Berthold Sterneck

Berthold Sterneck (born April 30, 1887 in Vienna as Berthold Stern ; died November 25, 1943 in Munich ) was an Austrian opera singer . Sterneck was considered one of the most outstanding bass players in German-speaking countries and celebrated international success. After 1933 Sterneck and his family were victims of the persecution of Jews in the Nazi era .

First stations (1906–1916)

Berthold Stern was born in Vienna as the son of Ignaz Stern and Jeanette Stern (nee Jeanette Loser). Since an engagement at the city theater in Saaz in 1913, the artist name Berthold Sterneck has been proven for Berthold Stern ; from 1927 the artist name also officially became a family name.

Sterneck was a student at the kk Staatsgymnasium in the 17th district of Vienna Hernals . Around 1906 he passed the Matura there. In the following years he first gained experience as an actor at various provincial theaters and also took private singing lessons for several years.

In the year of his Matura exam, 1906, an engagement at the Lortzing Theater in Berlin is documented, for 1907 appearances at theaters in Nuremberg and Fürth . From October 1908 to September 1911 his career was interrupted by military service in the Austrian army. After stints at the Johann Strauss Theater in Vienna (1911/12), where Sterneck sang in the choir, as well as at the city theaters in Saaz (1913) and Eger (1913/14), he participated in the First World War ; from 1914 to 1916 he was a soldier with the rank of sergeant in the German master regiment .

Engagement in Graz (1916–1920)

From 1916 to 1920 Sterneck's first continuous engagement as an opera singer at the Graz Opera House followed , where he made his debut as Sir John Falstaff on April 6, 1916 in Otto Nicolai's composition Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor . At the Graz Opera, Stern met the singer Ernestine Franziska Schröder (1893–1919), whom he married on December 30, 1918 in the Evangelical Church of the Savior ; shortly before that, both had converted to Protestantism , Stern himself from the Israelite religious community , his wife from Catholicism . Ernestine Stern died on November 19, 1919, shortly after the birth of her son Kurt on June 28, 1919; the son came temporarily to the mother's relatives.

Sterneck was best known in Graz as a Wagner singer, but also sang many other works, in more than 60 different opera productions. When he gave his farewell performance in 1920, he was enthusiastically celebrated by the public according to contemporary press reports.

Successes in Prague and Munich (1920–1933)

From Graz, Sterneck moved to the New German Theater in Prague, where he was engaged from 1920 to 1923. Once again he excelled in particular as a Wagner interpreter, but was also successful as a soloist in concerts. His star role due to his acting talent was his singing role in the comic role of Baron Ochs auf Lerchenau in Richard Strauss ' Rosenkavalier . In Prague, Sterneck met his second wife, the Viennese opera singer Margarethe Cäcilia Gutmann (1894–1945; stage name: "Margarethe Gerth"), who, like himself, had converted from Jewish to Protestantism before the wedding on October 14, 1922 .

When Stern moved to the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1923 , the couple took in Stern's son from their first marriage. Their daughter Johanna was born on November 2, 1923. In the following years the singer reached the peak of his artistic success. Apart from his permanent engagement at the State Opera with roles in at least 32 opera productions between 1923 and 1936, Sterneck gave many guest appearances at major European theaters, for example in Amsterdam in 1926 and 1934, at the Vienna State Opera in 1931, 1936 and 1938, at the Covent Garden Opera in London 1934, as well as on other stages in Switzerland, France and Italy; at the Salzburg Festival in 1935 he sang Osmin in Mozart's Die Entführung aus dem Serail . Numerous radio broadcasts of his operas also contributed to Sterneck's fame in German-speaking countries.

Destruction of Existence (1933-1943)

Since the beginning of the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany in 1933, the family had been subjected to multiple repression due to their originally Jewish religious affiliation. Sterneck was initially able to remain a singer at the State Opera, as he still had Austrian citizenship and the director of the opera, Hans Knappertsbusch , stood up for him. In a letter dated January 14, 1936, the general director of the Bavarian State Theater informed Sterneck that, due to his Jewish descent, the contract would no longer be extended from August 31, 1936. With a letter of February 25, 1937, the Reich Theater Chamber excluded him. After his last guest performances abroad, Sterneck had to sell his house in Pasing in 1938 and do forced labor in the warehouse and in a synthetic resin press.

