Max Stöhr(I)
- Producer
Born in Vienna in 1888, Max Stöhr, whose career lasted over fifty years, was one of the main producers and distributors of Switzerland. The son of an Austrian man of the theater, Max traveled to Geneva for his studies before moving to Zurich where he later became a Swiss citizen.
He first found work in film as Iris Films Joseph Lang's assistant. By 1917, he founded Kunstfilm Zürich, a company that had the monopoly of Berlin's Messter Films. Two years later, Stöhr became the general manager of the Zurich branch of Nordisk Films. In 1923, he created the Swiss branch of First National Pictures, until it merged with Warner Bros. In May 1930, he was appointed director of Interna Tonfilm, later to become Neue Interna. Max Stöhr specialized in the distribution of German-speaking productions (like, for instance, the "Sissi" series in the 1950s), which made him suspect in 1940. Fortunately for him, he was declared apolitical after an investigation by the Secret Services, enabling him to further his activities until his death in Zurich in 1970.
(adapted from Hervé Dumont's "Histoire du Cinéma Suisse, 1987")