Born in Lower Austria, Spiehs shaped the domestic TV landscape for more than five decades and celebrated great success beyond the borders of the country with films such as “Die Supernasen” or series such as “Ein Schloss am Wörthersee”.
Karl Spiehs was born on February 20, 1931. He came into contact with the world of the stage at a young age. As a teenager, he organized smaller concerts and readings in his parents’ inn in the municipality of Ternitz, for which he was able to engage Paul Hörbiger and Hans Moser, among others. The young Spiehs gained further experience in the Renaissance theater for the Löwingerbühne and in the music recording department of the Wiener Stadthalle. In the 1950s he worked as an assistant to Franz Antel.
In the mid-1960s, Spiehs first founded his own production company, Intercontinental Film, before his final career advancement began when he joined the production company Lisa Film, founded by Paul Löwinger in Munich and still in existence today, and of which he later became the sole owner. Film and series hits such as “Always Trouble with the Timpani”, “The Super Noses”, “When the Great Aunts Come”, “A Castle on Lake Wörthersee”, “Clinic under Palm Trees” or “The Pound Guy” were created. The star parade that appeared in it ranged from Roy Black and Uschi Glas to Thomas Gottschalk and Mike Krüger to Ottfried Fischer.
Spiehs, who was responsible for more than 300 cinema and TV productions, hardly ever made a secret of the fact that harmless slapstick with a penchant for trash was his profession for the most part. In an interview, he once said that he had “no educational mission” but wanted to “produce entertainment”. Or as Thomas Gottschalk, one of the “Supernasen” main actors, once said during a laudatory speech: “He made the critics cry and the audience laugh.”
Nevertheless, or precisely because of this, the jubilee was honored with a number of prizes, including the Golden Medal of Honor for Services to the State of Vienna in 2002, the Platinum Romy for Lifetime Achievement in 2015 and the Great Medal of Honor for Services to the Republic of Austria in 2018.
Source: Nachrichten