On March 1, 1943, Berthold and Margarethe Sterneck received the deportation announcement ("emigration") and their property was confiscated. Although the medical treatment of Jews was already forbidden, Sterneck was admitted to the Nymphenburg hospital because of cancer . He died there on November 25, 1943, his grave is in the New Israelite Cemetery . His wife received a new deportation notice on January 7, 1944, but was able to flee. After a year-long odyssey through Germany and Austria, she committed suicide in her last place of refuge in Schwenningen on February 25, 1945.

Sterneck's daughter Johanna was rescued in 1939 on a children's transport to London. The son from his first marriage, Kurt Sterneck , became a soldier in 1938 and served in the war until 1943. Because of his Jewish descent, he was arrested in 1944 and deported to the Dachau concentration camp as a " protective prisoner " from October 4 to November 9 . On January 17, 1945 he was deported to the Wolmirsleben forced labor camp , where he survived until the liberation.

literature

• Karl-Josef Kutsch , Leo Riemens : Large singer lexicon . Berlin 2004, ISBN 978-3-11-915958-6 .
  • Entry Berthold Sterneck at Operissimo  on the basis of the Great Singer Lexicon .
• Bernhard Möllmann: The opera singer Berthold Sterneck and his family . In: Bernhard Schossig (Ed.): Moved into the light . Jewish life in the west of Munich. A search for traces in Pasing, Obermenzing and Aubing. A workshop book. Herbert Utz Verlag, Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-8316-0787-7 , pp. 145–157.
• Biographical memorial book of Munich Jews 1933-1945, City Archives Munich, Vol. 2 Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-8306-7280-7 ( Berthold Sterneck entry can also be accessed via online research ).
• Heimo Halbrainer, Gerald Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: this: “So that a thoroughly Christian environment was created for us children.” The Heilandskirche and its “Jewish Christians” between 1880 and 1955. CLIO Graz 2010, ISBN 978-3-902542-24-3 , pp. 163–177 ( online ).

Web links

• CM Gruber, H. Reitterer:  Sterneck, Berthold. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 238.

Remarks

1. ↑ Biographical Memorial Book of Munich Jews 1933-1945, City Archives Munich, Vol. 2, Munich 2007.
2. ↑ Gruber, Reitterer:  Sterneck, Berthold. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 238 .; accessed November 25, 2017.
3. ^ Möllmann, Sterneck and his family . In: Schoßig (Ed.), Moved into the light , Munich 2008, p. 151.
4. ^ Möllmann, Sterneck and his family . In: Schoßig (Ed.), Moved into the light , Munich 2008, p. 150; Document for school location: p. 157, note 5.
5. ↑ Gruber, Reitterer:  Sterneck, Berthold. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 238 .; accessed November 25, 2017.
6. ^ Möllmann, Sterneck and his family . In: Schoßig (Ed.), Moved into the light , Munich 2008, p. 150.
7. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 163.
8. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: “So that a thoroughly Christian environment was created for us children.” CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 165.
9. ↑ Gruber, Reitterer:  Sterneck, Berthold. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 238 .; accessed November 25, 2017.
10. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 167.
11. ^ Möllmann, Sterneck and his family . In: Schoßig (Ed.), Moved into the light , Munich 2008, p. 150.
12. ^ Möllmann, Sterneck and his family . In: Schoßig (Ed.), Moved into the light , Munich 2008, p. 145.
13. ↑ Gruber, Reitterer:  Sterneck, Berthold. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 238 .; accessed November 25, 2017.
14. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 167.
15. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 169.
16. ^ Möllmann, Sterneck and his family . In: Schoßig (Ed.), Moved into the light , Munich 2008, p. 153.
17. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 169.
18. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 169.
19. ↑ Halbrainer, Lamprecht: Berthold and Kurt Sterneck . In: "So that a Christian environment was created for us children throughout." CLIO, Graz 2010, p. 173.