Reinhard Schwabenitzky

Reinhard Schwabenitzky appeared in his first acting roles at the age of just 4 at the Municipal Theater in Sankt Pölten ("St. Pöltner Stadttheater"), under the direction of his father.

When he had time available it was assumed unquestioningly that he too should work on the farm, and during his summer school vacations he took his turn in taking the cattle to the higher pastures.

The head teacher at the school was a priest, and Reinhard Schwabenitzky found that the times that, as the son of a peasant family in the mountains, he had set aside for attending Mass, he now preferred to dedicate to cinema visits.

Without his being aware of it at the time, Reinhard Schwabenitzky's visits as a boy to his father in East Berlin did much to define the course of his later professional life.

[2] When he was 14 Reinhard Schwabenitzky started a band, but the venture was short-lived since he was sent away to school again, this time attending a large "Technical College" ("Höhere Technische Lehranstalt" / HTL) at Mödling, just outside Vienna.

[2] After his three years at Mödling he returned to Salzburg where his grandmother was still running the "Hotel Restaurant Itzlinger Hof", a responsibility which would pass down the generations only in 2003.

During summers in 1967/68 he took work as a lighting technician during the Salzburg Festival, which led to encounters with the musical stars of the day, including Herbert von Karajan, Karl Böhm, Jacqueline du Pré and Oscar Fritz Schuh.

[2] During his student years, relations with his mother's new husband were frosty, and Schwabenitzky became unwilling to accept financial support from home.

The success of this satirical piece led to a second commission, "Die Entführung einer unmuendigen Person" (loosely "The kidnapping of an irresponsible party"), a forty minute television film, and "Salz der Erde" ("Salt of the earth").

[2] With "Ein echter Wiener geh nicht unter" Schwabenitzky won the German Goldene Kamera award.

Another venture involved teaming up with the actor Helmut Fischer to produce a couple of episodes of the long-running television police-drama series Tatort.

He continued to enjoy popular success, notably with the Austrian television series Kaisermühlen Blues (1992/93) and Oben ohne (2005-2011), both of which achieved cult status.