Biographie

An officer of Austrian mountain troops in WWI.

For the centennial of birth his native town of Ortisei dedicated a monument that shows him in mountaineer dresses while looking at the Langkofel, a mountain he liked to climb.

Trenker had plans to do a film about Johann Sutter in the U.S., but, alarmed at the growing anti-German feeling in the United States, Universal had second thoughts about another co-production with Trenker and turned to director James Cruze and star Edward Arnold to make "Surrer's Gold." A disappointed Trenker returned to Europe and made his own version, "The Kaiser of California," which he shot in the U.S. and Italy. Ironically Sergei Eisenstein had planned a Sutter biography as his first American project, but the deal fell through.

Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels was very impressed with "Der Rebel" and hoped that Trenker would fill the void left by the defection of Fritz Lang, but Trenker was apolitical, and Goebbels grew to look upon him in a derogatory light.

Beside the film Luis Trenker was also able to make a name as a writer of mountain novels and he was a eloquent narrator for the TV.