Hans Otto

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Memorial plaque for Hans Otto on the house where he was born, Frühlingstrasse 12 in Dresden
Stolperstein , Hansa-Ufer 5, in Berlin-Moabit
Stumbling stone at the birthplace in Dresden, Frühlingstrasse 12
Hans Otto's tombstone in the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf

Hans Otto (born August 10, 1900 in Dresden , † November 24, 1933 in Berlin ) was a German actor . As one of the first left-wing artists, he was murdered by the National Socialists .

Life

At school Otto attended the same class as Erich Kästner . In 1921 he made his debut at the Art Theater in Frankfurt am Main under the artistic director Adam Kuckhoff , with whom he was friends from then on (and later also as a family member as the stepfather of Armin-Gerd Kuckhoff ). On October 16, 1922 Otto married the actress Mie Paulun , who had previously been married to Adam Kuckhoff.

In 1924 Otto joined the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). From 1924 to 1926 he worked in Gera under the artistic director Walter Bruno Iltz and from 1926 to 1929 at the Hamburger Kammerspiele . In Berlin he had engagements at the Lessing Theater , the Deutsches Schauspielhaus and most recently in 1930 at the State Theater on Gendarmenmarkt . He was considered an ideal cast for youthful heroes and lovers. He played in 1929 in Karl May's piece "Winnetou, the red gentleman" the Winnetou at the theater in Hradec Kralove Street ; Ludwig Körner gave the Old Shatterhand .

He declined the offer to work in the film Fridericus Rex for political reasons. One of the few films in which he participated is the UFA production The Stolen Face , a detective film from 1930 in which he played the lead role Bill Breithen , directed by Erich Schmidt .

In 1930, Hans Otto Chairman of the Berlin branch of the Workers Theater federal and steward of the union of the German stage members (GDBA) . At the Prussian State Theater he played in the premiere of Faust II (January 21, 1933) together with Gustaf Gründgens and Werner Krauss .

In February 1933 Otto was fired according to the guidelines of the Nazi cultural policy. He gave his last performance on May 23, 1933. Soon after, he withdrew into illegal political activity. He did not accept an offer from Max Reinhardt to move to Vienna.

On November 14, 1933, the SA arrested the KPD member Otto in a restaurant on Viktoria-Luise-Platz in Berlin, in order to take him to the Café Komet in Stralau-Rummelsburg, where there were other arrested persons. There he was severely ill-treated during interrogation. Then he was transported to Köpenick . Despite his wounds, Otto offered consolation and encouragement to fellow inmates there. He was then deported to an SA quarters in Möllendorffstrasse , from there to Gestapo headquarters in Prinz-Albrecht-Strasse and later to Vossstrasse 11 , the headquarters of the NSDAP Gauleitung in Berlin. Here Otto was rushed from the third floor after an interrogation, in which a suicide was supposed to be faked. On November 24, 1933, he died of his injuries in the Berlin police hospital. Joseph Goebbels forbade the announcement of his death and participation in the funeral, which was paid for by Gustaf Gründgens. After the war, Gerhard Hinze , who was arrested with him, described the last days of imprisonment and the suffering of Hans Otto.

Hans Otto is buried in the Wilmersdorfer Waldfriedhof Stahnsdorf . The grave has been an honorary burial site for the State of Berlin since August 14, 2018.

Honors

  • Klaus Mann alluded to Hans Otto in his 1936 novel Mephisto with the figure of Otto Ulrichs.
  • The Potsdamer Schauspielhaus has been called the Hans Otto Theater since 1952 .
  • Since 1967, the Leipzig Theater Academy has borne the honorary name of Hans Otto . It was dissolved in 1992. Today the drama institute of the University of Music and Theater Leipzig is called "Hans Otto".
  • In the GDR , a Hans Otto competition was held between the country's theaters , in which the Hans Otto Prize was awarded as a traveling prize in the form of a portrait bust. The Hans-Otto-Preis has been awarded again since 2000 by the support group of the “Kleine Freiheit” Dresden cultural association.
  • The Hans Otto Medal was an award from the GDR in the theater sector, for example in 1978 to the folk choir Fambach , in 1985 to Elisabeth Bergner
  • Several streets in Germany, including Leipzig and Berlin , are named Hans-Otto-Straße .
  • Stumbling blocks have been laid in front of Hans Otto's former home in Berlin-Moabit , Hansa-Ufer 5, and in front of the house where he was born in Dresden, Frühlingstrasse 12 .

literature

Web links

Commons : Hans Otto  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Liebe: Adored, persecuted, forgotten. Actor as a Nazi victim. Beltz Verlag, Weinheim / Basel 2005, ISBN 3-407-22168-1 , p. 168 ( Google Books )
  2. ^ Filmportal.de: The stolen face , filmportal.de, accessed on August 7, 2014.
  3. ↑ Gauhaus Vossstrasse . Website Berlin Wilhelmstrasse ; accessed on August 18, 2019.
  4. ↑ berlin.de:, berlin.de, accessed on August 15, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Otto, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater actor
DATE OF BIRTH August 10, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1933
Place of death Berlin