August Momber

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August Momber in a pencil drawing by Hans Pfannmüller , 1948

August Momber (born May 16, 1886 in Danzig ; † May 17, 1969 in Karlsruhe ) was a German actor and director. He was a student of Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater Berlin . Momber worked as a lecturer at the theater school in Leipzig , among others .

Live and act

The almost half-century stage career of the Danzig- born actor August Momber began at the beginning of the 20th century at Max Reinhardt's drama school at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. As a pupil of the first year, the so-called controversial "zero series", he played Otto in the premiere of Spring Awakening at the Kammerspiele on November 20, 1906 . The graduates in the first few years also included Carl Ebert , Otto Wallburg , Curd Blümel, Margit Gottlieb, Alfred Gorowicz and Hans Wolf von Wolzüge .

Engaged at the Hessian State Theater Wiesbaden from 1922 to 1933 , he met his future wife, the actress Hertha Genzmer . From 1936 engaged at the Bavarian State Theater in Munich and at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe , where Felix Baumbach and August Momber played two world premieres of important stage works by Wilhelm von Scholz : The Frankfurt Christmas (January 30, 1938) and The German Great World Theater (May 22, 1941 ) staged. In his souvenir volume Mein Theater , published in 1963 (Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1964), the poet wrote: "Great August Momber with the power and greatness at his disposal."

Until Hitler's general theater opening in 1944, he was senior director at the Deutsches Theater in Metz and Lille. After the end of the war, he worked at the National Theater in Weimar . In 1950 he was appointed as a lecturer at the Leipzig drama school . August Momber ended his stage career in 1956 as Attinghausen in Schiller's play Wilhelm Tell at the Harzer Bergtheater zu Thale and entered the Weimar actor boarding school, the Marie Seebach Foundation . August Momber died one day after his 83rd birthday on May 17, 1969 in Karlsruhe. His urn was transferred to Weimar and buried there in the historical cemetery in the immediate vicinity of the princely crypt (including the burial place of Goethe and Schiller ).

August Momber gave expression to his work in around 400 roles. Macbeth in Macbeth , Prospero in Der Sturm , Tobias von Rülp, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew , Faust, Götz von Berlichingen in Götz von Berlichingen , Orest, Stauffacher, Wilhelm Tell in Wilhelm Tell , Wallenstein in Wallenstein , Tellheim in Minna von Barnhelm , Odoardo Galotta, Herodes, Florian Geyer, King Nicolo, Pastor Morell, The Great Elector in Prince Friedrich von Homburg , Thoas, Friedrich Wilhelm I. in Father and Son , The Judge of Zalamea, The President in Cabal and Love , Hagen in Die Nibelungen , the same figure in Man with Us (before Burte), Julius Caesar, Verrina in The Fiesco Conspiracy at Genoa . In addition, several roles in cheerful works and direction in several pieces.

Thus, the year of the quiet Ages were rich in memories: With Adele Sandrock (they Medea - he Jason), Gertrud Eysoldt, Agnes Sorma (they Minna - he Tellheim), Paul Wegener , Tilla Durieux , Friedrich Kayssler , Josef Meinrad , Edith Heerdegen was he often stood on important stages. He played in productions by Max Reinhardt (who called him, his pupil, “Momberino”), Hagemann, Müthel, Felsenstein, Bortfeld, Falckenberg and Gliese.

Engagements

Memoirs "theater gossip"

August Momber about his teacher Max Reinhardt German Theater Berlin: Excerpt from his personal memoir, called “Theaterklatsch” (1 and 9 pages of 224 pages) with the kind permission of his son Ernst August Momber.

