- During the National Socialist period, Fanck got in trouble with propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, since he refused to cooperate - apparently because of the necessity of joining the party. In 1934, he also began working on his film, Der ewige Traum/Der König vom Mont-Blanc, which not only starred a French hero in French mountains, but also had a Jewish producer, Gregor Rabinowitsch. This conflict brought Fanck into economic difficulties, from which he was only able to escape by accepting a contract from the Japanese ministry of culture in 1936.
- He was characterized as a martinet by a number of actors he directed, including Leni Riefenstahl. His actors often suffered bruises, cuts and injuries as a result of being in some of his films, especially the "mountain" films. In one instance Riefenstahl was hauled halfway up a cliff and "buried" by an avalanche triggered by Fanck having dynamite exploded on the mountain above her. There were no stand-ins in Fanck's vocabulary. Riefenstahl even complained about having bruises for several months after the making of The White Hell of Pitz Palu (1929) (aka 'The White Hell of Piz Palu'). Notwithstanding this, working conditions on some of Fanck's films were mitigated by having the more humane Georg Wilhelm Pabst as a co-director.
- After the screening of his film Der ewige Traum at the mountain film festival in Trento in 1957, Fanck was once again recognized for his artistic achievements. In order to survive his economic difficulties, however, he was forced to sell the rights to his films to a friend, until TV broadcasts improved his situation.
- Fanck, who held a PhD in geology, directed mountain films, sports films and ski films. He was assisted by Sepp Allgeier, a cameraman who later worked with Leni Riefenstahl, and worked mostly in the Alps in locations such as the Engadine, Zermatt and the Arlberg and on mountains such as Mont Blanc and Piz Palü.
- Arnold Fanck was not able to revive his film career after the war, interested parties failed to come.
- After the final examination of his education died his father in 1906 and the family went to Freiburg where Arnold Fanck discovered skiing for himself and with it the fascination of nature he explored as a climber and photographer.
- Fanck was not only a director but also was a producer, writer, editor and sometimes a cinematographer for his movies.
- With The Daughter of the Samurai and other "culture films", Fanck decided to cooperate with the Nazi regime.
- After the First World War he earned his money as a carpet trader and was able to afford his first film camera. The cinematographer Sepp Allgeier introduced him into this technique.
- After World War II, Fanck's main films of the National Socialist period were proscribed by the Allied military governments. Fanck received no further job offers and went to work as a lumberjack.
- During the childhood of Arnold Fanck there was no hint for his future career. As a child he suffered from asthma, later he got tuberculosis.
- Although Arnold Fanck refused to become a member of the NSDAP 1933 he was able to continue his work in Germany. Only in 1940 he had to give to the pressure and became a member.
- During World War I he first served as a first-aid man, later he came to the forging department of the German intelligence service where he worked with photographic gadgets. He also developed some of them.
- As a pioneer of the open-air filming and mountain movies Arnold Fanck went down in the German film history.
- In 1920 Fanck founded together with Dr. Deodatus Tauern the Berg- and Sportfilm GmbH Freiburg, also a member of the company was Sepp Allgeier who shot Arnold Fanck's first movies.
- The director Arnold Fanck made a name a a filmmaker of mountain movies from the 20's, a genre which was created by him.
- When he was obliged for the Volkssturm (a German national militia of the last months of World War II. ) in 1945 he fled from Berlin and lived in Freiburg.
- Arnold Fanck changed from the feature films to documentaries from the middle of the 30's. After the movie "Der ewige Traum" (1934) and the documentary "Höchstleistungen im Skilauf" (1935) he went to Japan and South America where he made documentaries.
- Luis Trenker made his film debut with Fanck's "Der Berg des Schicksals" (1924). He later became a very popular movie star in the 30's with his own mountain movies and his popularity continued till his death. Beside Luis Trenker there was another future world star for whom Arnold Fanck paved the way - Leni Riefenstahl.
- His shootings were often entailed with great strains - not only for the technicians but also for the actors who were demanded till to their boundaries - which required a good physical condition.
- Fanck died on 28 September 1974 in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, at the age of 85. He is buried in the Hauptfriedhof in Freiburg.
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