German Mountaineer and Cinematographer. In 1939, while preparing to leave to shoot a film in Chile, Hans Ertl was conscripted by the Third Reich to be a "war correspondent." As a cameraman in Nazi Germany, he worked with director Leni Riefenstahl on several of her Nazi propaganda films, including "Olympia." During World War II, he was among the preferred cameramen accompanying General Erwin Rommel, which earned him a reputation as "Rommel's photographer". During the early part of his career, he invented an underwater camera and a ski-mountable camera, both of which transformed the way films were shot. In the mid-1950s, after an arrest by the Allies and being banned from working professionally in Germany, Ertl fled to Chile and finally resettled in Bolivia, where he made two feature-length "expedition film"-like documentaries. He embarked on a third but ceased after his tractor crashed through a wooden bridge with two-thirds of the uninsured exposed footage on board. Frustrated, he then decided to become a farmer and retired to La Dolorida, a piece of semi-jungle land in eastern Bolivia, where he was known as "Juan."
German Mountaineer and Cinematographer. In 1939, while preparing to leave to shoot a film in Chile, Hans Ertl was conscripted by the Third Reich to be a "war correspondent." As a cameraman in Nazi Germany, he worked with director Leni Riefenstahl on several of her Nazi propaganda films, including "Olympia." During World War II, he was among the preferred cameramen accompanying General Erwin Rommel, which earned him a reputation as "Rommel's photographer". During the early part of his career, he invented an underwater camera and a ski-mountable camera, both of which transformed the way films were shot. In the mid-1950s, after an arrest by the Allies and being banned from working professionally in Germany, Ertl fled to Chile and finally resettled in Bolivia, where he made two feature-length "expedition film"-like documentaries. He embarked on a third but ceased after his tractor crashed through a wooden bridge with two-thirds of the uninsured exposed footage on board. Frustrated, he then decided to become a farmer and retired to La Dolorida, a piece of semi-jungle land in eastern Bolivia, where he was known as "Juan."
Bio by: Ola K Ase
Family Members
Children
Advertisement
See more Ertl memorials in:
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
