Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus

Who is Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus?

Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus is a German film editor with 25 feature film and documentary credits. She is noted as a member of the New German Cinema movement and for her extended collaboration with director Werner Herzog.

Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus is the daughter of Hildegard and George Mainka, a bank official. She was born in the village of Vogt, near Oppeln, which was then a part of Germany. At the end of the Second World War she and her parents left Oppeln, which became part of Poland; they relocated to Ansbach. She was musically inclined, and her secondary school education from 1946 to 1951 included ballet instruction and acting; following her graduation in 1951, she attended a private film school in Wiesbaden to train as a film editor.

After schooling, Mainka worked for five months in a copy center, and became involved as an editorial assistant in the production of short documentary films by Harry Piel. In 1955, Mainka moved to Munich, where she worked at Bavaria Film as an assistant film editor, working with editor Anna Höllering on several feature films directed by Rolf Hansen. Her first credit as an editor was for the television production Ein gewisser Judas, which was the only film directed by Oskar Werner.