Ernst Benzinger

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Ernst Benzinger, Vienna 1889

Ernst August Benzinger (born March 1, 1867 in Hanover , † January 29, 1946 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf ) was a German actor and theater director .

Live and act

theatre

The son of a royal chimney sweep master received his artistic training from Hermann Müller (1834–1889), director at the Royal Hanoverian Court Theater , and began his first permanent engagement in Lübeck in the late 1880s . A little later Benzinger reached Berlin, where he appeared at the Ostend and Victoria theaters . Benzinger then played at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna and in the season 1890/91 at the Meininger Hoftheater . In 1891 Benzinger moved to the Stuttgart court theater , where he made his debut with Percy in Shakespeare's Heinrich IV . Already at a young age people praised “the excellent, often downright moving, extraordinarily spirited playing of the artist. The conception of his roles shows a deep understanding, as well as he tries to do justice to the intention of the poet through careful study. ”In 1892 Benzinger married his colleague Eleonore Wahlmann, who was 22 years older than him . Born in 1843, the tragic woman was known for her “hot-blooded temperament” and died in 1900 after attempting suicide as a mentally ill person in the Tübingen psychiatry. “Despite his escapades and despite his debts for food and wine”, the talented Benzinger was held as a heroic actor by the Stuttgart directors until the beginning of 1898. During this time he embodied in the field of heroes and lovers u. a. the Othello , Egmont , Marc Anthony, Macbeth , Faust , William Tell , Richard II. and Coriolanus .

As was customary at the time, Benzinger then used his reputation as a hero actor and court actor from 1898 to the beginning of 1900 in order to appear with guest appearances ("guest performances") in changing theaters. From 1900 to 1903 Benzinger was back in Stuttgart, albeit no longer in the first hero subject. From 1906 to 1912 he had an engagement at the renowned Berlin theater . During the First World War Benzinger finally played under Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater and at the Volksbühne in Berlin, mostly medium and also smaller roles, for example in Reinhardt's Die Piccolomini (1915), Das Wintermärchen (1916), Macbeth (1917) and in Felix Hollaenders Production of Gyges and his Ring (1916). In the mid-1920s he played in the Berlin Lustspielhaus in the successful en-suite play Schwank, The True Jacob by Arnold and Bach .

Starting in 1904, “guesting” and annual engagements had become more and more necessary for Benzinger in order to earn a living. From 1918 onwards, the quality of the theaters in which he was engaged decreased increasingly. Occasionally Benziger was also active in directing and writing. Benzinger, remarried in 1902, worked as an actor well into old age and died in starvation in the underserved Berlin shortly after the end of the Second World War.

Movie

Ernst Benzinger first stepped in front of the camera in 1912, when Max Reinhardt hired him as Count of the Robbers for the film adaptation of The Miracle . Benzinger has worked regularly in cinema productions since the middle of the First World War. He played soldiers, counts and professors, and even Rasputin in the film Sukhomlinov , which was made towards the end of the war . According to his own statement, he wants to have shot under the direction of Ernst Lubitsch , Carl Froelich , Joe May , Richard Oswald , Richard Eichberg , Lupu Pick , Harry Piel , Dimitri Buchowetzki and Fritz Lang until the mid-1920s . In talkies, Benzinger quickly had to be content with very small tasks. Most recently, his film roles shrank to seconds and were not even listed.

Filmography

Silent films

Sound films

Fonts

  • The women of Weinsberg. Dramatic fluctuation in 2 acts with the use of Uhland's fragment. Rohm, Lorch 1904.
  • Fifty ballads and romances. Silva-Verlag, Berlin-Wilmersdorf 1912.
  • Show film or feature film? In: The day book . Vol. 1, 1920, 2nd half of the year, pp. 1332–1336 ( digitized on archive.org )

literature

  • Ludwig Eisenberg's Great Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the XIX. Century. List, Leipzig 1903, p. 80 .
  • Movie star. Richter's Handbook of Actors, Directors and Writers of Film. Vol. 4, 1921/1922, ZDB -ID 1342234-0 , p. 12.
  • Kurt Mühsam, Egon Jacobsohn: Lexicon of the film. Lichtbildbühne publishing house, Berlin 1926., p. 16.
  • New theater almanac. Vol. 8, 1897 - Vol. 25, 1914, ZDB -ID 502265-4 ; Continued as: Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch. Vol. 26, 1915 - Vol. 56, 1945/1948, ISSN  0070-4431 .
  • Wilhelm Kosch : German Theater Lexicon. Biographical and bibliographical manual. Volume 1: A - Hurk. Kleinmayr, Klagenfurt et al. 1953, p. 116

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Biographical stage lexicon of the German theaters. 1st year. Munich 1892, p. 22.
  2. ↑ a b Personal files in the Baden-Württemberg State Archive, Department State Archive Ludwigsburg , E 18.  in the German Digital Library
  3. ↑ Berlin-Wilmersdorf death register.
  4. ↑ a b Ludwig Eisenberg's Large Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the XIX. Century. List, Leipzig 1903, p. 80, quote ibid.
  5. ^ Rudolf Kraus: Benzinger-Wahlmann, Eleonore. In: Biographisches Jahrbuch and Deutscher Nekrolog [for the year 1900]. Vol. 5, 1903, ZDB -ID 217208-2 , pp. 68-72, quotation: p. 70; Ludwig Eisenberg's Great Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the XIX. Century. List, Leipzig 1903, 80 f.
  6. ↑ Wolf Liese: Louise Dumont. A life for the theater. Schröder, Hamburg et al. 1971, ISBN 3-547-76090-9 , p. 89.
  7. ↑ a b c Times according to New Theater Almanach. Vol. 8, 1897 - Vol. 25, 1914, or Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch. Vol. 26, 1915 - Vol. 33, 1922.
  8. ↑ For "guesting" see Eduard von Winterstein : My life and my time. Half a century of German theater history. 7th edition. Henschel, Berlin (East) 1967, passim, especially p. 131.
  9. ↑ Franz Horch (Ed.): Max Reinhardt's schedules from 1905–1930. Piper, Munich 1930, pp. 32-37; Knut Boeser, Renata Vatková (eds.): Max Reinhardt in Berlin (= series of German past. Sites of the history of Berlin. Vol. 6). Froelich & Kaufmann, Berlin 1984, ISBN 3-88725-166-0 , pp. 335-344.
  10. ↑ The main role in Schwank, which premiered on December 20, 1924 at the Lustspielhaus, was played by the comedian Guido Thielscher . Benzinger is not mentioned in any newspaper reviews of the first line-up.
  11. ^ Kurt Mühsam, Egon Jacobsohn: Lexikon des Films. Lichtbildbühne publishing house, Berlin 1926, p. 16.
  12. ^ Role photo in costume in: The Theater. Vol. 17, 1913, p. 160 ( digitized on archive.org )

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Benzinger, Ernst
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Benzinger, Ernst August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH March 1, 1867
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 1946
Place of death Berlin-Wilmersdorf