Adolf Weisse

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Adolf Weisse, ca.1901

Adolf Weisse , actually Adolf Weiß (born April 4, 1855 in Lugos , Austrian Empire , † July 17, 1933 in Vienna ) was an Austrian theater actor , director and silent film actor .

Live and act

Adolf Weisse lived in Venice at a young age before he came to Vienna and attended the Grey's Theater School there. His teacher on site was Josef Lewinsky . Weisse made his debut on the stage on April 3, 1878 at the Deutsches Theater in Budapest in the play Narciss . There he played Choiseul on the side of Ludwig Barnay . Weisse made his first permanent engagement the following year at the court theater of Kassel, where he was initially employed in the field of intrigues. After six years, Weisse moved on and went to the Königliches Schauspielhaus in Berlin for two years before joining the Cologne City Theater in 1887 as a character actor. Two years later he was appointed to the newly founded German People's Theater in Vienna. This venue should have the greatest importance on his artistic life.

In the period that followed, weisse were seen, now in the role of “pères nobles”, first as King Karl in blood wedding , as public prosecutor Tschuku in The Wedding of Valeni , as Napoleon in Madame Sans-Gêne , as Baron Hofäcker in Shrovetide , as Dr. Rank in Ibsen's Nora , as Gessler in Wilhelm Tell , as Riccaut de la Marlinière in Minna von Barnhelm , as Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and as Rudolf von Habsburg in King Ottokar's Glück und Ende . Like Ludwig Eisenberg's Great Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the XIX. Century noted, Weisse used "a lot of diligence on the spoken word". Also, "his presentation was concise, descriptive, characteristic".

In March 1902, Weisse took over the management of the Deutsches Volkstheater together with Emmerich Bukovics, from July 1905 (after the death of his colleague) until 1916 in sole management. During this time, Weisse sponsored young, contemporary authors such as Gerhart Hauptmann , George Bernard Shaw , Arthur Schnitzler and Frank Wedekind . His ensemble included Viennese theater greats such as Max Pallenberg , Josefine Kramer-Glöckner , Anton Edthofer , Hans Homma , Ida Wüst , Jakob Feldhammer and Wilhelm Klitsch . Under his aegis was also on 15 May 1907, the opera Salome by Richard Strauss premiered in Vienna. When Adolf Weisse reached the age of 60, he began to cut back.

Grave of Adolf Weisse in the Vienna Central Cemetery

In the years 1920 to 1924, the first boom in Austrian cinema, Weisse also took part in several, sometimes quite expensive and ambitious silent films, most of which were produced by Sascha Kolowrat-Krakowsky and directed by future greats such as Alexander Korda and Mihaly Kertesz . Weisse was the Lord Chancellor in an early adaptation of Mark Twain's Prince and Beggar Boy in 1920 , the old eccentric in Harun al Raschid , the Pharaoh Menapta in The Slave Queen and in 1924 the Sharahabim in Salambo , his last film. Then Adolf Weisse retired into private life and wrote his memoirs.

Adolf Weisse found his final resting place in the new Jewish section of the Vienna Central Cemetery (Gate 4, Group 9A, Row 2, No. 6).

Filmography

literature

Web links

Commons : Adolf Weisse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to the gravestone inscription; Eisenberg mentions the year 1856
  2. ↑ Eisenberg, p. 1109
  3. ↑ Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 1934, p. 110
personal data
SURNAME Weisse, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES White, Adolf (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian theater actor, artistic director and silent film actor
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Lugos , Austrian Empire
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1933
Place of death Vienna