123 Chausseestraße Walter Schmidthässler (also Schmidt-Häßler) was an actor who had worked with the
Meiningen Ensemble at the
Meiningen Court Theatre before turning author and film scriptwriter. He joined
Jules Greenbaum's Deutsche Vitascope production company in 1910 as director and lead actor. He formed Schmidthassler-Film GmbH in 1911, which became
Continental-Kunstfilm the following year. Schmidthässler and Max Rittberger, an engineer and businessman, signed their partnership agreement on 5 February 1912, with a share capital of 150,000
marks. On 12 February 1912 Continental-Kunstfilm moved into the old
Deutsche Bioscope studio at 123 Chausseestraße, which Greenbaum vacated when he moved all his Vitascope production facilities to 32-34 Lindenstraße in October 1912. The building (fronted in
red sandstone) in Chauseestraße was built in the colorful and decorative
Jugendstil style. Continental's main offices were located at 235 Friedrichstraße, Berlin. A brief notice of the new company appeared in the trade journal
:de:Lichtbild-Bühne in March. However, Schmidthässler left Continental after only a few months in April 1912, announcing im late March that Schmidthässler-Film company was being taken over by Continental. He returned to
Deutsche Vitascope (the previous tenant of the building), going on to direct over 100 films. Heinrich Lautensack (who had also previously worked for Deutsche Vitascope) was engaged as script writer and head of advertising. He wrote the screenplays for at least five Continental films, mostly psychological melodramas:
Zwischen Himmel und Erde;
Die Macht der Jugend;
Zweimal gelebt (extant);
Der Mann in der Flasche;
Das ist der Krieg; and
Entsagungen. Several of Continental's early releases were directed by
Max Mack, another ex-Vitascope director who had previously made his mark with one of the first
autorenfilms,
Der Andere with
Albert Bassermann: at Continental, Mack directed
Lebensbilder;
Die lieben Freunde;
Die gelbe Rasse (
The Yellow Peril);
Blinde Liebe;
Die Hochzeitsfackel, and
Zweimal gelebt. '', directed by
Mime Misu The Romanian-born
mime artist and ballet-dancer
Mime Misu (Mișu Rosescu) made three films for Continental in 1912: •
Das Gespenst von Clyde (The Ghost of Clyde) •
In Nacht und Eis, the first full-length film about the sinking of the which sank on 15 April that year. The film was made between May and June 1912. Max Rittberger, (the firm's co-founder) was an engineer by trade, and made the 8 metre-long floating model for the Titanic film (according to the cameraman
Emil Schünemann, who also worked on Misu's next film. •
Mirakel, a film of a religious mystery play set in medieval times, which was completed by October 1912. The play,
The Miracle by
Karl Vollmoeller, had been staged with huge public success in London by
Max Reinhardt in early in 1912. Continental did not own the legitimate film rights to the production, which were acquired by an American self-made businessman living in London,
Joseph Menchen. His full-colour
The Miracle (1912 film) was released in December 1912, and Menchen and the film's US distributor
Al Woods successfully sought court injunctions to stop Continental's distributors from showing
Mirakel as
The Miracle, as if it were the 'genuine' film of the Reinhardt
Olympia production. As a result, Continental's
Mirakel confusingly acquired at least six titles.
See also The Miracle (1912 film)#Litigation.
Otto Rippert, who had acted in
In Nacht und Eis, turned to directing in 1912 and made around ten films with Continental between November that year and August 1913. Rippert later directed
Homunculus, an early
science fiction film. Before
Harry Piel turned to acting he directed a handful of films for Continental in 1912–1913. The popular 'Bumke' short comedies written, starring and directed by
Gerhard Dammann as the eponymous hero appeared throughout 1913, sometimes at the rate of one a week. Having formed their own production company, Stuart Webbs-Film GmbH, they made the next in the detective series,
Das Panzergewölbe (
The Armoured Vault) in June 1914, using Continental-Kunstfilm's studios for the filming. in an acting role
9 Franz Josef-Straße In the summer of 1914 Continental-Kunstfilm built a new studio at 9 Franz Josef-Straße (now Max Liebermannstraße) in
Weißensee, a north-eastern suburb of Berlin. It was next door to the double glasshouse studio at no. 5–7, built in 1913 by
Vitascope and separated by the narrow site of no. 8. When the
First World War broke out in August 1914, May had to return to his native
Vienna to do his military service, and on his return to Berlin he and Reicher split up. Reicher leased the studio from Continental and continued to make the 'Stuart Webbs' films with his Reicher & Reicher company until 1918. May formed his own company, May-Film GmbH, continuing to make serious films with his wife
Mia May, as well as producing the '
Joe Deebs' detective series, in which Harry Piel directed
Max Landa and later
Harry Liedtke in the title role. The first three Joe Deebs films were premièred at the Union-Theater Lichtspiele, later the
Ufa-Pavillon am Nollendorfplatz. May produced one more film at Continental-Kunstfilm,
Der geheimnisvolle Nachtschatten, again directed by Harry Piel. May later rented
Jules Greenbaum's Vitascope studios at 5-7 Franz-Josef-Straße, almost next door to Continental. The property seems have been leased by Lixie-Film around the same time, and leased to
Decla Film from around October 1919. In 1928 the Weißensee housing association acquired the land for new residential buildings which were still standing as of 2012. ==Selected films made by Continental-Kunstfilm==