“ Max Reinhardt exuded an Olympic calm. I can't remember having seen him nervous and excited once. This cheerful serenity often worked wonders for us actors. In any other profession, mastery is everything. Our job often requires a final whipping of nerves and passions. It is easy to understand that actors 'get excited' - at the rehearsal , everyone, including the actor in the smallest role, was made clear about the sequence of events. But when you thought about it at home, your own ideas came up. Reinhardt was allowed to submit this: if 'a blind hen found a grain', he gladly accepted the suggestion. If one was wrong, as is usually the case, even the smallest beginner was taught better in a humble, kind way. We had the trifle of 83 samples for the 'robbers'! - Reinhardt had a wonderful sense of humor. And we were allowed to allow ourselves some cheek at the right moment. Paul Wegener had the greatest influence on my private and theater life. As a very young beginner, it was not always easy for me to withstand his always ready ridicule. His lively irony has often brought tears to my eyes. But you learned something from him! Once when I had auditioned him the Hamlet monologues, he looked at me for a long time and then simply said: 'It is high time we went out to dinner.' That was all of his criticism. On the street he asked me to learn and be able to learn all of Faust's monologues in four days, then he would believe me that I was serious about doing something in the theater. In four days I knew the whole series of Faust by heart. In the first year of my engagement at the Deutsches Theater Berlin , because Winterstein was unable to attend, I was allowed to take on the role of Jason in an afternoon performance for him. I was overjoyed, most of all I was looking forward to Jason's story of his wanderings at the end of the first act. After the story, Creon says to Jason the words: “And now come with me to my royal castle!” The performer of Creon took me aside before the curtain rose and told me that after the play was over he would have to travel to a guest performance; I should therefore play a little faster. I was not very pleased with this admonition and conscientiously kept to the pace the game master taught me. Creon was noticeably nervous, and when I wanted to start my beloved long speech, he took my arm tightly and said to me: "Tell me about this in the royal castle!" And he was gone with me into the scenery. "

August Momber in his home in Karlsruhe around 1960

“It is the sad lot of the first hero to lie around somewhere on the stage at the end of the play and pretend to be dead, and you can only be happy when your dear colleagues don't play jokes with the fresh corpse. When hyper-emotional lovers of dramatic art ask me how I feel at the end of my performance, I usually explain to them: At the end I am spit in dirt and dust from top to bottom and have only three fears: that nobody will kick me, that I don't have to cough and that my diaphragm doesn't bob up and down after the death stretta. That doesn't look good on a corpse.

In some classics I have played several roles over the decades: In “ Maria Stuart ” I started with Mortimer at drama school, in Wiesbaden I played Leicester and in Karlsruhe I played Burleigh. In Munich, as Malevil, I was the confessor of the marvelous Maria von Käthe Dorsch , and then I ended up at Shrewsburry in Weimar. Oh right! At the Rheinische Goethe-Festspiele I also broke the Bellievre. "

Obituaries

Extract from the series “The Small Gift” No. 27 (Karlsruher Fächer), published by Franz Josef Wehinger, Karlsruhe 1969

State actor Paul Hierl (Bayerisch Gmain) on August Momber:

“ I very much regret August Momber's passing. I really appreciated him as an actor. I got the first good impression of him in the Münchner Kammerspiele under Otto Falckenberg as 'Don Gil with the green pants'. So that was about 50 years ago. And that is a very positive sign when an acting performance is remembered for so long. "

General manager Hans Georg Rudolph (Karlsruhe) about August Momber:

“ Our collaboration in 1943/44 was only brief, but undoubtedly of particular intensity, as we both showed no lack of temperament. August Momber was senior director and actor, and I was an actor and director. At that time he played the Great Elector and I, next to him, played Count Hohenzollern in the 'Prince of Homburg'. I also played Orestes in Goethe's 'Iphigenie' in his production, which I still particularly remember, and then we stood together in the Felsenstein production of Schiller's “ Wallenstein ”, in which Momber played the title role and I played Illo , on stage. Unfortunately, everything came to an end very quickly, as the theaters were closed in 1944 and the Deutsches Theater in Metz was not excluded, which we all expected at first. After the war I met Momber again as a member of the German National Theater. "

Filmography

theatre

literature

  • Wilhelm von Scholz : My theater . Max Niemeyer Verlag, Tübingen 1964, DNB 454456980 .
  • From the Schloßplatz-Theater times. In: The small present. No. 27, Franz Josef Wehinger, Karlsruhe 1969.
  • Boris Kehrmann: From Expressionism to the prescribed “Realistic Music Theater” - Walter Felsenstein. A documentary biography 1901 to 1951. - 2 volumes - Tectum, Marburg 2015. (Dresdner Schriften zur Musik; 3) ISBN 978-3-8288-3266-4

swell

Memoir manuscripts written by August Momber in the private collection of Ernst Momber, Wiesbaden, as well as the estate papers of the artist, who died in 1969, in the possession of August Momber's son, Ernst August Momber, Wiesbaden and records from the Berlin drama school . Also Hessisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Wiesbaden, archive numbers: HHStAW Dept. 428 No. 3099a + 3099b

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Momber, August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH May 16, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH 17th May 1969
Place of death Karlsruhe