Hans Meyer-Hanno

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Stumbling block for Hans Meyer-Hanno in Berlin

Hans Meyer-Hanno (born June 3, 1906 in Hanover as Hans Fritz Martin Karl Meyer , † April 20, 1945 in Bautzen ) was a German resistance fighter , painter, set designer, musician, cabaret artist and actor , one of the most active batch performers on the stage and in the film of the " Third Reich ".

Life

Meyer-Hanno received his artistic training at the age of 16 from Hilde Müller-Gerloff in Berlin. After about two years he returned to Hanover in 1923 and began his career as a theater painter in his hometown. From 1925 to 1928 Meyer-Hanno worked as a director of the painting room at the Reussisches Theater in Gera . He was then appointed to Werner Finck's cabaret “ Die Katakombe ” for two years . In addition, Meyer-Hanno appeared in the Berlin cabaret “Larifari”.

From 1931 to 1933 the KPD member Meyer-Hanno belonged to the communist-proletarian theater collective "Truppe 31" under the direction of Gustav von Wangenheim . Meyer-Hanno, who had already gained a little experience with the celluloid medium in front of the camera as a minor actor for the UFA , concentrated after the Nazis came to power at the beginning of 1933 on work on film, which was initially not overly politicized, where he produced a large number of noble batches , especially Berlin types - simple bobbyists or petty crooks, also in Nazi propaganda films - embodied.

He also frequently worked as a voice actor in German versions of foreign films; Meyer-Hanno was, for example, the German voice of Raymond Massey in the historical adventure romance Die Scharlachrote Blume ( The Scarlet Pimpernel , Great Britain 1934), which premiered in Germany in spring 1935 . Nevertheless, he remained connected to the stage (including the Komödienhaus and Komische Oper). Amandus in Max Halbe's youth was one of his most important theater roles in the Third Reich ; Meyer-Hanno had the silent film legend Asta Nielsen , whose pimp he played, as a partner in The Stranger Woman . His participation (with the part of Hermann) in Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber (at the side of Heinrich George ) in the context of open-air performances in Friedrichshagen ( Städtisches Naturtheater ) led in autumn 1938 to a permanent engagement at the Schiller-Theater of the Reich capital, which George had directed since the previous year . Meyer-Hanno remained connected to this stage until the end (1944).

In addition to his work as an actor, Meyer-Hanno, who was married to a Jewish pianist and piano teacher (seven years his senior), lived a second, double life: as a committed communist, he actively participated in resistance activities - a member of the Beppo group Romans , to be assigned to the environment of the "Red Chapel" - against the brown regime. Contrary to what is often claimed after 1945, he was not arrested in the Schiller Theater in 1943 or during filming in 1944, nor was he drafted into the Volkssturm in 1945. The claim that he was shot from behind because he refused to pick up a gun as a Volkssturm man is also incorrect. (All of these claims that have been circulating to this day are based on false statements made after the war.)

Rather, Meyer-Hanno, according to the statement of his son Andreas, who was present at the time, was immediately - one or two days - after the Hitler assassination attempt (July 20, 1944) during a vacation on a farm near Grünberg in the Salzkammergut in what was then " Ostmark " (today's Austria) arrested and taken to Berlin. The official charge: " Failure to report a communist company " - Hans Meyer-Hanno's name was on a list of people who had received information material (leaflets) and which had fallen into the hands of the Gestapo . However, he was able to give credible assurance that he had not produced any leaflets, but had simply not given this material to the Gestapo. The actor was nevertheless sentenced on October 4, 1944 by the People's Court to three years in prison, which he had to serve in Bautzen .

Recruited in the remaining days of the war as the last contingent against the oncoming Red Army , Hans Meyer-Hanno tried to climb over a wall while digging trenches and was shot from behind on the last birthday of the “Führer” . His Jewish wife Irene Meyer-Hanno , née Sager, survived him by almost forty years. Meyer-Hanno's older son was the renowned opera director Prof. Dr. Andreas Meyer-Hanno , the younger son Georg Meyer-Hanno, worked as an author and photographer for ZDF .

Filmography (without minor appearances 1931–1933)

theatre

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. 249 (there also Irene Meyer-Hanno, p. 402).
  • Ulrich Liebe: adored, persecuted, forgotten. Beltz, Weinheim 2005, p. 237. ISBN 3-407-22168-1
  • Kurt Fricke: Playing on the Abyss - Heinrich George. A political biography. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 2000, pp. 141–144. ISBN 3-89812-021-X

Web links

Commons : Hans Meyer-Hanno  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Meyer-Hanno, Hans
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Meyer, Hans Fritz Martin Karl (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German resistance fighter, painter, set designer, musician, cabaret artist and actor
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 1945
Place of death Bautzen