Erich Franz (actor)
Erich Franz (born November 5, 1903 in Laurahütte , Upper Silesia, † February 10, 1961 in Berlin ) was a German actor who primarily embodied characters from the working class.
Life
Erich Franz was only discovered for professional acting at the age of 47 by Manfred Wekwerth and Bertolt Brecht . He was born the fifth child of a worker widow. His father, a steelworker, had a fatal accident at the blast furnace. Franz had completed an apprenticeship as a lathe operator from 1917 to 1920 and worked as a miner in Laurahütte. Since his youth he was also politically active, first from 1920 in the SPD , from 1923 in the USPD and from 1925 in the KPD . In addition, he appeared within the labor movement as an amateur actor and choir director. He was arrested several times as a participant in the strike.
After the National Socialists came to power , he emigrated in 1937 via Czechoslovakia to the Soviet Union , where he worked as a miner in the Karaganda Basin. He also attended an antifa school there .
He returned to Germany in the GDR in 1949 . In the same year he became a member of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), the Free German Trade Union Federation (FDGB) and the Society for German-Soviet Friendship (DSF). In 1950 he joined the Kulturbund . He worked as a lathe operator at VEB Kranbau Köthen . There he also became a member of Manfred Wekwerth's Dramatic Circle . Franz and Wekwerth were engaged by the Berliner Ensemble in 1951 after a Brecht performance and a subsequent audition in Berlin .
Erich Franz was on the stage of this theater until his untimely death in 1961. In addition, he was increasingly involved in DEFA films and radio plays and also worked as a voice actor . He also headed the company union group of the Berliner Ensemble and, since 1957, the art union in Berlin. For almost three years from July 1958 he was a member of the parliamentary group of the Kulturbund of the People's Chamber of the GDR .
He is buried in the cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder communities in Berlin-Mitte.
Honors
In September 1962, the Kreiskulturhaus was opened in Schönhauser Allee and Sredzkistr. reopened in what was then the Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg district after a long period of closure and named after Erich Franz. The legendary Franz Club was founded here in 1970 .
The cinema in Köthen was named Erich-Franz-Lichtspiele in September 1962 .
Awards
- 1952 and 1954 medals for excellent performance
- 1953 Thälmann Medal
- 1955 honorary title activist of the five-year plan
- 1960 Art Prize of the GDR
- 1960 Gold medal for outstanding achievements in socialist education in the pioneer organization "Ernst Thälmann" (for his achievements in children's radio plays and children's films)
literature
- Handbook of the People's Chamber of the German Democratic Republic, 3rd electoral period, Kongress-Verlag, Berlin 1959, pp. 272f.
- Klaus-Dieter Winzer: Playing a king ... with a micrometer screw and folding rule - memories of the working-class actor Erich Franz . In: Film und Fernsehen , 12/1978.
- Günter Reisch : Erich Franz . In: Ralf Schenk (Ed.): In front of the camera - 50 actors in Babelsberg . Henschel Verlag, Berlin 1995.
- 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. 85.
Filmography
theatre
- 1953: Bertolt Brecht : The Guns of Mrs. Carrar (Fischer) - Director: Egon Monk ( Berliner Ensemble in the Deutsches Theater Berlin - Kammerspiele)
- 1955: Johannes R. Becher Winter Battle (Staabskoch Oberkofler) - Director: Bertolt Brecht / Manfred Wekwerth (Berliner Ensemble)
- 1956: John Millington Synge : The Hero of the Western World - Director: Manfred Wekwerth / Peter Palitzsch (Berliner Ensemble)
- 1957: Bertolt Brecht: The good person of Sezuan (tobacco dealer) - Director: Benno Besson (Berliner Ensemble)
Radio plays
- 1953: Nikolai Gogol : Die toten Seelen (A waiter) - Director: Richard Hilgert (radio play - Berliner Rundfunk )
- 1953: Bertolt Brecht : The guns of Mrs. Carrar (wounded) - Director: Egon Monk (radio play - Berliner Rundfunk)
- 1954: Martin Hayneccius : Hans Pfriem - Boldness pays off (Hans Pfriem) - Director: Käthe Rülicke-Weiler ( GDR radio )
- 1957: Wsewolod Witaljewitsch Wischnewski : The Street of the Soldier (Bolshevik commander) - Director: Wolfgang Schonendorf (Broadcasting of the GDR)
- 1958: Wera Küchenmeister / Claus Küchenmeister : Back then eighteen - nineteen (Der old Blonowski) - Director: Helmut Hellstorff (documentary radio play - GDR radio)
- 1960: Hams Pfeiffer : Shots on the Hochmoor (Paul Süß) - Director: Werner Grunow (crime radio play - Broadcasting of the GDR)
- 1960: Bernhard Seeger : Paradies im Krähenwinkel - Director: Helmut Hellstorff (Broadcasting of the GDR)
Web links
- Erich Franz in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Biography on the DEFA Foundation website
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Helmut Baierl : Remember Erich Franz . In: Neues Deutschland , February 10, 1971, p. 4.
- ↑ Meeting point after work . In: Berliner Zeitung . September 14, 1962, p. 8 .
- ↑ History: First demonstration in 1908 . In: Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, April 5, 2013
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Franz, Erich |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German actors and politicians (SPD, USPD, KPD), MdV |
DATE OF BIRTH | 5th November 1903 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Laurahütte |
DATE OF DEATH | February 10, 1961 |
Place of death | Berlin |