Helmut Qualtinger

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Helmut Qualtinger (with Georg Biron on the right) 1985
Memorial plaque for Helmut Qualtinger at the Heiligenkreuzerhof in Vienna

Helmut Gustav Friedrich Qualtinger (born October 8, 1928 in Vienna ; † September 29, 1986 there ; often referred to as Helmuth Qualtinger ) was an Austrian actor , writer , cabaret artist and reciter .

Life

Origin and beginnings

Qualtinger grew up in the desire alley in the Viennese district third in the milieu of the upper middle class and educated middle class in Vienna. His father Friedrich was a grammar school teacher for mathematics, physics and chemistry at the Alsergrunder Realgymnasium IX Glasergasse (today Erich Fried Realgymnasium ) and an ardent National Socialist , his mother Ida, nee. Ladstätter, housewife. Qualtinger, who has been an avid reader since his youth, founded the "Mozart Stage", a youth theater , as a high school student together with Walter Kohut and the son of the castle actor Philipp Zeska . Their first performance ( “Nur keck!” By Johann Nestroy ) was attended by the writer Heimito von Doderer , who encouraged the director and leading actor Qualtinger to continue on this path. At first he studied medicine and journalism, but broke off his studies and began an acting training at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna; early attempts at theater in Vienna and Graz initially ended in failure.

Qualtinger worked as a journalist after the Second World War , was a guest student at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and played on a student stage. First appearances as a cabaret artist followed in 1947 in the studio of the universities in Vienna, in the cabaret revue Die Grimasse. However, he made his first public appearance in May 1945 as a self-appointed cultural commissioner. He was imprisoned by the Soviet occupying forces for three months because he had confiscated a villa for the establishment of a left-wing theater and recruited actors with a Soviet star on his chest and a self-made authorization letter. Qualtinger claimed that a friend of the mayor, Leopold Hofrichter, had authorized him, which he denied.

In 1949, his first play, Jugend vor den Schranken , premiered in Graz and caused a scandal when it premiered as a thug drama devoted to the impoverishment of post-war Austrian youth. A large part of the audience protested with loud shouts, especially in the scenes that expressed the symptoms of deterioration in this category of juvenile offenders. In the first third of the performance, the rallies took on such forms that a larger police force had to be requested to protect the actors. The peak of the demonstrations was reached when in one scene the actors playing the role of the public prosecutor as atonement demanded the death penalty and the audience shouted: “Yes, for the author!” The play was taken off the program the next morning. In the years up to 1960 he mainly worked on various cabaret pieces with the nameless ensemble ( Gerhard Bronner , Carl Merz , Louise Martini , Peter Wehle , Georg Kreisler , Michael Kehlmann ). His “Travnicek Dialogues” with Gerhard Bronner (authors: Merz and Qualtinger) have gone down in cabaret history.

Qualtinger was known for his practical jokes. In 1951 he achieved international popularity when he managed to launch a newspaper duck announcing the visit to Vienna of the famous Eskimo poet Kobuk with his sled dog novel Heia Musch Musch . Numerous reporters gathered on July 3, 1951 at Vienna's Westbahnhof. Instead of the expected guest, Helmut Qualtinger stepped out of the train with a fur coat and hat. When asked by a radio reporter about his first impression of Vienna, he replied: “Haaß is'” (it's hot).

Mr. Karl

In 1961 Qualtinger appeared in the one-person play Der Herr Karl (director: Erich Neuberg ) as a delicatessen magazine and made his breakthrough in the German-speaking world. Mr. Karl works in the basement of a grocery store and tells an imaginary colleague (in the film this is the camera) about his life before, during and after the war. On the surface, Mr. Karl appears to be a nice guy with a loving look (“I can see it”). But little by little, the viewer learns from the turn-neck and opportunist Mr. Karl that he is actually a dangerous, because unpredictable follower.

In all of this, the intonation is characteristic: from an admiration for the Nazis in Viennese , he suddenly changes to a kind of prescribed disgust in high-level language. Several authentic characters probably served as role models for Mr. Karl, including a magazine-maker with whom Qualtinger's colleague Nikolaus Haenel had worked in a Viennese delicatessen. Together with Carl Merz, Qualtinger created a horror figure in Mr. Karl , which brought him many enemies and even death threats in Austria; Nobody before him had so openly exposed and portrayed the average citizen as an accomplice.

Further activity

Helmut Qualtinger was seen more as a relentless critic of the common man than a critic of the powerful. Nevertheless, he was said to have brought about the resignation of Felix Hurdes , President of the National Council at the time, with the song Der Papa will fix it (text and music: Gerhard Bronner) ; his son was involved in a fatal car accident that was supposed to be covered up. He wrote his opinions and comments in a bourgeois newspaper, the Kurier ; For example, from 1955 to 1961, together with Carl Merz, the weekly glossary Blattl vor'm Mund.

