Bernd Eichinger
German film producer, screenwriter, and director (1949– 2011)
title: "Bernd Eichinger" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["bernd-eichinger", "1949-births", "2011-deaths", "people-from-neuburg-an-der-donau", "mass-media-people-from-bavaria", "university-of-television-and-film-munich-alumni", "recipients-of-the-cross-of-the-order-of-merit-of-the-federal-republic-of-germany", "lionsgate-people"] description: "German film producer, screenwriter, and director (1949– 2011)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernd_Eichinger" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary German film producer, screenwriter, and director (1949– 2011) ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Bernd Eichinger |
| image | Eichinger Bernd (cropped).jpg |
| caption | Eichinger in 1997 |
| birth_date | |
| birth_place | Neuburg an der Donau, Bavaria, occupied Germany |
| death_date | |
| death_place | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| occupation | |
| yearsactive | 1972–2010 |
| domesticpartner | Jane Seitz (1980s) |
| Katja Flint (1990s) | |
| Corinna Harfouch (1999–2004) | |
| spouse | |
| children | Nina Eichinger |
| :: |
| name = Bernd Eichinger | image = Eichinger Bernd (cropped).jpg | imagesize = | caption = Eichinger in 1997 | birthname = | birth_date = | birth_place = Neuburg an der Donau, Bavaria, occupied Germany | death_date = | death_place = Los Angeles, California, U.S. | occupation = | yearsactive = 1972–2010 | domesticpartner = Jane Seitz (1980s) Katja Flint (1990s) Corinna Harfouch (1999–2004) | spouse = | children = Nina Eichinger
Bernd Eichinger (; 11 April 194924 January 2011) was a German film producer, screenwriter, and director.
Life and career
Eichinger was born in Neuburg an der Donau. He attended the University of Television and Film Munich in the 1970s and bought a stake in the fledgling studio company Neue Constantin Film in 1979, becoming its executive director. Under his leadership, Constantin Film evolved into one of the most successful German film businesses. As of 2005, he was chairman of the supervisory board and still owned a substantial stake in the company. Eichinger also produced some movies independently (for example, Downfall).
The range of genres of films, for television and the big screen, was unusually varied. He produced a 3D zombie movie, Resident Evil: Afterlife; to Atomised, a film adaptation of novel by French star writer and social critic Michel Houellebecq. He was an incredibly prolific film maker, with almost 100 films to his credit.
Eichinger was known as tenacious. It took him 20 years to convince Patrick Süskind, the German author of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, to trust him with the rights to make the international bestseller into a film. In 2006, the film was released, grossing $135 million worldwide.
In the 1980s, Eichinger obtained the film rights to the Fantastic Four and Silver Surfer, decades before making movies based on Marvel comics was trending.
In 1991, he was a co-founder of Summit, the Los Angeles-based production and film sales company. Due to the success of Twilight, Summit eventually became Summit Entertainment.
Family
::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/43/Bernd_Eichinger_and_Katja_Hofmann_(Berlin_Film_Festival_2008).jpg" caption="Eichinger with his wife Katja in 2008"] ::
Eichinger was married to Katja Hofmann, a journalist. He had a daughter from a previous relationship, Nina Eichinger, an actress and TV presenter.
Death
Eichinger died of a heart attack in Los Angeles on 24 January 2011 during dinner with family and friends. He was 61.
Awards
- 1984 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Producing
- 1986 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Producing
- 1993 Bavarian Film Awards, Best Producing
Selected filmography
Bernd Eichinger's best known films include: ::data[format=table]
References
References
- One of Eichinger's last films was about the [[far left. left-wing]] terrorist group [[Red Army Faction]] (RAF) and based on the book ''[[Der Baader Meinhof Komplex]]'' ("''The [[Andreas Baader. Baader]]-[[Ulrike Meinhof. Meinhof]] Complex''") by [[Stefan Aust]].{{in lang. de "Der Eichinger-Komplex" in ''Jungle World'', 22 February 2006. ISSN 1613-0766.
- (25 January 2011). "European Film World Reacts to Death of German Producer Bernd Eichinger". The Hollywood Reporter.
- Bergan, Ronald. (30 January 2011). "Bernd Eichinger". The Guardian.
- (25 January 2011). "German filmmaker Bernd Eichinger dies at 61". Reuters.
- (25 January 2011). "Produzent Bernd Eichinger gestorben". Spiegel Online.
- "Bayerischer Filmpreis - "Pierrot"".
- (4 May 1990). "Last Exit to Brooklyn". Rolling Stone.
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::