Friedrich Gnaß
Friedrich Gnaß (born November 13, 1892 in Langendreer , today Bochum , † May 8, 1958 in East Berlin ) was a German actor .
Life
Friedrich Gnaß grew up on a farm in Westphalia and after an apprenticeship as a machinist, initially worked as a seaman, miner, fitter and crane operator. At the age of 31 he took acting lessons in Hamburg before coming to Berlin in 1925 through engagements at the Hamburger Kammerspiele and in Beuthen in 1926 , where he appeared at the Volksbühne Berlin and in the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm . He also took part in various progressive theater groups.
Friedrich Gnaß, whose trademark was his furrowed character face and his hoarse voice, began his film career in 1929 with a supporting role in a production of the small Berlin-based Hisa-Film GmbH. In the same year he came to the politically left-wing Prometheus Film , in which he played a sailor in the prostitute drama Beyond the Road and a construction worker in Phil Jutzi's famous worker film Mother Krausens Fahrt ins Glück . Further small supporting roles in films, which, however, were among the most commercially successful and artistically interesting of their time, followed: Luise, Queen of Prussia , Fritz Langs M , Danton , Kameradschaft (all 1931).
After the Nazi seizure of power , Friedrich Gnaß mostly appeared in trend films , despite his left-wing political convictions , including Morgenrot (albeit as early as 1932), Refugees (1933), Pour le Mérite (1938) and Legion Condor (1939).
On the way back from filming in America, where he in the film The Emperor of California by Luis Trenker had been involved, he is on the ship in a drunken state wild threats against 1936 Adolf Hitler have launched. The colleagues present at the scandal did not denounce him, but Gnaß's curses were known at home in Berlin and the actor was sentenced to prison in the autumn of 1936. The scenes filmed with glee were removed from the finished film and the actor was temporarily excluded from the Reichsfachschaft film .
After the end of the Second World War , engagements at Berlin theaters followed. From 1949 until his death in 1958 he was a member of the Berliner Ensemble founded by Bertolt Brecht . In addition to his theater work, Gnaß also took part in film productions as an actor, such as in Wozzeck in 1947, followed by numerous larger roles for DEFA , where he - meanwhile in the senior profession - was a sought-after character actor.
Friedrich Gnaß's partner was the actress and cabaret artist Ilse Trautschold .
Filmography (selection)
- 1929: Troika
- 1929: Beyond the Street - Director: Leo Mittler , Albrecht Viktor Blum
- 1929: Mother Krausens drive into happiness - Director: Phil Jutzi
- 1930: Danton - Director: Hans Behrendt
- 1931: Luise, Queen of Prussia - Director: Carl Froelich
- 1931: M - Director: Fritz Lang
- 1931: Comradeship - Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst
- 1932: Rasputin, Demon of Women - Director: Adolf Sportwetten
- 1932: Me by day and you by night - Director: Ludwig Berger
- 1933: Morgenrot - Directed by Gustav Ucicky
- 1932: Raid in St. Pauli - Director: Werner Hochbaum
- 1933: Refugees - Director: Gustav Ucicky
- 1933: The Star of Valencia - Director: Alfred Zeisler
- 1934: Adventures of a Young Gentleman in Poland - Director: Gustav Fröhlich
- 1935: The girl Johanna
- 1935: Hundert Tage - Directed by Franz Wenzler
- 1935: Blood Brothers / Bosniaks - Director: JA Hübler-Kahla
- 1935: Executioners, women and soldiers - Director: Johannes Meyer
- 1938: Sergeant Berry - Director: Herbert Selpin
- 1938: Pour le Mérite - Director: Karl Ritter
- 1938: Northern Lights - Director: Herbert B. Fredersdorf
- 1938: Capriccio - Director: Karl Ritter
- 1938: Fahrendes Volk - Directed by Jacques Feyder
- 1938: Rubber - Director: Eduard von Borsody
- 1938: On a secret mission - Director: Jürgen von Alten
- 1938: Secret Sign LB 17 - Director: Viktor Tourjansky
- 1939: Legion Condor - Director: Karl Ritter