1976 Qualtinger caused during an appearance in a drunken state in the broadcast 3 to 9 from Radio Bremen , among other things with the statement "The Deitschn san bleed" a TV scandal.

From the 1970s on, Qualtinger intensified his writing and went on reading tours more and more. His readings of his own and other texts (including Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf ) were so successful that they appeared on numerous phonograph records . In addition to and especially after his cabaret times, he played countless theater, film and television roles , most recently in 1986 the monk Remigio da Varagine in The Name of the Rose based on Umberto Eco's novel alongside Sean Connery .

death

Grave at the Vienna Central Cemetery

Qualtinger fell seriously ill while filming the film Der Name der Rose . During the last scenes of the film he had to be interrupted frequently because he was in severe pain. It was his last film. At the age of 57, Qualtinger died on September 29, 1986 in his native Vienna of alcohol-related cirrhosis of the liver . He is buried in a grave of honor in the Vienna Central Cemetery (group 33 G, number 73). His estate is kept in the manuscript collection of the Vienna Library in the City Hall .

Private

Helmut Qualtinger was married twice - first from 1952 to the children's and youth author Leomare Seidler (* December 18, 1919, † April 26, 1984) and from 1982 to the actress Vera Borek . He had a son from his first marriage, the painter, writer, musician and cabaret artist Christian Heimito Qualtinger (* 1958).

From 1960 to 1975 Helmut Qualtinger lived in a Viennese community building in the 19th district, Döbling (Paradisgasse - Daringergasse - Traklgasse, between Sieveringer Strasse and Grinzinger Allee). This community housing has been named Helmut-Qualtinger-Hof since 1998 . Most recently he was in the 1st district, Innere Stadt , tenant of a spacious apartment in the Heiligenkreuzer Hof , which belongs to the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Lower Austria .

2002 in the 3rd district, highway , on the site of the former abattoir and central livestock market Sankt Marx the Helmut-Qualtinger alley named after him.

Theater works

Qualtinger mainly appeared on stage at the Vienna Volkstheater under the direction and direction of Gustav Manker . In Johann Nestroy's An Apartment for Rent (1962) and as Titus Feuerfuchs in Der Talisman (1969), as examining magistrate Porfiri Petrowitsch in Dostojewski's Schuld und Atonement (1969) and as the magician in Tales from the Vienna Woods (1968), but also in Shakespeare / Dürrenmatt's König Johann (1970) and directed by Bernd Fischerauer in Wolfgang Bauer's premiere of Sylvester or the Massacre in Hotel Sacher (1971) and as the village judge Adam in Kleist's Der zerbrochne Krug (1972), which he previously performed in 1971 at the Hamburg Thalia Theater had played. Qualtinger played in Schiller's Der Parasit (1950, director: Gustav Manker), Fiscur in Molnar's Liliom (1960) and Schuster Knieriem in Nestroys Lumpazivagabundus (1964) at the Theater in der Josefstadt .

Specifically, Nestroy's Titus Feuerfuchs in Der Talisman was a break with the Viennese tradition of portrayal in Qualtinger's portrayal and completely abandoned the usual track of this role, "his physical bulk and sedate dangerousness was far removed from the 'alert, figurative mercury' of the charming Hallodris". Instead, he heaved a dangerous anarchist onto the stage. Brigitte Swoboda played the Salome Pockerl alongside him .

Filmography

Cabaret programs

  • "Die Grimasse", 1947, in the "Studio of the Universities" (Director: Michael Kehlmann)
  • "Blitzlichter", with Michael Kehlmann, Carl Merz, 1950, in the "Small Theater in the Konzerthaus"
  • "Reigen 51", with Michael Kehlmann, Carl Merz, Gerhard Bronner, 1951, in the "Small Theater in the Konzerthaus"
  • "Brettl vor'm Kopf", with Michael Kehlmann, Carl Merz, Gerhard Bronner, 1952, in the "Small Theater in the Konzerthaus"
  • "Blattl vor'm Mund", with Michael Kehlmann, Carl Merz, Gerhard Bronner, 1956, in the "Intimate Theater"
  • "Glasl vor'm Aug", 1956, in the "Intimate Theater"
  • "Spiegel vor'm Gsicht", 1958 (TV production)
  • "Dachl über'm Kopf", 1959
  • "Hackl vor'm Kreuz", 1959
  • "Der Herr Karl", with Carl Merz, 1961
  • "Everything saved", with Carl Merz, 1963
  • "The Execution", with Carl Merz, 1965

