Overview
- Description
- Albert Günther Hess and Ilse Sobel getting married at the courthouse in Brussels. Film shows the couple entering and leaving the courthouse (probably the municipal building in Uccle) and a wedding party hosted by friends.
- Duration
- 00:04:45
- Date
-
Event:
1935
- Locale
-
Brussels,
Belgium
- Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, gift of Marie Hammerling
- Contributor
-
Subject:
Albert G. Hess
- Biography
-
The Hess family was a prominent, assimilated Jewish family in Pirna, Germany. They owned a large chemical and lacquer manufacturing plant. Gustav and Hermine Hess had three children - Ilse, Manfred, and Albert. All were married in Germany and managed to escape the war. Ilse and her family moved to NY (she married Alfred Rosenstern and the name was later changed to Roston). Manfred, his wife Gertrud "Trude", and their daughters Ursula and Luise left Germany for England in 1939. Albert Günther Hess (AGH) and his family went to Belgium and later to the US.
AGH was born on March 1, 1909. He studied music and law; still and motion picture photography was his lifelong hobby. In the 1930s, he made travel and family films on 9.5 mm. He was drafted by the US Army shortly after arriving in the US in the early 1940s. He was in a military intelligence unit, interrogated and translated for Nazi prisoners, interviewed Hermann Goering, and helped liberate Dachau (His photographs are available in the USHMM Photo Archives). In the 1950s, he returned to filming his family and documenting his travels. AGH married three times, first to Ilse Sobel (who appears in many of his early films and who - later in the US - went by the name Peggy Kaufman), next to Gisela Oppens (a refugee and the mother of the donor), and finally to Julia Kao. AGH was also a criminology professor, an airplane pilot, a boater, and a language enthusiast.
Physical Details
- Language
- Silent
- Genre/Form
- Amateur.
- B&W / Color
- Black & White
- Image Quality
- Mixed
- Time Code
- 01:23:16:00 to 01:28:01:00
- Film Format
- Master
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm
Master 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm
Master 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm
Master 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 9.5 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: positive - 8 mm - original
Master 2276 Film: 8 mm
Master 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large- Preservation
Preservation 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Preservation 2276 Video: Betacam SP - NTSC - large
Rights & Restrictions
- Conditions on Access
- You do not require further permission from the Museum to access this archival media.
- Copyright
- Marie Brandes Hammerling
- Conditions on Use
- The Museum does not own the copyright for this material and does not have authority to authorize third party use. For permission, please contact the rights holder, Mrs. Marie Hammerling.
- Copyright Holder
- Marie Brandes Hammerling
Keywords & Subjects
Administrative Notes
- Legal Status
- Permanent Collection
- Film Provenance
- Marie Brandes, the daughter of Albert Günther Hess, donated the films to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in September 1996.
- Note
- Brodsky & Treadway transfer 2001.
See also Film ID 2724 for more footage shot by Albert Guenter Hess. - Film Source
- Marie Brandes Hammerling
- File Number
- Legacy Database File: 3680
- Special Collection
-
Steven Spielberg Film and Video Archive
- Record last modified:
- 2024-02-21 07:58:55
- This page:
- https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn1003004
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Also in Albert Günther Hess Collection
Home movies shot by Albert Günther Hess including various family and wartime scenes in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Belgium.
Playfully fighting over cigarettes
Film
"Where are the Cigarettes?" Home movie of Albert Günther Hess (AGH) and his wife Ilse clowning around and fighting over the "last" cigarette. Titles throughout reading: WHERE ARE THE CIGARETTES?; AFTER TWENTY MINUTES; A BIG ROW; K.O. (KNOCKOUT); THE GENEROUS WINNER.
Track and field events in Pirna; prewar Jewish life in Germany
Film
"Picture Show Nr. 4" SCHILD - SPORTFEST SUMMER 1936. A track and field sporting event in Pirna with Albert Günther Hess's brother Manfred as the judge. HIS HONOR, THE JUDGE [Fred]. FALSE START. SHORT PROMENADES. AGH and his wife Ilse go on a walk through town. AGH films scenes around him: shots of a large building, the park, water flowing into a pond. BIRDS FOR THE EYE. CUs, birds. ICESKATING. CU, a bird "iceskating." OTHER WALKS. AGH and Ilse in a cafe. RETURNING HOME FROM A WALK. CUs of Ilse walking, entering the house. Brief shot of street with park benches.