- 1939: Riots in Damascus - Directed by Gustav Ucicky
- 1947: Wozzeck - Director: Georg C. Klaren
- 1948: Abyss (short feature film) - Director: Herbert B. Fredersdorf
- 1949: Die Buntkarierten - Director: Kurt Maetzig
- 1949: Der Biberfurz - Director: Erich Engel
- 1949: Our Daily Bread - Director: Slatan Dudow
- 1950: Benthin family - directed by Kurt Maetzig , Slatan Dudow , Richard Groschopp
- 1951: The Subject - Director: Wolfgang Staudte
- 1952: Shadows over the Islands - Director: Otto Meyer
- 1952: The Fates of Women - Director: Slatan Dudow
- 1952: The Condemned Village - Director: Martin Hellberg
- 1952: Novel of a Young Marriage - Director: Kurt Maetzig
- 1953: Anna Susanna - Director: Richard Nicolas
- 1953: The story of little Muck - Director: Wolfgang Staudte
- 1954: Ernst Thälmann - son of his class - director: Kurt Maetzig
- 1954: Beacon - Director: Wolfgang Staudte
- 1955: Who loves his wife ... - Director: Kurt Jung-Alsen
- 1955: Das Stacheltier - Last compartment lower right (short film) - Director: Kurt Jung-Alsen
- 1955: Once is never - directed by Konrad Wolf
- 1956: Thomas Müntzer - A film of German history - Director: Martin Hellberg
- 1957: Katzgraben (theater recording) - directed by Max Jaap , Manfred Wekwerth
- 1957: Trace into the Night - Director: Günter Reisch
- 1957: Hunted until the morning - Director: Joachim Hasler
- 1957: The Most Beautiful - Director: Ernesto Remani
- 1957: Mother Courage and her children (theater recording)
- 1957: The torchbearer
- 1957: Casino Affair - Director: Arthur Pohl
- 1957: Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti (studio recording)
- 1958: Madeleine and the Legionnaire - Director: Wolfgang Staudte
theatre
- 1947: Boris Lawrenjow : Die Breach (Sailor) - Director: Heinz Wolfgang Litten ( House of Culture of the Soviet Union )
- 1948: Herrmann Mostar : The carpenter (grandfather) - Director: Wolfgang Böttcher ( Volksbühne Berlin )
- 1950: Jakob Michael Reinhold Lenz : Der Hofmeister - Director: Bertolt Brecht ( Berliner Ensemble in the Deutsches Theater Berlin )
- 1950: Bertolt Brecht: The Mother - Director: Bertolt Brecht (Berliner Ensemble in the Deutsches Theater Berlin)
- 1951: Gerhart Hauptmann : The Beaver Fur and the Red Rooster (Rauert) - Director: Egon Monk (Berliner Ensemble in the Deutsches Theater Berlin)
- 1952: Heinrich von Kleist : The Broken Jug (Farmer Tümpel) - Director: Therese Giehse (Berliner Ensemble in the Deutsches Theater Berlin)
- 1953: Bertolt Brecht: The Guns of Mrs. Carrar (Fischer) - Director: Egon Monk (Berliner Ensemble in the Deutsches Theater Berlin - Kammerspiele)
- 1953: Erwin Strittmatter : Katzgraben (Kleinschmidt) - Director: Bertolt Brecht (Berliner Ensemble)
- 1956: John Millington Synge : The Hero of the Western World (Innkeeper Flaherty) - Director: Manfred Wekwerth / Peter Palitzsch (Berliner Ensemble)
Radio plays
- 1932: Bertolt Brecht : Saint Joan of the slaughterhouses (Gloomb / young workers) - Director: Alfred Braun ( Funk-Hour Berlin )
- 1947: Hedda Zinner : Earth - Director: Hedda Zinner ( Berliner Rundfunk )
- 1956: William Shakespeare : Hamlet , Prince of Denmark (gravedigger) - Director: Martin Flörchinger (radio play - Broadcasting of the GDR )
- 1957: Hans J. Rehfisch : Colonel Chabert (Brissac) - Director: Hans Busse (Broadcasting of the GDR)
literature
- Hans-Michael Bock (Ed.): CineGraph. Lexicon for German-language films. Edition Text + Criticism, München 1984 ff. (Loseblattausgabe).
Web links
- www.defa-sternstunden.de Photos, short biography, filmography
- Friedrich Gnaß in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Friedrich Gnaß at filmportal.de
Individual evidence
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Gnaß, Friedrich |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German actor |
DATE OF BIRTH | November 13, 1892 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Langendreer , today Bochum |
DATE OF DEATH | May 8, 1958 |
Place of death | East Berlin |