Trivia

Father of Johanna Liebeneiner.

From the 60's he worked nearly exclusively for television and he also directed first serials - normally for the ZDF.

He made his film debut in 1931 with "Die andere Seite" (1931) and became a popular actor, an activity he practiced regularly till 1936.

In 1941, he directed the film Ich klage an (I accuse) in cooperation with the National Socialist Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. The film was about voluntary euthanasia of a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis, but was intended to support the T4 euthanasia program.

From 1936 he worked as a director, as an actor he only appeared sporadically.

In the post-war period he was still successful as a director, with the actresses Hilde Krahl or Ruth Leuwerik in the leading roles.

Wolfgang Liebeneiner made a great career till the end of war, both in film business and at the theater, and was convincing as a director of many feature movies.

In 1928, he was taught by Otto Falckenberg, the director of the Munich Kammerspiele, in acting and directing.

Some of his movies of those time give rise to discussion relating to the propaganda machinery at that time. Besides the movies "Bismarck" (1940) and "Die Entlassung/Schicksalswende" (1942) it is especially "Ich klage an" (1942), which is connected as a negative association to his career. This movie uses the homicide on request to justify the euthanasia.

His daughter Johanna Liebeneiner from the marriage with actress Hilde Krahl became an actress too.

In 1936, Liebeneiner became a member of the Prussian State Theater (Preußisches Staatstheater) in Berlin and in 1938, he became artistic director of the German Film Academy Babelsberg (Deutsche Filmakademie Babelsberg).

The actor and director Wolfgang Liebeneiner managed his acting breakthrough with the engagement at the Munich Kammerspiele in 1928. In the following years he became established at the theater and he also directed some plays from 1931.

In 1956 he was successful with the film The Trapp Family based on the memoirs 'The Story of the Trapp Family Singers' by Maria von Trapp. A West German film that would go on to inspire 'The Sound of Music' (1965).

He received a doctorate in the years from 1942 to 1945 while working for Universum Film AG, the largest German film studio at that time.