regards to Fassbinder’s films made for German TV, we like to point out Mr. Märthesheimer’s important key role in RWFs early development as a filmmaker and producer. It is important to us to point this out and keep Mr Märthesheimer’s memory alive.
More information
http://www.filmportal.de/en/person/peter-maerthesheimer_f2ffd2d99e678862e03053d50b370800
Photo right: © Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation
Photo left: © Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation