Photo Gallery The Rich Life of Bernd Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger was Germany's most successful film producer, making a name for cinema "made in Germany" with such hits as "The Name of the Rose" and "The Downfall." He died on Tuesday in Los Angeles at the age of 61.
Eichinger's first big success was "Christiane F. - Wir Kinder vom Bahnhof Zoo" -- based on a best-selling autobiography of a 13-year-old girl who became a heroin addict and prostitute in West Berlin's drug scene. It cost six million deutsche marks to make and brought in 36 million marks at the box office.
Driven by an almost manic energy, he pursued his strategy of turning bestsellers into cinema hits, and ran up budgets that at times approached Hollywood dimensions. In 1984, "The Neverending Story," based on Michael Ende's ode to fantasy, was made for a staggering 60 million marks.
Many of Eichinger's most successful films were based on bestselling books -- like "The Name of the Rose," adapted from Umberto Eco's book of the same name. It starred Sean Connery and Christian Slater.
ddp images
Eichinger also found international success with his screen version of Isabel Allende's debut novel "The House of the Spirits" (1993) with Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons.
In the 1980s, Eichinger found box-office success in Germany with several comedies, including the film "I and Him," directed by Doris Dörries.
Eichinger, a dreamer with business acumen, considered art free from commercial potential as wasted effort. In 2002, he produced a film version of the blockbuster video game "Resident Evil."
Perhaps Eichinger's greatest success was his portrayal of the final days of Adolf Hitler. "The Downfall," directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel and including Bruno Ganz in the leading role, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film award at the Oscars. Eichinger himself wrote the screenplay.
It is said that Eichinger spent 15 years chasing after Patrick Süskind to get the rights to film "Perfume." In the end he is believed to have spent 10 million just to get the author to sign off on the project.
Eichinger's 2008 film "The Baader-Meinhof Complex," a movie based on the bestselling book about the Red Army Faction by former SPIEGEL editor-in-chief Stefan Aust, netted him another Oscar nomination.
Throughout his career, Eichinger showed a dedication to current affairs and recent history. In 2010, he released a film about the German rapper Bushido, based on the artist's autobiography.
And in April 2010, he received a lifetime achievement award from the German Film Academy. On the occasion of that award, director Doris Dörrie wrote that he was "the godfather, the commerce king, the tyrannical tycoon." But he is also one who demands the best from those he works with and ultimately pushes them to greater heights.
In 2009, Eichinger received the Bavarian Film Prize for "The Baader-Meinhof Complex," a movie based on the bestselling book about the Red Army Faction by former SPIEGEL editor-in-chief Stefan Aust. Here, he is pictured with Til Schweiger.
