Werner R. Heymann

Werner Richard Heymann was active as a classical composer in Berlin from 1912.

By the end of the decade, he also wrote songs for cabaret and served as musical director for Max Reinhardt from 1918 to 1919.

In films with Ufa from 1923, he initially worked as assistant to the head of the music department Erno Rapee, before replacing the latter in 1926.

When Werner Richard Heymann was engaged by movie producer Erich Pommer as an assistant of the musical director of the UFA in 1925 this marked the beginning of a unique career as a film composer.

Already in 1926 he became the musical director of the UFA and in the next years he wrote numerous compositions for popular silent movies.

He also established himself as among the foremost writers of songs for film operetta, creating hits for popular fare like Three from the Filling Station (1930) and Bombs Over Monte Carlo (1931). Forced to flee from Nazi persecution because of his Jewish background, Heymann made his way to Hollywood via Paris and London.

Heymann remained under contract until 1933 as musical director and composer, scoring several classic films for F. W. Murnau and Fritz Lang.

With the takeover of the National Socialists his impressive career in Germany came to an abrupt end. Because of his Jewish ancestry his contract with the UFA was canceled and he emigrated to Paris. Shortly afterwards he went to Hollywood but was not able to gain a foothold for the time being. Therefore he returned to Paris and he wrote some more movie compositions for productions like "Caravane" (1934) and "Le grand refrain" (1936).

He went via London to the USA again and this time he managed to establish himself in the American film business in 1937. From now on he wrote numerous film soundtracks for popular movies.

There, he was noted particularly for scoring two of Ernst Lubitsch's best films: Ninotchka (1939) and To Be or Not to Be (1942).

The émigré German director Ernst Lubitsch got him to work on 5 of his classic American comedies.He also scored 2 films by another great comedy director, Preston Sturges Heymann was an Academy Award nominee four times in the early 1940s.

He returned to Germany in 1951 and could continue his work seamlessly.

After World War II, he returned to Germany where he wrote the music for a stage version of the classic film The Blue Angel in 1952.

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1960

His memoirs, recorded on tape during his last years, were published as an autobiography in Germany in 2001.

A documentary film about his career, So Wie Ein Wunder, featuring his daughter Elisabeth Trautwein, and directed by New German Cinema auteur Helma Sanders-Brahms, was shown on German television in 2012.