Prewar family life in Saxony
Film
THE LIFE OF THE HESSENS AND THE ROSENSTERNS - NATUREFILM. THE HESSENS AND ROSENSTERNS BELONG TO THE CULTURED MAMMALIAN SPECIES LIVE IN INNER SAXONY. Map of Inner Saxony. EXT, apartment building, someone waving on the balcony. INT of home, table with flowers. EARLY IN THE MORNING, WOMEN SEARCH FOR FOOD. Albert Günther Hess's (AGH) sister-in-law Ilse Rosenstern and her son George walking. Street scenes. Woman entering a shop. 12:20 Clock. 1:35 Clock. Same woman exiting shop. MEN HAVE UNUSUAL APPENDAGES FOR AMBULATION. AGH working on his first boat. Automobile. Child on bicycle, scooter. THESE ARE CAMERA-SHY INDIVIDUALS FILMED FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME. Marie, the camera-shy maid. CAUTION. SINGING IN PROGRESS. INT of home, Alfred Roston, AGH's brother and Ilse's husband, singing. He was an amateur tenor who sang exercises for several years (He was also an avid hockey player). Playing soccer. Shots of cathedral from boat. Hermine Hess, AGH's mother, playing cards with her friends, many of whom possibly perished in the Holocaust (their names are unknown). Shots of boy and mother. Another boy mimicking AGH filming. MARIONETTE THEATER. Ursula, the oldest daughter of AGH's brother Manfred, and her friend enjoy a puppet theater presentation. AGH likely made the puppets. Her sister Luise is shown on the potty. Woman sewing. Ursula watering bushes in the garden. SOME IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD ARE QUITE WELL-KNOWN. CU, baby (Luise?). Scenes show Alfred resting, AGH working on his boat, eating ice cream and Alfred's wife Trude with a hankerchief. ONE SPECIES MAKES A MARK THROUGH UNUSUAL TALENTS. AGH working on his boat. END NOTE: The titles are written jokingly in a pseudo-scientific manner.
Family life in Pirna, Germany
Film
DIE PIRNSCHEN - AUGUST 1936. This film shows Manfred "Fred" Hess at home with his wife Trude and two daughters Ursula and Luise. WITH FORK AND KNIFE. CUs, Luise eating. AFTER DINNER, LITTLE TEARS AND LITTLE TUNES. The children play with their father in the living room. Albert Günther Hess (AGH) is teaching the girls piano and playing the guitar for them. DIE ZUHOERERIN (VON EINEN TONKRANK EILINOPERATEUR). CUs, Trude. ANOTHER OPINION. CUs, Luise singing. END OF ACT.
The Hess Family in Germany and on vacation
Film
IM INNERSTEN WESTFALEN. Boy in suit, VAR shots. Dog, couple playing with dog in winter. Aerial shots. FREUNDE UND BEKANNT. Young couple. CU, man writing at desk. MERAN BEISCHLECHTEM WETTEN... Trees waving in the wind. ... UND BEI GUTEN. Aerial shots, landscape, women smelling blossoms on a tree, CUs blossoms. AM MONT BLAN. Snow capped mountains, people hiking/trekking. AUF DEM GENFER SEE. Homes on waterfront, views from a boat on the sea, men playing violins. GANZ KLEIN SIEHT DER SALEV VON GENF HER AUS! Pan riverside. UEBERHOLTES AUS AROSA. In small village, pedestrians, women, cats on chair. VOR DEM ON MARCH. Well-dressed pedestrians walking on a city street, shops, shop windows. ESCARGOTS. Snails at market. Man going down ladder, lab and machine, goat and two men in field with church in BG. Women in city square with pigeons. DIE BEVOELKERUNG DORT SPRICHT AUFF ENDER WEISE...SOERBSISCH! Man standing outside building in city. ALLES LEBT AUF DEN STRASSE. CU, child in street. STAEDTE UND LAENDER. City buildings in Prague, people at market, tram, church. AMUSEMENTS IN BRUESSEL. Amusement park. IM BOIS. DIE PROVINZLER-SIND ANGEKOMMEN. Group of people sitting in a circle in a park, celebrating a birthday. 06:13 CUs, AGH (Albert Günther Hess), the filmmaker. CUs, a woman. ANDERE WIEDER SITZEN AUF SEHR HOHEM ROSSE. Man on horse in a park. IM SCHWIMMBAD. MSs, woman doing somersault, crowd at beach, swimming, dog in water. Group of boys, shot from below. AKT=SCHLUSS Ende.
