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Schimanski was a master of time-lapse and micro-cinematography. Working primarily for FWU, a German company, his films were distributed by U.S. companies such as Benchmark, and Encyclopaedia Britannica. We thank his daughter Swetlana for compiling and fowarding the following a biography and filmography… Georg Schimanski was born at the 13.th of October 1919 as the 2nd child of the married-couple Maria and August Schimanski in Allenstein/East-Prussia. He grow up with an elder sister and three younger brothers. 1924 the family moved to Königsberg/East-Prussia. There he went to school and started in 1936 a mercantile apprenticeship in the " Photographic materials and cinema special Shop – Schilling", against the wishes of his parents, who wanted him to become a Catholic priest. During his education he met Heinz Sielmann, who made his first film " Vögel über Haff und Wiesen" in 1936 , and the foundation stone for his working life was laid. 1939 he was called up to the military service. In 1944 he was wounded, taken prisoner of war by the Red Army, and released in the summer of 1945. On the 27th of April 1946 he married Rosemarie Schwede. A short time later he again met Heinz Sielmann and worked as his operative cameraman on many biological films until 1960 for the FWU ( Institut für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht) In 1960 he became independent and worked as producer, cameraman and editor. In 1965 he started to built his own studio. Over the years he became more and more specialist in micro-, macro- and time-lapse photography. In his little studio he made nearly everything by himself, the shooting script, camera, sound recording, editing, text and synchronization. Often he broke new ground to make a film run (e.g.. micro-time laps), so he made a lot of technical equipment after his imagination. He shot all his films on 35mm and was working with ARRI- cameras but also, on his microscopes and time lapse shots, with a very old Askanias . In September 1987 his wife Rosemarie died unexpected suddenly and he couldn’t go over the shock really, because his wife enabled him to do his work in his way over all the years. With the help from his daughter Swetlana he made, through 1991, three more films, and died on the 23.rd of March 1992. In his working life he was co-worker, cameraman or producer of nearly 100 films, a large part awarded with national and international prizes.
Filmographie 1948 – 1960 operative cameraman / cutter of Heinz Sielmann for the FWU (Institut für Film und Bild in Wissenschaft und Unterricht) Lied der Wildbahn (Song of the hunting ground)
1961/62 Director-cameraman Der Alexanderzug ( The conquest expedition of Alexander the Great) filmed in Greece, Turkey, Iran, Iraque, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan for the "Freies Deutsches Fernsehen" under the chaimanship of Prof. E. Boehringer 1961 –1964 Editing- and synchronisationworks for the FWU: Auf amerikanischen Straßen (On American Roads) 1968/69 Dachau. Production, editing, synchronisation and co-narrator. Historic documentary material about the Dachau concentration-camp, Shot by American cameramen 1945
1962 Auf einem Hühnerhof (On a poultry yard)
1980 Ein Baum ( A tree )
He made also 45 minutes versions of the following films: „Kugelschneller und Leichenfinger" unknown fungi
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