Else Heims

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Else Heims (in the middle) at the theater rehearsal in the role of princess in Torquato Tasso (1913)
Else Heims as Porzia in The Merchant of Venice (around 1920)

Else Heims , also: Else Heims-Reinhardt (born October 3, 1878 in Berlin ; died February 20, 1958 in Santa Monica California ) was a German actress and wife of Max Reinhardt .

Life

Else Heims was the daughter of the master carpenter Ernst Heims, who was employed in the chair factory “Christoph Heims and Sons”, and his wife Josephine, née. Romberg. She attended elementary school and worked in accounting. After taking lessons from Gustav Kober , she was accepted as an actress in Otto Brahm's ensemble at the Deutsches Theater in 1896 , of which Max Reinhardt had also been a member since 1894. She made her debut on September 15, 1897 as "Miriam" in Johannes . Heims made a career as an actress and accompanied Reinhardt's career and the founding of theaters in Berlin , such as the “Kleine Theater” and the New Theater , the founding of the drama school in Berlin and taking over the management of the German Theater in 1905. Heim's name was on the program the opening of the Schall und Rauch cabaret on January 23, 1901.

The marriage with Reinhardt took place in Maidenhead in 1910 . With him she had two sons, Wolfgang Reinhardt (1908–1979) and Gottfried Reinhardt (1913–1994). Reinhardt already had an illegitimate daughter Jenny from another relationship. In 1911 the family moved into an apartment in the Magnushaus in Berlin.

Heims played in Reinhardt's Midsummer Night's Dream and was the Jokaste in King Oedipus , for example in a guest performance at Circus Renz in Vienna . She played - even after the birth of her two sons - under the direction of Reinhardt, for example at the side of Fritz Kortner, the Portia in The Merchant of Venice , in Was ihr wollt and the title role in Minna von Barnhelm . At the opening of the large theater , which was converted by Hans Poelzig , she played Kassandra in the Orestie on November 28, 1919 .

In 1913, Reinhardt met the actress Helene Thimig (1889–1974), who was sixteen years his junior , for whom he left the family in the summer of 1919. In the divorce battle that followed, Else Heims-Reinhardt tried to prevent the divorce. Reinhardt obtained a divorce in 1931 in the more liberal Latvia , for which he had to move his residence there beforehand. The divorce was contested by Heims. The war of divorce between Heims and Reinhardt dragged on until 1935, when, through the mediation of son Gottfried and the assistance of Rudolf Kommer , a financial agreement was reached and, with obstacles, the divorce was carried out in Reno .

Due to the marital rift, Max Reinhardt and other companies hardly offered her any engagements after 1920. Under Heinz Hilpert , she got a role in 1933 in Der zerbrochne Krug . Heims also had various, albeit smaller, roles in feature films. During the Nazi era , she had to emigrate to the USA via London . After the war she commuted between the USA and Europe.

Filmography

theatre

literature

  • Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 409, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  • Gottfried Reinhardt: The lover. Memories of his son Gottfried Reinhardt on Max Reinhardt. Droemer-Knaur, Munich et al. 1973, ISBN 3-426-05576-7 .
  • Werner Röder; Herbert A. Strauss (Ed.): International Biographical Dictionary of Central European Emigrés 1933-1945 , Vol II, 1 Munich: Saur 1983, ISBN 3-598-10089-2 , p. 478
  • Kay Less: 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. S. 581, ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

Commons : Else Heims  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ from right Max Reinhardt, Else Heims, Eduard von Winterstein and Leopoldine Konstantin .
  2. ↑ Peter Sprengel (Ed.): Permitted and Prohibited. Play texts from the first Max Reinhardt cabaret (Berlin 1901/02). = Noise and smoke. Nicolai, Berlin 1991, ISBN 3-87584-386-X , p. 45.
  3. ↑ Berliner Volksbühne ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Seasons 1914–1919.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.volksbuehne-berlin.de
  4. ↑ a b c d e Gottfried Reinhardt: The Lover. 1973, p. 131.
  5. ↑ Eva Bakos : Ingenious couples. Artist between work and passion. Ueberreuter, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-8000-3876-5 , p. 101.
personal data
SURNAME At home, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heims-Reinhardt, Else; At home, Elsa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 20, 1958
Place of death Santa Monica