He single-handedly hinted at the rise of Austrian film long before Virgil Widrich, Stefan Ruzowitzky, Götz Spielmann or his student Michael Haneke were honored at the Oscars. In 1987, Wolfgang Glück was nominated for an Academy Award for “38 – That Was Vienna” – the highlight of a busy career.
The funeral service and urn burial will take place on February 12, 2024 at 1 p.m. at the Vienna Central Cemetery (Hall 2, entrance 2nd gate), according to the statement.
More than 100 theater productions and 400 television works
In his career, the busy director has produced more than 100 theater productions, around 80 full-length films and more than 400 television works in Germany and Austria, making him one of the most productive representatives of his field. The Viennese, who was born on September 25, 1929, gained an international reputation primarily with his literary adaptations, of which the Torberg adaptation “The Student Gerber” stands out.
Glück has always maintained a sober relationship with his profession. “I succeeded in some things. I think I have an objective distance from my work. At least I hope so,” the jubilarian once said. Wolfgang Glück was born on September 25, 1929 in Vienna into an upper-class family. The father was a publishing official and writer and belonged to the intellectual circle around Karl Kraus and Adolf Loos. He remained in Vienna during the war, but was unemployed “for racial reasons.” After graduating from the academic high school, Glück studied theater and German in Zurich and Vienna.
First directorial work in 1953
Between 1948 and 1953 he assisted at the Burgtheater in Vienna, among others, Berthold Quarter, who soon became his fatherly friend, Curd Jürgens and Walter Felsenstein. He also gained important experience with Fritz Kortner in Munich. He also passed the acting aptitude test. Glück’s first directing work, “Arsenic and Old Lace” in 1953 in Vienna’s Kellertheater am Parkring, was quickly followed by further offers.
At the same time, he worked as a radio director at the American station Rotweißrot and as an assistant director in films. In 1957 he was brought in as a permanent TV director for the newly created Austrian television. In the same year he also directed feature films for the first time. From the 1960s onwards, Glück turned more and more to literature – mainly Austrian – and he made films of Handke, Bernhard, Henisch, Bachmann and Artmann. The “Traumnovelle” (1969) with Karlheinz Böhm or the Schnitzler film adaptations “Komtesse Mizzi” and “Literature” with Christine Ostermayer, Otto Schenk and Helmuth Lohner are among the outstanding works here.
International breakthrough with “The Student Gerber”
In addition, he continued to work in the theater, including in metropolises such as Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt and from 1969 to 1975 at the Burgtheater in Vienna. He also began directing operas at the end of the 1960s, such as Gerhard Wimberger’s “Prince of Salzburg Wolf Dietrich” for the Salzburg Festival in 1987. In 1981, Glück achieved his international breakthrough with the Torberg adaptation “The Student Gerber” with Gabriel Barylli in the title role.
The nomination for the foreign Oscar six years later brought him at least two offers from Hollywood, which, according to his own statement, also failed because of his own pride. A circumstance that Glück regrets somewhat today: “I would be really ungrateful if I regretted something. I was at times the busiest director in Europe. That is of course not a criterion of quality, but the characteristic of a career. Only what interested me the most , the feature film, I mightn’t do much.” Instead, he began teaching at the film academy in 1994, which he also directed from 1997 to 2001. At the same time, from 1971 to 2003, he was also a lecturer at the Institute for Theater and Film Studies at the University of Vienna.
