Charlotte Küter

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Charlotte Küter (born January 17, 1900 in Berlin , † June 2, 1983 in Weimar ) was a German actress .

Life

Charlotte Küter, the daughter of a lithographer , wanted to be an actress or pianist as a child, but her parents demanded that she learn a practical profession. So she learned the tailoring trade from 1916 to 1919 and passed her journeyman's examination. In addition to her apprenticeship, she sewed a lot in order to earn the money to take acting lessons and to finance her theater visits. So she was able to start her first theater engagement in 1920, with a contract for three years, at the Albert Theater (Dresden) . Charlotte Küter terminated this contract immediately when she happened to meet Erwin Piscator , who was just opening his own proletarian theater in Berlin, and went to see him. Piscator she went to Max Reinhardt and played in the Kammerspiele of the Deutsches Theater Berlin the Wendla in Spring Awakening by Frank Wedekind with Werner Hinz and Hans Deppe as a partner. Since she was committed to comic roles in Berlin, she left Berlin after a brief consideration and switched to the theater in Hagen . This engagement was followed by three years at the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf with Louise Dumont . From there she brought Fritz Jessner to the New Playhouse in Königsberg (Prussia) . It was there that Charlotte Küter met her husband, the director and actor Paul Lewitt .

During her time at the theater in Berlin, Charlotte Küter had already worked on cultural policy for the Communist Party , of which she became a member in 1931/1932. In 1933 their work permits were withdrawn from her and Paul Lewitt, as Lewitt was a Czech citizen and both were active anti-fascists. They emigrated to Prague and Brno in the Czech Republic . Here Charlotte Küter became a spokesperson for Mělníker Rundfunk, which was used as a democratic broadcaster against fascist Germany. In 1938 she played in Prague the title role in The Guns of women Carrar by Bertolt Brecht , directed by Paul Lewitt, with a group of anti-fascist actor.

The Küter / Lewitt couple had to flee from Prague on foot via Poland and to England. Since they were initially not given a work permit in the artistic field, Charlotte was able to earn a living with tailors. Then both worked at the German émigré theater and Charlotte Küter spoke on the BBC's cultural programs . In December 1945 the couple returned to Germany and helped rebuild the cultural life in Dresden . Her first tasks included "Frau John" in The Rats by Gerhart Hauptmann and Wassa Schelesnowa by Maxim Gorki - both productions were in the hands of Paul Lewitt. After a guest performance with the artistic director Fritz Wisten , Charlotte Küter went to the Theater der Freunde , where she successfully staged Lyubimova's Snowball and also worked as an actress. From 1951 she shifted the focus of her activity to the film. In 1953 she directed the Romanian film “The Homecoming” by Marieta Sadowa and Victor Iliu for the first time.

Charlotte Küter became a union member at the age of 20. In 1935, while emigrating, she joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KPTsch). In 1946 she became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) and the German Cultural Association (KB), in 1947 of the Democratic Women's Association of Germany (DFD) and in 1951 of the People's Solidarity (VS). In 1953 she was elected to the national executive committee of the DFD and a member of the secretariat of the art union of the FDGB . From 1958 she was a member of the Presidium of the German Cultural Association.

In 1949 she was delegated to the People's Congress in Berlin and from there elected to the People's Chamber , to which she belonged until the 3rd electoral term in 1963 as a member of the Kulturbund. In the People's Chamber she belonged from 1951 to 1954 to the committee for submissions from citizens and from 1954 to 1958 to the grace committee. From 1958 to 1963 she was chairman of the culture committee.

She spent her twilight years with her husband Paul Lewitt in the Weimar Marie-Seebach -Stift.

Filmography

theatre

actress

Director

Radio plays

Awards

literature

  • Handbook of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic, 3rd electoral period . Kongress-Verlag, Berlin 1959, pp. 325f.
  • Federal Ministry for All-German Issues (Ed.): SBZ-Biographie , Bonn / Berlin 1964, pp. 199f.
  • Gabriele Baumgartner, Dieter Hebig (Hrsg.): Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ / DDR. 1945–1990. Volume 1: Abendroth - Lyr. KG Saur, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-598-11176-2 , p. 454 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  • Frank-Burkhard Habel , Volker Wachter : Lexicon of the GDR stars. Actors from film and television. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89602-304-7 , p. 190.

Web links

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Obituary notice in Neues Deutschland from June 15, 1983; P. 8
  2. Berliner Zeitung of June 14, 1950; P. 3
  3. ^ New Germany of July 14, 1956; P. 10
  4. Berliner Zeitung of January 19, 1960; P. 3.