Vagabund

Around half a million vagabonds were travelling in Austria and Germany at the end of the 1920s. Georg Gog is considered the ‘king of vagabonds’. He founded his own association in 1927 and published the first street newspaper. In 1930, director Fritz Weiß created a small film monument to the movement, with Gog himself appearing in a supporting role. In April 1933, the Gestapo arrested Georg Gog. He manages to escape from the concentration camp to the Soviet Union, where he commits suicide in 1945. As far as we know at present, only copies of the Dutch distribution version have survived. This version also forms the basis for the restoration of the Filmarchiv Austria. Although much shorter than the Austrian version, it emphasises the demands that ‘Neuer Film’ placed on its own work and is an example of the socially critical cinema of the silent film era, in which the boundaries between reality and fiction are blurred. (Ernst Kieninger/Florian Wrobel)

New restoration of the Filmarchiv Austria, 2025

With an introduction by Florian Wrobel. Live musical accompaniment by Heidi Fial & Chris Janka