Wissenswertes

German actor/director, son of Generalleutnant Benedix Wilhelm Karl von Alten (1852-1937). Served as director of the Berliner Schillertheater (1935-36). Film director with Tobis, Minerva-Tonfilm GmbH and Terra from 1936. Noted for action subjects (particularly espionage and crime dramas). Refused to film a Nazi propaganda piece and was summarily conscripted for wartime duties in the Wehrmacht. Survived the war, established the Kammerspiele Hannover und die Hannoverian Acting School and resumed directing films in the 1950's.

The actor and director Jürgen von Alten couldn't count on the grant of his parents for his wish to become an actor He financed his acting lessons by himself and was soon rewarded with theater roles in Hannover and later in Berlin.

After his refusal to realize a movie by a script he was called up to the Wehrmacht in 1942 but he survived this gloomy time luckily.

He could continue his film career in 1950 again as a director as well as an actor.

He made his film debut as an actor in 1931 with the production "Yorck". But in the next years didn't follow further engagements as an actor. Instead of it he got a contract at Tobis to realise movies as a director, an occupation he already practiced for the movie "Hier irrt Schiller" (1932).