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Bernhard Wicki

Bernhard Wicki built a career that moved between acting, directing and writing without settling into just one corner of filmmaking. Born in St. Pölten on October 28, 1919, the Austrian actor and director first studied art history, history and German literature in Breslau before transferring to the drama school of Berlin’s Staatliches Schauspielhaus in 1938. His early life was marked by political persecution. In 1939, Wicki was imprisoned for many months in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp because of his membership in the Bündische Jugend. After his release, he moved first to Vienna and then, in 1944, to Switzerland. Following World War II, Wicki appeared in numerous films, including Die letzte Brücke. His work was not limited to film acting: he was also active as a television and voice actor, screenwriter, photographer, writer and musician. That range helps explain the shape of his career, in which performance and filmmaking developed side by side rather than as separate chapters. The documentary Warum sind sie gegen uns? marked his first attempt at directing. International recognition followed with the 1959 anti-war film Die Brücke, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1961, Wicki received the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for The Miracle of Father Malachia. His Hollywood breakthrough came with the 1965 World War II espionage thriller Morituri, directing Marlon Brando and Yul Brynner. Wicki remained connected to film culture as a patron of the International Film Festival in Emden-Norderney, which began in 1990. He died in 2000. The Bernhard Wicki Memorial Fund was established in Munich the following year, and since 2002 it has presented The Bridge, an annual prize for films that promote peace—a fitting continuation of the concerns that brought his directing to international attention.