Egon Karter

Egon Karter (born October 18, 1911 in Mährisch-Ostrau , † November 17, 2006 in Basel ) was a Czech - Swiss actor, operetta singer and theater manager. He was the founder and long-time director of the Basler Komödie (see Theater Basel ).

Life

Karter was already playing in theaters and traveling stages at the age of 17 and was later engaged in the Vienna Volksoper . In 1935 he had a supporting role in the feature film The Secret of the Moonlight Sonata . From 1936 he appeared mostly as a tenor in operettas at the city theaters of Zurich, Basel and Lucerne as well as at the Corso Theater in Zurich, and later also in The Hague. In 1940 he founded a Jewish theater group in the Netherlands, but had to flee from the National Socialists in 1942. He managed to escape to Switzerland via Belgium and France. During his internment in the Witzwil labor camp , he performed as an operetta singer and actor, including at the Biel-Solothurn City Theater, and went on tour with a troop of internees.

In 1947 he founded the Tournéetheater Schweizerisches Schauspielensemble, with Hans Albers and Maria Schell , among others, and in 1950 the first Swiss Chamber Theater of Basler Komödie . The comedy played both in Switzerland and in numerous foreign engagements with great success. In 1955 he became a Swiss citizen. In 1968 he founded the Tournéetheater Egon Karter and was touring with the directors Fritz Kortner , Gerhard Klingenberg and Harry Meyen and the actors Leonard Steckel , Elisabeth Flickenschildt and Klaus Maria Brandauer . In the mid-1970s he became head of the Reiss publishing house and oversaw the dramatic work of Friedrich Dürrenmatt , with whom he was a close friend.

Works

• Egon Karter: Life - A Comedy: Odyssey of a Comedian. Ed .: Raymond Petignat. Ringier Zurich 1988, ISBN 3-907512-01-4
• Egon Karter: Homage to Friedrich the Great of Konolfingen. Stories by and with Friedrich Dürrenmatt. Ed .: Raymond Petignat. Basel 1991, ISBN 3-9520222-0-9
• Egon Karter: Theater without make-up. Anecdotes, encounters, reminiscences . Opinio, Basel 2001, ISBN 3-03999-012-8
• Egon Karter: With and about Friedrich Dürrenmatt - Essay, Opinio Verlag Basel 2001,

literature

• Thomas Blubacher : Egon Karter . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 964.
• Hansueli W. Moser-Ehinger: More space for drama in a «city of music». Egon Karter's comedy in Basel . In: Mimos . Volume 51, 1999, p. 13f.
• Reinhardt Stumm: "We have a little box". 50 years of Basel Comedy. In: Basler Magazin . 38/2000, pp. 3-6.

Web links

• Literature by and about Egon Karter in the catalog of the German National Library
• Egon Karter in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Stefan Koslowski: Egon Karter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Zürcher Oberländer: Theater man Egon Karter died