Kurt Hoffmann

Born Nov. 12, 1910, in Freiburg. German film director (Federal Republic of Germany).

In the motion picture world since 1931, Hoffmann became a director in 1938. He has created several amusing films. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Hoffmann creatively employed the devices of the political cabaret, music hall revues, and film operettas to make satirical musicals in the form of grotesque parodies of vaudeville— We Are Wunderkinder (1958; gold medal at the First International Film Festival in Moscow)—and fairy-tale operettas—Ghosts in Spessart Castle (1961; prize for the best film comedy at the Second International Film Festival in Moscow). His motion pictures are noted for their antifascist tendency, for their exposure of the antihuman essence of fascism. He filmed House on Karpfengasse (1964; film and television version). Hoffmann did the screen versions of Hocus-Pocus (1953, after K. Goetz), The Confessions of Felix Krull, Confidence Man (1957, after T. Mann), and The Marriage of Mister Mississippi (1961, after F. Dürrenmatt). Hoffmann was awarded the E. Lubich Prize (1958) for outstanding cinematography. He also did the motion pictures Fanfares of Love (1951), The Eatshop in Spessart (1958), and Tomorrow at Seven the World Will Still Be All Right (1968).