Hans Hannes

The songwriter, screenwriter and director Hans Hellmut Zerlett began his career as a theatre actor, which was interrupted by a short deployment as a soldier during the First World War. In the course of the 20's he concentrated more and more on writing and he wrote pop lyrics and revues. Finally he was able to realise his first screenplay for the film "Höhere Töchter" (27), which was followed by others for "Der erste Kuss" (28), "Saxophon-Susi" (28), "Vererbte Triebe" (29) and "Der Mann, der nicht liebt" (29). In the 30's he became a busy scriptwriter of many well-known movies. From 1934 Hans H. Zerlett also realised numerous movies as a director. Hans Hellmut Zerlett was a member of the NSDAP and was therefore arrested by the Russian People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs in 1946 and brought to the special camp Jamlitz. Several prisoner transports followed, taking him to Mühlberg and then to Buchenwald in 1949. There he died of tuberculosis under the poor prison conditions. Hans Hellmut Zerlett also used the pseudonym Hans Hannes during his career. His brother was the screenwriter Walter Zerlett-Olfenius.