Fritz Hirsch (actor)

Fritz Hirsch (born May 11, 1888 in Mannheim ; † June 10, 1942 in Mauthausen - Gusen concentration camp ) was a German actor and theater director.

Life

Hirsch began his professional career at the age of 20 at the Actientheater in Landsberg an der Warthe in Neumark . Via Stendal and Königsberg , where he worked at the Neues Schauspielhaus for three seasons until shortly before the outbreak of World War I, Hirsch came to Hamburg in 1914 to take up an engagement at the Thalia Theater and, the following year, at the Stadttheater. Fritz Hirsch came to Berlin for the first time in 1920 . Until 1927 he worked at the local state theater, the Schauspielhaus Berlin and the art theater . During this time, Hirsch also appeared sporadically in front of film cameras (such as in Carl Wilhelm's Nestroy adaptation Der böse Geist Lumpaci Vagabundus in 1922 - at the side of fellow actor Otto Laubinger , who later became the first president of the Nazi Reichstheaterkammer - and in the same year the main role of Mayer Amschel Rothschild sr. in Erich Schönfelder's Die five Frankfurter based on a play by Carl Rössler ).

In 1928 he went to The Hague for four years to set up his own program at Princesse Schouwburg. In the following year (1929) he founded the so-called Fritz Hirsch Operetta in the same city . In 1932, an offer to take over the direction and senior management of the Schillertheater brought him back to the German capital. A few months later, in February 1933, and with the transfer of power to the National Socialists , Fritz Hirsch was removed from his post. He then fled Germany and returned to the Netherlands , where he set up his own acting troupe. With Johannes Heesters , who has meanwhile worked successfully in the Third Reich and who returned to his old homeland for the lead role in the operetta Countess Mariza , Hirsch was able to hire a big star in 1938.

In Holland, Hirsch was arrested by German authorities after the country was occupied on June 29, 1941 and interned in Scheveningen prison. His temporary release followed a good four months later. A little later, Hirsch was arrested again and deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp on November 12, 1941 . From there, on May 19, 1942, he was transferred to Mauthausen concentration camp (located in what is now Austria). Finally, Hirsch was deported to the Gusen satellite camp , where prisoner No. 9831, who was doing hard labor in the quarry, died three weeks later (presumably from exhaustion) - the official cause of death: coronary arteriosclerosis.

Hirsch's sons Gerd (born 1918) and Frank (born 1926) also perished in concentration camps; the elder like his father in Mauthausen (possibly also in Auschwitz ), the younger in Auschwitz. Fritz Hirsch's brother Josef also died a violent death, at the end of May 1942 in the Flossenbürg concentration camp .

Filmography

• 1922: The five Frankfurters
• 1922: The evil spirit Lumpaci Vagabundus
• 1922: The homecoming of Odysseus
• 1927: The lady from till 12

literature

• Kay Less : Between the stage and the barracks. Lexicon of persecuted theater, film and music artists from 1933 to 1945 . With a foreword by Paul Spiegel . Metropol, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-938690-10-9 , p. 172.
• 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. P. 244, ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8
• Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945. Edited by the Leo Baeck Institute, Jerusalem. Saur, Munich 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 .
• Katja B. Zaich: Fritz Hirsch at LexM Hamburg [1] (2014, updated on Feb. 12, 2014)

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Hirsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Fritz Hirsch in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Fritz Hirsch Documentation in the Lexicon of Persecuted Musicians from the Nazi Era (University of Hamburg)

Sound documents on youtube

• In a small pastry shop! (Fred Raymond): Fritz Hirsch (van de Fritz Hirsch Operetta) met orkest accomp. o. L. van kapelmeester Jos. Ziegler. Odeon A 164.185 a (mx. Da 1521) [2]
• A Rhenish girl, duet from "Black Forest Girl" (Léon Jessel): Friedl Dotza & Fritz Hirsch (van de Fritz Hirsch operette) met orkest accomp. [3]
• Across “Victoria and her hussar”, potpourri (part 1 & 2) (Paul Abraham). Fritz Hirsch (from the “Fritz Hirsch Operetta”) lecture, with orchestra. Odeon A. 164.228 a and b (mx. Da 1590 and Da 1591). Amsterdam, 1929/30. [4]