THE KAISER AND THE MAN WITH THE CAMERA: MESSTER FILMS WILHELM ZWO
Today in Berlin: May 4, 1897
On this day in 1897 in Stettin (now Szczecin in Poland) a Berlin filmmaker, inventor and, for many, the legitimate father of German cinema industry, Oskar Messter, became the first person ever to have captured Kaiser Wilhelm II on film.
At the Vulcan Warf in Stettin German Emperor attended the launching of a ship - not just any ship, mind you. His Imperial Highness came to witness the launching of S.S. “Kaiser Wilhelm der Große”, a magnificent vessel, which would go on to cross the Atlantic winning the Blue Riband and inspire the British Cunard Line and British Admiralty to build two new and rather famous ships, “Mauretania” and “Lusitania”.
