Herbert Birett (21.8.1934 – 24.1.2015) is well known to many researchers in film history, not only because of his two widespread reference books “Das Filmangebot in Deutschland 1895 – 1911” (1991) and “Verzeichnis in Deutschland gelaufener Filme. Entscheidungen der Filmzensur 1911–1920. Berlin, Hamburg, München, Stuttgart” (1980) which are widely used in archives, but also because of his database on silent films, which took him several decades to create and which is now part of the Siegener Kino-Datenbank. Probably less well-known are his life and his other activities.
Herbert Birett was born on 21.8.1934 in Berlin. He studied geophysics and librarianship in Frankfurt/Main. He was an active member of the Frankfurt Film Society (Filmstudio Frankfurt). Together with his brother Hartmut and his sister Edith he was among the visitors of the screenings organized by Paul Sauerlaender in his own home. For these evenings that were traditionally introduced by the host himself, the brothers wrote film historical texts which can be found on Birett’s website, today managed by his son Peter . On the website one can also find, among other things, a search function that helps to retrieve movie titles in his “Verzeichnis in Deutschland gelaufener Filme“.) In 1966 he moved to Munich, where he got his first job at the library of the Deutsches Museum before he worked from 1972 until his retirement as librarian (Bibliothekarsoberrat) for the University of the German Army in Munich-Neubiberg.
His tireless data collecting and his wanderlust made him travel in his spare time throughout Germany and the former eastern parts of the country, always on the lookout for German-language film journals in libraries and archives, which he had then microfilmed by a company in Dortmund, now and then even financing this work himself, if no institution would support it (see the lists he published in KINtop nos. 1 and 7). Sometimes it took all his persuasive powers, when archives were uninterested or, conversely, conducted themselves as jealous guardians of their treasures. Many university libraries have since bought these microfilms, often only parts. Whoever needs the whole set can get access in Neubiberg (on appointment only, but welcomed by a friendly staff).
After his retirement, he continued to collect cinema-related texts that he discovered in non-film magazines. Whether this valuable data collection is available today, is not known to us. (A summary of retrieved texts can be found at his website.) He also evaluated the cinema pages of the main German newspapers. He donated several bound volumes of these pages to the Film Museum Dusseldorf, where they can be accessed.
As one of the first film historians, he viewed the early film collection of Basel Jesuit Father Alexis Joye (called Abbé Joye) when, in the 1960s, it was still at the Borromäum, thus before it was taken to the National Film and Television Archive in England. He was particularly interested to analyze coloring and editing. He incorporated his findings into his film historical book „Lichtspiele. Der Kino in Deutschland bis 1914″ which was self-published (Q-Verlag, 1994). On the basis of the Abbé’s prints, he also studied the number of splices to learn more about the average cutting rhythm of silent movies. His curiosity was triggered, as his brother reported, when Herbert Birett, at a screening of La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc (Carl Dreyer DK 1928), asked himself why a viewer perceives a movie as slow or fast. The result of his investigations: shots of more than 3 seconds in length seem long for most spectators. Herbert Birett and his brother started a statistic analysis using a tape recorder with which they recorded raps marking every shot change. Based on these studies (film researcher will immediately think of the subsequent statistical surveys undertaken by Barry Salt and Yuri Tsivian) This led to Herbert Birett’s hypothesis that, based on the average cutting rhythm, one can identify the historical period in which a film had been produced (see Chapter 3.4.4. in “Lichtspiele”). Early on, he was also interested in film music and published in 1970 his “Stummfilm-Musik” in the series of the Deutsche Kinemathek (today German Filmmuseum) in Berlin.
Little known are his commitment to investigations into the so-called “Aryanization” of Jewish property during the Third Reich. He noted in his computer the official announcements of acts of dispossession in the newspapers, because the commercial register entries revealed who had taken over what, when and from whom. For years he tried to find someone willing to acquire his lists, but even Jewish institutions were not at all interested. Nevertheless up to his death he received almost weekly calls and e-mails of descendants who asked him for information about what had happened to their family’s property. Herbert Birett never refused to help, as one of its many positive traits was his generosity: He shared his knowledge and data always with others. Furthermore, and also based on his meticulous studies of newspapers as well as traditional documents held at the „Zentralpolizeistelle zur Bekämpfung Unzüchtiger Bilder, Schriften und Inserate bei dem Preußischen Polizeipräsidium in Berlin“, he published his 4-volume reference book “Verzeichnis verbotener Druckschriften in Deutschland 1870 bis 1933”, published in 1987-1996 by Topos-Verlag (Vaduz). For the two volumes of forbidden “Polish publications” he collaborated with a Polish historian, which not only shows his interest in other cultures, but identifies him above all as a team player.
Two other facets of his personality should be mentioned, too. As an avid square dancer he, together with his wife, gave dancing lesson in Munich and can be considered the mentor of several Munich Square Dance groups. As a practicing catholic he was engaged in activities of his parish St. Willibald and published in 2003 his ideas about “What makes a marriage ‘Christian’?” (“Was macht eine Ehe „christlich“? Versuch einer Ortsbestimmung aus der Ehepraxis”).
Herbert Birett was a really unusual person. He fell positively “out of the frame” through his various interests. “One has not only one hobby,” he used to say. We – the editors of KINtop – thank him as a friend and as an author, as he shared with us many interesting ideas, gave practical advice and supported our study of early film by generously sharing his extraordinarily rich collection of film sources.