He was one of the most successful film and television directors in Austria and made TV history with “Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter” in the 1970s and with the “Kaisermühlen Blues” in the 1990s. The cult director died today (February 9) following a long illness at the age of 74, as his son Markus Schwabenitzky told the APA.
The Sackbauers as the first big TV success
Reinhard Schwabenitzky was born on April 23, 1947 in the family inn in Bucheben near Rauris (Salzburg). He experienced a childhood marked by deprivation, but a happy one. The first years of school without electricity or the arduous journey to school down the mountain and back up would have given him “elbows” early on, Schwabenitzky recalls. “You learn to persevere here. I urgently needed this in order to cope with this shallow, superficial, scheming industry.”
Schwabenitzky gained his first experience as an actor as a child, when he worked at the Stadttheater St. Pölten in productions of his father, the future Burgtheater director Gerhard Klingenberg. When he was six years old, his parents divorced and his father moved to Berlin to work as a director in the Babelsberg film studios. Regular visits to filming and a first small role in a television play by Klingenberg aroused the twelve-year-old Schwabenitzky’s enthusiasm for the film.
After an interlude at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, he studied cinematography and directing at today’s Film Academy in Vienna and assisted Franz Antel, Axel Corti, Otto Schenk and Bernhard Wicki. Even before completing his studies, the first major TV success came in 1975: from 1975 to 1979, Schwabenitzky staged six episodes of the series classic “A real Viennese does not go down” around the rumbling Viennese proletarian Mundl Sackbauer, played by Karl Merkatz. At the same time, the first television films such as “Sister Martha Renounces Her Happiness” and “The Debut” were made, in which the future Oscar winner Christoph Waltz got his first role.
Entertainment with attitude
After friction with Mundl author Ernst Hinterberger, Schwabenitzky turned his back on Vienna for the time being and moved to Munich. During the filming of the series “Parole Chicago” with Waltz as a would-be crook, he met actress Elfi Eschke, who would soon become his wife and the main actress in almost all future productions. For example, she appeared in series hits such as “Büro, Büro” and “Tour de Ruhr” as well as in cinema successes such as “Der Doppelgänger” (1983) and “Der Experte” (1987) with Didi Hallervorden. With Andreas Vitasek, she formed the love couple in the “Flingsprung” trilogy from the mid-90s.
In between, Schwabenitzky also staged outside the field of comedy, shooting the “Tatort” episode “The Power of Fate” in regarding 1987. He mostly felt misunderstood by critics, who dismissed his films as “light comedies”. In fact, social criticism often resonated with Schwabenitzky, the hit movie “Ilona & Kurti” addressed xenophobia, for example, and his thriller “Hannah”, which was also shown in the USA, dealt with the flaring right-wing populism.
From director to novelist
In addition to an increased focus on cinema, Schwabenitzky landed an audience hit in the 90s with another series from Hinterberger’s pen: “Kaisermühlen Blues” was located in the Vienna district of the same name and helped Marianne Mendt and Gerald Pichowetz, among others, to increased attention.
Despite his Viennese cult series, Schwabenitzky has never warmed up with the federal capital. He preferred to live with his wife in the Salzburg Flachgau, where he also ran the hotel-restaurant “Itzlinger Hof” and ran the production company Star-Film together with his two sons Markus and Lucas. And he went among the authors. In 2018, the passionate artist published his novel “Silent Night and the Secret of the Magic Flute” (Tyrolia Verlag).
Appreciation
“With the ‘Real Viennese’, the native of Salzburg created a figure that was not inferior in popularity and explosiveness to dear Augustin,” Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) responded to Schwabenitzky’s death. The director managed “the balancing act between entertainment and attitude, between criticism and humor. That was probably Schwabenitzky’s recipe for success, and that’s what made his feature films and TV series so timelessly durable”. “The fact that he passed away shortly before his 75th birthday – on which he would certainly have been extensively celebrated and honored – makes me very sad,” said the head of the city. “His work will never perish.”
ORF General Director Roland Weißmann praised Schwabenitzky as a “personality who, among other things, has not only written ORF history with ‘A real Viennese does not go under’ or the ‘Kaisermühlen Blues’, but has also shaped a piece of Austrian contemporary history.” Schwabenitzky always entertained his audience well, but also inspired them to think. “He will not be forgotten by ORF and his audience,” assured ORF Program Director Stefanie Groiss-Horowitz.
“The many works he has left us allow Reinhard Schwabenitzky to live on as part of Austrian film culture even beyond today’s sad day. My thoughts are with his family and friends,“stressed State Secretary for Art and Culture Andrea Mayer (Greens). “Mundl” or “Kaisermühlenblues” – true “street sweepers” are an indispensable part of Austrian filmmaking and enjoy cult status, “rightly and in the best sense of the word”.