Luis Trenker - Biography

Biography

Trenker was born Alois Franz Trenker on 4 October 1892 in Urtijëi (German: St. Ulrich in Gröden), then part of the County of Tyrol in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Trenker studied architecture from 1912 until the outbreak of World War I. He fought on the Austrian side, serving mainly in the Alps opposite the Italian Alpinis. He wrote several books based upon his war experiences, the most important of which were Fort Rocca Alta and Berge in Flammen, the latter of which was made to a movie in 1931.

After the war, he resumed his studies, and worked in Bolzano (Bozen) as an architect forming a business partnership with the Austrian architect Clemens Holzmeister.

His first contact with film came in 1921, when he helped director Arnold Fanck on one of his mountain films. The main actor could not perform the stunts required, and so Trenker assumed the leading role. He gradually assumed more roles on the set, and by 1928 was directing, writing and starring in his own films. By now he had abandoned his job as an architect to concentrate on his films. He married Hilde Bleichert, with whom he had four children. The main theme of Trenker's work was the idealization of peoples connection with their homeland and pointing out the decadence of city life (most clearly visible in his 1934 film "Der verlorene Sohn" / "The Prodigal Son"). This loosely played into the hands of Nazi propagandists, who seized upon the nationalistic elements of his work. However, Trenker refused to allow his work to be subverted as such and eventually moved to Rome to avoid further governmental pressure. This, though, was not to be and after a pair of documentary films Trenker returned to Bolzano and quit making movies. The style he had developed in the thirties was not limited to nationalistic, folkloristic and heroic clichès, however; his impersonation of a hungry, downtrodden immigrant in depression era New York was regarded as one of the seminal scenes for future Italian neorealism by the likes of Roberto Rossellini.

After the war Trenker was accused of fascist opportunism but eventually the charges were dropped. In the mid 1950s he again was able to make movies, though by 1965 he had switched mainly to the documentary form, focusing mainly upon the Austrian province of Tyrol and Süd Tirol (his homeland), now part of Italy.

He also returned to writing about the mountains. He died at the age 97 on 13 April 1990.

The Museum Gherdëina displays a collection of belongings of Luis Trenker from a bequest of his family.