Hans Heinrich von Twardowski

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Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (born May 5, 1898 in Stettin , † November 19, 1958 in New York City ) was a German actor .

Life

He was the son of the later Prussian Lieutenant General Heinrich von Twardowski (1842-1913) and Auguste, née von Holleben (1850-1931). His older brother was the diplomat Fritz von Twardowski .

In 1918 the first edition of his book Der Rasende Pegasus , a collection of small, parodic essays, appeared. The following year, the greatly expanded second edition was published by another Berlin publisher. Many of the essays appeared in advance on the Weltbühne . There Kurt Tucholsky already wrote about Twardowski's parodistic premiere, a reading in the Berlin Secession :

“The young Herr von Twardowski, as he calls himself, read his parodies and satires in the Berlin Secession. It was a lot of fun. Since Mauthner and Gumppenberg finally a parodist again, and one who has come up with a completely new nuance: to let the mocked say literary epigrams about himself in his manner. "

- Kurt Tucholsky

Hans Heinrich von Twardowski made his acting debut at the Berlin Lessing Theater in 1919 . In the twenties he appeared at various Berlin theaters such as the Deutsches Theater and the Staatstheater , especially in plays by Carl Sternheim and Arnolt Bronnen . As a student Alan, who is later murdered, he made his debut in the silent film classic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari from 1920. In the years that followed, Twardowski played mainly complicated, tragic characters such as the amorous murderer Florian in Genuine , the young noblewoman in Marizza, who was subservient to a crook , known as the smuggler Madonna or the mad Prince Otto in Ludwig the Second, King of Bavaria . The film Phantom had its premiere on November 13, 1922 , only a short time after the publication of the book of the same name by Gerhart Hauptmann . Screenwriters were Thea von Harbou and Hans Heinrich von Twardowski. The director Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau dedicated this film to Hauptmann's sixtieth birthday.

At the beginning of the sound film age, he moved to the United States around 1930. After participating in two German-language versions of Hollywood productions, he embodied elegant Europeans in several English-language films in the 1930s. He also worked as a director and actor at the Pasadena Playhouse , St. Felix Street Playhouse ( Brooklyn ) and from 1941 on Broadway . In the end, the determined Nazi opponent Twardowski was only allowed to appear on the screen as a German uniform in anti-Nazi films, such as an officer in a tiny appearance in the classic Casablanca or even as Reinhard Heydrich in Die Henker , the film adaptation made by Fritz Lang of the Heydrich assassination attempt. In 1944 he withdrew from the film business and in the last years of his life worked primarily in the theater.

From the early 1930s until his death, Twardowski was in a relationship with his fellow actor Martin Kosleck , which is referred to, among other things, in the extensive correspondence between Twardowski and his close friend Marlene Dietrich . In 1958, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski died of a heart attack at the age of 60.

Filmography

literature

  • Paul Bernhardt (di: Hans Heinrich von Twardowski): The mad Pegasus. With a foreword by Mynona . Barger, Berlin 1918 (2nd, greatly increased edition. (= The Youngest Night. Vol. 1). A. Juncker, Berlin 1919).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Date of death according to CineGraph and IMDb ; at Filmportal.de November 18th, at Kay Less : The big personal dictionary of the film November 28th
  2. ↑ http://www.transodra-online.net/de/node/17166
  3. ↑ Paul Bernhardt (pseudonym of Hans Heinrich von Twardowski): Der rasende Pegasus . With a foreword by Mynona (pseudonym of Salomo Friedlaender ). 1st edition. Barger, Berlin 1918, DNB  996866442 .
  4. ↑ Hans Heinrich von Twardowski: The raging Pegasus . 2nd Edition. Axel Juncker, Berlin 1919, DNB  361781067 .
  5. ^ Peter Panter (= Kurt Tucholsky): New parodies by Hans Heinrich von Twardowski . In: The world stage . tape 2 , no. 14 , 1919, pp. 558 .
  6. ↑ Gerald Bär: The motif of the doppelganger as a split fantasy in literature and in German silent films . Rodopi, Amsterdam; New York 2005, ISBN 90-420-1874-7 , pp. 333 f .
  7. ↑ Marlene's best friend: Hans Heinrich von Twardowski (May 5, 1898 to November 19, 1958) - Search for traces on the 60th anniversary of death - SMU. Retrieved September 18, 2019 (German).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Twardowski, Hans Heinrich von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bernhardt, Paul (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH May 5, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Szczecin , German Empire
DATE OF DEATH November 19, 1958
Place of death New York City , United States of America