The Globetrotter of the Cinema

Karl Baumgartner was born in Bruneck, South Tyrol (Italy), on the 3rd of january 1949. Still in his school days he liked to hitch to the cinemas of Munich and to festivals. At the end of the sixties he worked in Rome as assistant director and film critic. In the seventies he came to Frankfurt, his head full of politics, soccer and film. "Baumi", as everybody called him with love and respect, was at home everywhere, a "cosmopolitan of the world cinema". His curiosity was inexhaustable, he looked for filmprojects beyond all frontiers and made them possible. Concerning cinematic art, hardly anyone was as infectively enthusiastic as him. He connected cinematic cultures and political worlds without official legitimation but by emotional diplomacy. He was always approachable, by word or football, passionate soccerplayer that he was. The multilaterale producer as reliable midfield maestro and "midwife of the film", as he called himself. On the 18th of march 2014, one of the world cinema's most iridescent producers died.