Bequest of Maximilian Schell
In 2017 I was able to work on the bequest of actor and director Maximilian Schell for the Deutsche Filminstitut in Frankfurt/Main. The material mainly was documents and photographs, stored in ring binders that arrived in 2016 in lots of moving boxes. The aim was to sort and archive the material by work title (film and theater) and by keywords for material affecting Maximilian Schell as a person. First, every box was emptied into a rack. Then I went through all the material in several stages, sorting it out by film and play title and personal documents. While doing this I created a systematics and a database for fine sorting and keeping information. After that, I started the fine sorting, removed all metal clips and put the material in archival safe folders and boxes. As a side effect, for the first time a complete list of films and plays Maximilan Schell was connected to could be compiled while working on his bequest.
Setup of the archive of the Wim Wenders Archiv
In 2012 Wim Wenders foundet the Wim Wenders Stiftung - A Foundation in Düsseldorf. In May 2013 I began my job to setup the archive for the foundation and until our move to Düsseldorf we started working on the basic ideas about the archive. However my main job back then was to go through more than 600 binders with production documents for creating a Chain of Title for every film title the foundation owns. This was necessary for future exploitation. After our move to Düsseldorf I sorted out every binder and created a systematic for sorting the archive's material. I then brought the documents into the systematic's order and put them into archival safe folders and boxes. The systematic followed the production process of a film, but also respected the special needs of the foundation. Parallel to that I worked on the many other things in the archive: props, posters and photographs - negatives and prints. These were sorted by the film title and when possible brought into archival safe covers and boxes.
The original film and sound material, stored in several labs and institutions I regsitered in a database and organised the transfer into the German Federal Archives. Also I researched additional film and sound material and was able to bring back missing negative material into the foundation.
Bequest of Stanley Kubrick
For the world's first Stanley Kubrick exhibition, organised by the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main, I screened the estate of director Stanley Kubrick, sorted the material and made a pre-selection of exhibits for the show. All those items were photographed and information were entered into a basic database that was mailed to Frankfurt every day.
For the exhibition catalogue I wrote a little text about my time with the Kubrick family and another one about product branding in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. The exhibition shows a slide show about the life of Stanley Kubrick that Georg Dietsche and I created, using private photographs from the Kubrick family.
Since then the exhibition tours around the world and after a while I returned to England, making a finer sorting of Mr. Kubrick's estate and also prepared it for its transfer to the University of the Arts London where it is accessable now.
All in all I worked nearly three years on the bequest of Stanley Kubrick. It was the collation and sorting of the material, done with my help that defined the estate as such.
Bequest of Werner Graeff
The estate of artist Werner Graeff, who died 1978, was processed by me for his widow, Ursula Graeff-Hirsch. It consists of publications, art works, films, documents, correspondence and other items. The written material was sorted and filed in legal folders, than stored in cardboard boxes. Some of the private super-8 films were digitized and compiled by me to a DVD movie.
Besides the removal of metal objects and plastic bags no other preserving work was necessary. The works of art (paintings, prints, sculptures, etc.) remained at their storage location and were photographed.
The filing system classification differs between private and professionally relevant material. As Werner Graeff not only was an artist, but also a publicist and university teacher, his professional work was subdivided. His artistic work was also subdivided by its category.
Finding aids were generated from the database entries, printed and binded to books, using the categories of Mr. Graeff's work (paintings, prints, sculptures, etc.). Each category also has an additional index volume, listing the art works according to its works number. In the actual finding aid, each object has its own page (see picture right).
In 2009, the estate was handed over to the Museum Wiesbaden.
Other work on collections and in archives
- 2016: Sorting the artistic estate of the Essen designer and artist Rüdiger Eschert for his widow. The job included compiling a catalogue raisonné, creating a research database and a printed out finding aid.
- 2011 - 2012: Working on the works of art for Mülheim artist Ursula Hirsch. The job included a catalogue raisonné, a database and printed out finding aids.
- 2008 - 2011: Project management of the “TABU” project for the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin. The project reconstructed the filming of F. W. Murnau's last film Tabu from 1931. The bequeathed outtakes of the film were brought back into the original filming order and now can be compared with the film's shooting schedule and script. The project, including the outtakes, quite soon will be explorable on the museum's web site.
- 2007/2008: Evaluating the archive databases for the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen, preparing its remodelling.
- 2005: Sorting and cataloging the estate of German film director F. W. Murnau for the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung; Designing a web based research tool for the script of F. W. Murnau's Tabu film.
- 2002/2003: Conception and designing the database enhancement for the TV section of the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen in Berlin.
- 2001: sorting and cataloging of certain film related material for director Wim Wenders, creating a database for the information about that material.
- 1997: Sorting and cataloging the estate of German film producer Erich Pommer for the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen; Publishing an article about the Erich Pommer estate for film magazine “FilmGeschichte” together with Werner Sudendorf.
- 1994: Conception of an archive systematics for the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation.
- 1989: Conception of the film music section of the first permanent exhibition of the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main together with Frank Strobel.
- 1986 - 1988: Setting up and organising the film music archive section of the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main together with Frank Strobel; archiving various music related material, such as music sheets from German composer Wolfgang Zeller.
Miscellaneous work (extract)
- 2004: Assistance with the organisation of the exhibition “Die Kommissarinnen” (The Lady Cops) at the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen.
- 2002/2003: Assistance with the organisation of the exhibition “Fernsehen macht glücklich” (TV makes you happy) at the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen; concept development of the exhibition's web site.
- 1999/2000: Research of film clips and the exploitation rights for the permanent exhibition of the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen;
Idea and conception of the multimedia installation “Licht und Schatten” (Light and Shadow) about the illumination of Marlene Dietrich in the films of Josef von Sternberg for the same permanent exhibition. - 1998: Picture and media research for the Berlin based exhibition “The Story of Berlin”.
- 1993: Project management for the contribution of the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main to the “Deutsche Filmografie” (German filmography), a EU funded data collection project. The online database filmportal.de is based on the project's results.
- 1990: Assistance with the organisation of the exhibition “Artur Brauner und die CCC” (Artur Brauner and the CCC) about German film producer Artur Brauner at the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main; Writing of an article for the exhibition catalogue.
- 1989: Assistance with the organisation of the six days live music and film festival “Musik und Stummfilm” (Music and Silent Film) at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Deutsches Filmmuseum Frankfurt am Main;
Concept development of an exhibition about silent movies and music together with Frank Strobel. - 1986 - 2001: Marketing of the films of composer Mauricio Kagel.
Academic Studies
- 1982 - 1992: History of Art, Art education and History of Film at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität in Frankfurt am Main
- 1992 - 1994: Architecture at the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt