Grethe Weiser

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Grethe Weiser , born as Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe Nowka (born February 27, 1903 in Hanover , † October 2, 1970 in Bad Tölz ), was a German stage and film actress .

Life

Grethe Weiser, Appearance in the Berlin Winter Garden (1932)

youth

The daughter of a building contractor grew up in Klotzsche and Dresden . She attended the secondary school for girls and the Friedel private school in Blasewitz .

At the age of 17 she married the confectionery wholesaler and manufacturer Josef Weiser. The couple initially lived in Dresden; Their son was born in 1922. After her husband leased the cabaret theater “Charlott” on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin , Grethe Weiser made her first appearances there as a diseuse .

A short time later, the marriage broke up, but they did not divorce until 1934. Grethe Weiser was now on her own as a single mother, she took singing and acting lessons and performed as a soubrette and comedian in numerous cabarets, revues and operettas . From 1928 to 1930 she worked at the Volksbühne in Berlin, then appeared in various Berlin cabarets and as a chanson singer . She had other appearances, for example, at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg or at the Komödienhaus in Dresden .

The film actress

Grethe Weiser made her debut in front of the camera in 1930. As a film actress , she acted regularly from 1932. She was in great demand in important supporting roles as a “quick-witted maid on duty”, for example in Escapade (1936). At the same time, she had successful hits as a singer with chansons such as “Der Vamp” or “Emil seine hands”.

Her final breakthrough came in 1937 with Erich Waschneck's film The Divine Jette . Weiser shines in it as a young singer who asserts herself with healthy self-confidence and a Berlin punk and rises to become a celebrated star. Also in 1937 she played the leading role in the film Girls for Everything .

After that she played almost only supporting roles in films of all genres, in which she was able to show the entire repertoire of her comic talent, for example in Rolf Hansen's Die große Liebe (1942), in Helmut Käutner's We Make Music (1942), in Carl Froelichs The Buchholz family (1944) or in Georg Jacoby's The Woman of My Dreams (1944).

She successfully resisted the request to join the board of the Reichstheaterkammer and thus the NSDAP .

post war period

Berlin memorial plaque on Giesebrechtstrasse 18 in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Grethe Weiser quickly made friends in post-war films and starred in numerous entertainment films, often as a triumphant widow, resolute aunt or feared mother-in-law. Her trademark remained: a heart with a snout. She was seen in Hans Deppe's Ferien vom Ich (1952) - as a stage star in need of rest, Käthe Greiser - Meine Kinder und ich (1955), Lemke's Sel. Widow (1957) or So you don't fish a man (1959) and worked in more than 100 films with. Her few appearances on the radio include the comedy You can tell me a lot with Heinz Rühmann and Elfriede Kuzmany from 1949 by director Ulrich Erfurth .

From 1934 she was in a relationship with the Ufa production manager Hermann Schwerin , whom she married on March 21, 1958 after 24 years.

In 1949, under the direction of her friend Ida Ehre in Hamburg , she played the role of Mary Miller in the comedy Das Kuckucksei by Irma and Walter Firner, which became her star role . She played this role every ten years and therefore jokingly called it "my Oberammergau Passion Play ". She also had success on stage in 1953 as mother Wolffen in Gerhart Hauptmann's classic crook comedy Der Biberpelz . In 1966, in the German premiere of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's play The Meteor at the Thalia Theater Hamburg , she ventured into the serious character field as the dying toilet woman Nomsen . In this role she was unusually quiet, serious and angry. This foray into serious business remained the exception in her long career as a popular actress.

Cheerful plays also found their way onto television in the later 1960s. The ZDF transferred numerous pieces with Grethe Weiser. One of the most successful pieces, which is still occasionally repeated on the ZDF's culture channels, was No corpse without Lily , the German adaptation of the crime grotesque Busybody by British playwright Jack Popplewell .

In 1969 preparations began for a new edition of Das Kuckucksei , which this time, on September 26, 1970, was also broadcast on ZDF. This was preceded by the shooting of the six-part television series Theatergarderobe based on scripts by Horst Pillau . In it, Weiser played a resolute cloakroom attendant who acts as the good spirit of the actors behind the scenes and has the right advice on his lips for all situations.

Death and grave

Honorary grave of Grethe Weiser in the Heerstrasse cemetery in Berlin-Westend

Grethe Weiser died on October 2, 1970 at the age of 67 as a result of a traffic accident . The Citroën DS driven by her husband collided head-on with a truck with right of way in Untersteinbach near Bad Tölz . While the other inmates - the husband, a housekeeper and the landlady with whom the Weiser-Schwerin couple went on vacation - were immediately dead, the actress died only after the emergency workers tried to rescue them .

The funeral of Grethe Weiser and Hermann Schwerin took place on October 9, 1970 in the state-owned cemetery in Heerstraße in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg (today's Westend district ). In addition to the Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Schütz and numerous colleagues, several thousand other people took part in the funeral service.

By resolution of the Berlin Senate , the last resting place of Grethe Weiser (grave location: 18-L-228/229) has been dedicated as an honorary grave of the State of Berlin since 1978 . The dedication was extended in 1999 by the now usual period of twenty years.

Trivia

From 1934 she owned a summer house on the Blauen See near Neu Wiednitz .

A street in Neu-Ulm was named after her. It is near a cinema and other streets with actors' names.

Awards

Filmography

movie theater

Television (selection)

  • 1955: Premiere in the Metropol (TV movie)
  • 1964: Something is happening in the Tingeltangel (TV film - ZDF, March 6, 1964)
  • 1965: The Boss (TV movie)
  • 1965: Jenny and the gentleman in tails (TV movie)
  • 1967: No corpse without Lily (TV movie)
  • 1968: Appearance on the Rudi Carrell Show (TV show)
  • 1969: The Locomotive (TV movie)
  • 1969: Berlin Whispers (TV show; broadcast in 1970)
  • 1970: Lion wanted (TV movie)
  • 1970: The Dear Children (TV movie)
  • 1970: Das Kuckucksei (TV movie)
  • 1970: As beautiful as it is today (TV show)
  • 1970: Theater wardrobe (TV series; broadcast in 1971)
  • 1975: Heart with a Snout (TV documentary)
  • 1983: Beloved Grethe (TV documentary)

Discography (selection)

  • 1935: Chiribiri , text and music: Ralph Benatzky : song of the bar singer from the musical comedy Das kleine Café , Grete Weiser with orchestra, conductor: Willi Lachner, Parlophone No. B 97 188-II
  • 1935: A white woman with a raspberry shot , music: Ralph Benatzky, text: Ch. K. Roellinghoff, from the musical comedy Das kleine Café , Victor de Kowa in dialogue with Grethe Weiser, accompaniment: Orchester des Deutschen Künstlertheater, Berlin, conductor: Willi Lachner, Odeon No. O-25318 b
  • 1936: We like this world , music: Harald Böhmelt , text: Aldo von Pinelli , from the film Raub der Sabinerinnen , (director: Robert Adolf Stemmle ), dance orchestra with singing: Grethe Weiser, Odeon Nr. Prv. 352
  • 1938: The main thing is ... Chanson from the comedy visit in the evening , music and text: Willi Kollo , Grethe Weiser with the Admiralspalast Orchestra, conductor: Werner Albrecht, gramophone No. 47275 b + chanson from the comedy "Visit in the evening ", Music and text: Willi Kollo," Tell me good night quickly ", orchestra of the theater in the Admiralspalast under Werner Albrecht

literature

Documentary film

  • Beloved Grethe. Memories of Grethe Weiser - TV documentary by Hans Borgelt, Germany 1983, ZDF

Web links

Commons : Grethe Weiser  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Grethe Weiser had a fatal accident . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . Saturday / Sunday, 3rd / 4th October 1970. pp. 1 and 24. Retrieved November 24, 2019.
  2. ^ Farewell to Grethe Weiser . In: Hamburger Abendblatt . Saturday / Sunday, 10./11. October 1970. p. 1. Accessed November 24, 2019.
  3. ↑ Senate Department for Environment, Transport and Climate Protection: Honorary Graves of the State of Berlin (Status: November 2018) (PDF, 413 kB), p. 91. Accessed on November 24, 2019. Submission - for information - about the recognition and further preservation of graves well-known and deserving personalities as honorary graves in Berlin. Berlin House of Representatives, printed matter 13/4050 of 23 August 1999, p. 3. Accessed on 24 November 2019.
  4. ↑ Petra Siemon: Great Diva Grethe Weiser: Your summer house is now threatened with extinction. (No longer available online.) In: sz-online.de. Sächsische Zeitung , September 28, 2011, archived from the original on June 25, 2018 ; accessed on November 3, 2018 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sz-online.de
personal data
SURNAME Sage, Grethe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Nowka, Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German stage and film actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH 2nd October 1970
Place of death Bad Tölz