Werner Kissling

Werner Kissling (* 1895 in Breslau, † 1988 in Dumfries, Scotland ) was a German photographer, filmmaker and emigrant who lived during the Second World War in Britain.

With his mother, he toured as a 10 -year-old, the Hebrides and St Kilda. In Berlin and Königsberg, he studied law. He was a member of the German delegation to the League of Nations and held as a diplomat of the German Empire extended period of time in Spain, Hungary, Switzerland and England.

After several visits to the Scottish islands Kissling was 1933 on the security of a diplomatic career and devoted himself since the photograph, the art of film and anthropology. He held in 1934 for a few weeks on the then relatively unknown Hebridean island of Eriskay, and described it in his notebook and his cameras. His 19 minutes continuous tone film Eriskay - A Poem of Remote Lives is considered a major document of film history, standing next to another classic of early Scottish cinemas, Jenny Gilbertson ( Brown) also turned 1934 on the Shetlands: The Rugged Iceland.

After completion of filming Kissling returned to London. He maintained there good relations with the Royal Geographical Society, the University of Cambridge and the English upper classes. Under the patronage of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, had his film premiere on April 30, 1935. The presentation was attended by, among others, the Marquis of Londonderry, the Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and the Duke and Duchess of York. The proceeds were used to finance the first road on Eriskay. Kissling was still often after Eriskay and stood up for the interests of the islanders, so among other things, for the expansion of the road network and the improvement of water supply. A built on his initiative street is now called in Gaelic Rathad Kissling ( " Kissling Street ").