Ich will unsterblich werden!

Friederike Beer-Monti: From a fun-loving artist groupie of the 1920s in Vienna to a recognised gallery owner.Like a whirlwind she hits the Viennese artist scene of the 1920s: Friederike Maria Beer (1891-1980). The daughter of the owner of the famous Kaiserbar takes acting lessons, becomes a living model for the dresses of the "Wiener Werkstätte". "Fritzi" falls in love with the industrialist's son and painter Hans Böhler, with whom she shares a lifelong friendship and working relationship. At the age of seventeen she posed for him in his painting "Standing Female Nude". In 1914 and 1916 Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt painted portraits of her; a planned painting by Kokoschka fell victim to the events of the war. Her heart, however, is captured by the Italian captain Emanuele Monti - she follows him to the island of Procida in the Gulf of Naples. But the island soon becomes too small for the young woman and the marriage fails. The encounter with the American student Hugh Stix changes her life: In the mid-1930s, Federica emigrates to New York. There she runs the "Artists' Gallery" founded by Stix until 1962, which discovers and promotes Willem de Kooning, Louise Nevelson, Ad Reinhardt and others. And not only that - as a gallery owner, Beer-Monti helps Austrian artists such as Max Oppenheimer to emigrate to the USA, fleeing from the Nazis.Equipment: 4 pages of colour pictures.