Biography
Karl Attenberger (28 October 1885 – 19 November 1951) was a German cinematographer. Born in Munich, he trained as a photographer at the Technische Hochschule München and began working in film as a camera assistant in 1906. He became a principal cinematographer in 1917 and worked extensively on silent films and later features, often for Bavarian companies such as Emelka.
He is credited as one of the cinematographers on Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will (1935). Attenberger frequently worked on Heimatfilme and adaptations of Ludwig Ganghofer novels, including The Hunter of Fall (1936) and Hubertus Castle (1934). He was the brother of director and producer Toni Attenberger.
In 1940 Attenberger was imprisoned for six months after critical remarks about the Nazi regime and was excluded from the Reichsfilmkammer until 1942; thereafter he worked mainly on short advertising films and two fairy-tale adaptations before resuming limited feature work after the war.
