16 Facts About Luis Trenker

Alois Franz Trenker was born on 4 October 1892 in Urtijei, Tyrol in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Luis Trenker's father Jacob Trenker was a painter from North Tyrol, and his mother Karolina was from Urtijei in Val Gardena.

Luis Trenker grew up speaking two languages: German, the language of his father, and Ladin, the language of his mother.

Luis Trenker attended the local primary school from 1898 to 1901, and then attended the Josefinum in Bolzano in 1902 and 1903.

At the start of World War I, Luis Trenker fought as a cadet in an Austro-Hungarian heavy artillery unit on the Eastern Front in Galicia and Russisch-Polen.

Luis Trenker would write 23 books based on his war experiences, the most important of which were Fort Rocca Alta and Berge in Flammen, the latter of which was made into the 1931 film Mountains on Fire.

In 1924, Luis Trenker participated in the Winter Olympic Games in Chamonix as a member of the Italian five-man bobsled team.

The main actor could not perform the stunts required, and so Luis Trenker assumed the leading role.

Luis Trenker gradually assumed more roles on the set, and by 1928 was directing, writing, and starring in his own films.

In 1932 Trenker created a historical film The Rebel.

Luis Trenker stated that the film's plotline of a Tyrolean mountaineer Severin Anderlan leading a revolt against occupying French forces in 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars.

Luis Trenker was designed to mirror what was happening in contemporary Germany as it rejected the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

However, Luis Trenker refused to allow his work to be subverted as such and eventually moved to Rome in 1940 to avoid further governmental pressure.

Luis Trenker was accused of fascist opportunism after the war, but the charges were eventually dropped.

Luis Trenker died on 13 April 1990 in Bolzano at the age 97.

Luis Trenker was buried in his family's plot at Urtijei.