Discography

Awards

Helmut Qualtinger as a comic figure

As a cartoon character, Qualtinger had in 1967 in the animated short film Hands up, Mr. Rasnitchi! by Hal Clay and Flo Nordhoff an appearance. In 2014, Amalthea Signum Verlag published two comic books in which Qualtinger played drawn leading roles: Der Herr Karl (text: Helmut Qualtinger, Carl Merz; drawings: Christian Qualtinger ) & Der Blöde und der Gscheite - The best double conferences (text: Hugo Wiener ; drawings : Reinhard Trinkler ) as Travnicek. In the graphic novel Der Talisman (text: Johann Nestroy ; drawings: Reinhard Trinkler), published in 2015 by Edition Steinbauer , Qualtinger can be seen as a beer-silver bung.

literature

Primary literature
  • Helmut Qualtinger: work edition. Published by Traugott Krischke. Deuticke, Vienna.
    • Volume 1: “Der Herr Karl” and other texts for the theater. 1996.
    • Volume 2: “Brettl vor dem Kopf” and other texts for cabaret. 1996.
    • Volume 3: “Travnicek's Collected Works” and other texts for the stage. 1996.
    • Volume 4: “Home are you big dwarfs” and other texts for the stage. 1997.
    • Volume 5: Carl Merz and Helmut Qualtinger: "Blattl vorm Mund". Satires for the "New Courier". Illustrations by Rudolf Angerer . 1997.
  • Günter Krenn: Helmut Qualtinger. Work for film and television. Filmarchiv Austria , Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-901932-25-9 .
Secondary literature
  • Michael Kehlmann and Georg Biron , photographs a. a. by Franz Hubmann: The Qualtinger. A portrait. Krenmayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-218-00458-6 .
  • Michael Horowitz: Helmuth Qualtinger. Orac, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7015-0099-1 .
  • Gunna Wendt: Helmut Qualtinger. One life. Deuticke, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-216-30439-6 .
  • Arnold Klaffenböck: "You can't put make-up on your tongue ..." The writer Helmut Qualtinger and his texts 1945–1965. Edition Praesens, Vienna 2003, ISBN 3-7069-0181-1 .
  • Quasi a genius - Helmut Qualtinger (1928–1986). Published by Arnold Klaffenböck. Deuticke, Vienna. Catalog for the exhibition at the Wien Museum, October 2, 2003 to January 6, 2004, ISBN 3-216-30717-4 .
  • Georg Biron: Quasi Mr. Karl. Braumüller, Vienna 2011, ISBN 978-3-99100-046-4 .
  • Gero von Boehm : Helmut Qualtinger. December 8, 1983. Interview in: Encounters. Images of man from three decades. Collection Rolf Heyne, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-89910-443-1 , pp. 34–41.

Film portraits

  • Cabaret legends. Helmut Qualtinger. Documentary, Austria, 2016, 46:50 min., Script and director: Rudi Dolezal , production: Servus TV , series: Österreichische Kabarett-Legenden , first broadcast: October 20, 2016 on Servus TV, synopsis by Servus TV. Among others with Werner Schneyder , Georg Biron , Christian Qualtinger, Louise Martini , Gerhard Bronner (archive).
  • Qualtinger. Documentary, Austria, Germany, 2011, 90 min., Script and director: André Heller , production: Dor Film , ORF , ZDF , first broadcast: 25 September 2011, 11:05 pm on ORF 2 , DVD distribution: Hoanzl in der "ORF Edition", summary by Hoanzl, interview with Heller about his film portrait:.

Web links

Commons : Helmut Qualtinger  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Helmut Qualtinger  - Quotes

Photos, audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wiener Weltpresse , March 28, 1949. In: Günter Krenn: Helmut Qualtinger. Work for film and television. Filmarchiv Austria, 2003.
  2. ↑ Editor: Grand Master of Cabaret is dead. In: Der Standard . January 20, 2007, obituary for Gerhard Bronner.
  3. ↑ Newspaper article in the Oberösterreichisches Tagblatt dated August 4, 1976
  4. ↑ Qualtinger's 25th anniversary of death: Homesickness for Vienna in Vienna. In: The press . September 29, 2011, on the occasion of Qualtinger's 25th anniversary of death.
  5. ↑ Helmut Qualtinger is on Wednesday… In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . February 5, 1971, p. 14, bottom center.
  6. ^ Paulus Manker : The theater man Gustav Manker . Search for clues. Amalthea, Vienna 2010, ISBN 978-3-85002-738-0 .
  7. ↑ The Federal Railway Blues (1956)
  8. ↑ Andrea Schurian : Memories of a "human actor". In: Der Standard , September 22, 2011.
  9. ↑ Guido Tartarotti: Interview: André Heller on Qualtinger. In: Kurier , December 5, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Qualtinger, Helmut
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Qualtinger, Helmut Gustav Friedrich (full name); Qualtinger, Helmuth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian cabaret artist and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna , Austria
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 1986
Place of death Vienna