Heinz Rühmann Net Worth in 2023 Career & Relationship

Estimated value:	€2 million
Age:	92
Born:	03/07/1902
Died:	10/03/1994
Country of origin:	Germany
Source of Wealth:	actor
Last updated:	2021

Short introduction

Heinz Rühmann is one of the most famous German actors of all time. He is best known for his comedic lead roles, in which he satirized the male superheroes commonly seen on screens.

About Rühmann’s Net Worth it can be said that early in his career he was one of the best-earning German actors of his time. He got an exclusive contract with the film company UFA, did advertising and recorded successful records as a singer. In addition to a large villa in Potsdam, his status symbols included numerous sports cars and his own airplane.

early life

Heinz Rühmann was born in Essen in 1902. His parents ran a station restaurant. There he had his first appearances in front of the guests at a young age, reciting poems from the bar. Rühmann enjoyed the subsequent applause so much that he decided early on to become an actor one day.

After the first few years of his life had passed happily, Rühmann suffered a stroke of fate at the age of 13 as a result of his parents’ bankruptcy. While his father took his own life, Rühmann moved to Munich with his mother because of the lower cost of living at the time. Nevertheless, the family remained acutely threatened by poverty.

However, the precarious situation was no reason for Rühmann to give up his acting plans. While neglecting school, he invested his time in rehearsals and performances with a Munich amateur drama group. After several attempts, he managed to get lessons from the renowned drama teacher Friedrich Basil.

Career

After just six weeks of acting lessons, Rühmann was hired by the Lobe Theater in Breslau in 1919 for a monthly fee of 80 marks. There, Rühmann struggled with his short stature and boyish looks, which made it impossible for him to embody the role of the male hero credibly. As a result, the reviews were so bad that he soon left Breslau again.

After a stint at the Residenztheater in Hanover, Rühmann was hired at the Bremen Theater, where he had his first major success in 1922 with the comedy “Der Mustergatte”. Audiences were so enthralled that he was allowed to play the role over 2000 times over the next thirty years of his life. In 1937, the film adaptation of the play became a box-office hit.

Despite the success, there was a quarrel with the management of the Bremen Theater in the year of the premiere. Because of the ongoing economic crisis, it took some time for Rühmann to find a new employer in the Munich Kammerspiele. Here, too, he shone, especially in comic roles.

At the end of the 1920s, Rühmann was offered more and more film roles. His big breakthrough finally came with a leading role in “The Three from the Gas Station” (1930), which became the most successful film of the year with 4.3 million Reichsmarks. Other successful films followed, such as “Burglar” or “The Man Who is Looking for His Murderer”.

During the Nazi era, Rühmann briefly went astray. He wanted to be close to influential Nazis and separated from his Jewish wife. However, he remained true to his comic roles and did not allow himself to be misused as a figurehead for Nazi ideology.

After the war and a successful “denazification”, Rühmann first toured Germany with a small theater group. However, he did not make his comeback as a film actor until the 1950s. Again, it was primarily entertainment films in which he excelled.

Career highlights

The highlight of Heinz Rühmann’s career are the Pater Brown films “The Black Sheep” (1960) and “He Can’t Help It” (1962). They represent the culmination of Rühmann’s comeback after the Nazi era. Both films are still very popular with the public today.

Famous quotes

“An optimist is someone who thinks everything is half as bad or twice as good.”
“All women are masters of the whispered wish list.”
“Sorrow doesn’t drown in alcohol. They can swim.”

Amazing Facts

At Rühmann’s wedding to Maria Bernheim, he replaced the wedding celebration with the ceremonial premiere of the play “The Adults”.

As a hobby pilot, Rühmann was an ardent admirer of the pilot legend Ernst Udet, who was famous for his dogfights in the First World War. In his villa, Rühmann had his own “Fliegerzimmer”, the walls of which were hung with photos of his flights together with Udet

When the film “Feuerzangenbowle” (1943) was to be banned by the Nazi Ministry of Culture because of defamation of the teaching staff, Rühmann traveled to the Führer’s headquarters “Wolfsschanze” for a private special screening. After the demonstration in the presence of Hermann Göring, the ban was lifted

In 1966, Rühmann received the Great Federal Cross of Merit

Estimated value:	€2 million