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Not Afraid of Big Animals

1953 film by Ulrich Erfurth

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 4, 2026
Entity authorityQ17576772 ↗
Source-derived summary

Not Afraid of Big Animals (German: Keine Angst vor großen Tieren) is a 1953 West German comedy film directed by Ulrich Erfurth and starring Heinz Rühmann, Ingeborg Körner and Gustav Knuth. It is a circus film and a remake of the French film Le Dompteur (1938). It was shot at the Wandsbek Studios of Real Film in Hamburg. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Albrecht Becker and Herbert Kirchhoff.

Main cast

Heinz Rühmann as Emil Keller

Ingeborg Körner as Anni

Gustav Knuth as Schimmel

Maria Paudler as Frau Müller

Gisela Trowe as Emma

Werner Fuetterer as Bollmann

Jakob Tiedtke as Zirkusdirektor

Erich Ponto as Polizeikommissar

Josef Sieber as Polizist

Willy Maertens as Lawyer Immelmann

Albert Florath as Ziegler

Margarete Slezak as Frau Richter

Ursula Herking as Dame in Straßenbahn

Hubert von Meyerinck as Kunstreiter

Bruno Fritz as Herr Richter

Beppo Brem as Schornsteinfeger / Chimney sweeper

Carl Napp as Herr mit Koffer

Wolfgang Neuss as Zauberkünstler

Carl Voscherau as Mann in Straßenbahn

Josef Dahmen as Schwerer Junge

Ruth Stephan as Partnerin des Zauberkünstlers

Max Schmeling as Zuschauer

References

Bibliography

Bock, Hans-Michael & Bergfelder, Tim. The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopaedia of German Cinema. Berghahn Books, 2009.

Editorial summary

“Not Afraid of Big Animals” enters the record as 1953 film by Ulrich Erfurth. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Afraid, Animals and film can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA productive route into publication, performance and collection histories when the underlying object or edition remains clearly identified. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1953, 1938, 2009—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1953. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Afraid, Animals and film.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Not Afraid of Big Animals” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Afraid, Animals and film provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q17576772. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1953, 1938 and 2009.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Not Afraid of Big Animals”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Not Afraid of Big Animals primary sources, Not Afraid of Big Animals archive and Afraid research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Not Afraid of Big Animals”?
  2. Where is authorship, date or provenance documented?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Not Afraid of Big Animals” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.