Ernst Legal

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Ernst Legal, 1945
From left to right: Julius Hay , Bertolt Brecht , Ernst Legal , Alexander Abusch (1948)

Ernst Otto Eduard Legal (born May 2, 1881 in Schlieben , Province of Saxony , † June 29, 1955 in Berlin-Zehlendorf ) was a German actor , director and general manager .

Life

Ernst Legal, who worked on the stage as well as in film, was senior director of the theater in Wiesbaden , where he was elected as the new artistic director by the newly founded artists' council in 1918 during the November Revolution. After his dismissal he also worked as a theater director in Darmstadt from 1924 to 1927. In 1927/28 he was artistic director in Kassel , 1931/32 at the Staatliches Schauspielhaus Berlin and later at the Hebbeltheater in Berlin-Kreuzberg. From 1938 to 1944 he was a director at the Berlin Schillertheater . Thanks to his distinctive facial features, he became a popular supporting actor in the film, who first appeared in a leading role in the 1936 film Street Music . Another major role followed in 1937/38 in the film Musketeer Meier III .

1945–1952 Ernst Legal was director of the German State Opera in Berlin . As director of the East Berlin German Theater (1947–1951), as a founding member of the Kulturbund, and with his support for the Berlin Volksbühne movement, he exerted an important influence on the cultural life of the young GDR . He had his last major film role in 1946/47 in the DEFA film No Place for Love . In 1950 his working conditions became increasingly difficult under the Stalinization and in the controversy over Bertolt Brecht's opera The Condemnation of Lukullus he resigned from his offices in 1952. A supporting role in Wolfgang Staudte's film Der Untertan (1951) was followed by several film productions in West Germany. Legal appeared in a film for the last time in 1955, the year he died.

Legal was a member of the 1st and 2nd German People's Council .

Ernst Legal is the father of DEFA actress Marga (Margarete) Legal , who was born in Berlin in 1908 and who was banned from working under National Socialism because of her Jewish grandfather .

tomb

Ernst Legal died in Berlin in 1955 at the age of 74. His grave is in the Zehlendorf cemetery (field 6-46). Ernst Legal's final resting place was dedicated to the State of Berlin from 1987 to 2009 as an honorary grave .

Filmography

theatre

Director

actor

Radio plays

literature

Web links

Commons : Ernst Legal  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 676.
personal data
SURNAME Legal, serious
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Legal, Ernst Otto Eduard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, director and artistic director
DATE OF BIRTH May 2, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Schlieben , Province of Saxony
DATE OF DEATH June 29, 1955
Place of death Berlin-Zehlendorf