Henri Châtin Hofmann

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Henri Châtin Hofmann (also Henri Chatin-Hofmann , actually Heinrich Victor Agricola Hofmann , born May 25, 1900 in Baltimore , † January 7, 1961 there ) was an American dancer.

Life

Hofmann was born as one of four children and the only son of the German-American pastor of the Zionskirche Julius Hofmann (1865–1928) and his wife Adele, b. Châtin, born. At his confirmation in 1915 he insisted on changing his first name and took the maiden name of his mother as a middle name to.

He came to Berlin in the 1920s . Here he became the third husband of the dancer Anita Berber in 1924 . In Berlin they caused a sensation with a completely naked live dance performance in a film showing of Dante's Divine Comedy in the Capitol theater. Together the couple undertook several tours overshadowed by scandals with their program Dances of Eroticism and Ecstasy until Anita Berber collapsed in Damascus in 1928 and died four months later in Berlin.

Klaus Mann describes the couple sensitively in his obituary for Anita Berber in the magazine “ Die Bühne ” (1930).

After Anita Berber's death, Henri returned to the USA and tried his own career as a creative dancer . He spent many years as a patient in Spring Grove, a state hospital near Baltimore, where he died in early 1961. He is buried in the Western Cemetery in Baltimore.

literature

  • Pierre Van Rensselaer Key, Irene E. Haynes: Pierre Key's musical who's who: a biographical survey of contemporary musicians. New York: P. Key 1931, p. 119
  • Klaus Mann: Memories of Anita Berber . With a photo of Madame d'Ora . In: Die Bühne , born 1930, issue 275, pp. 43– 44 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Confirmation Register, Zion Church of the City of Baltimore
  2. ↑ Dante's Inferno (1924 film) in the English language Wikipedia
  3. ↑ Hans Poelzig : The Capitol. In: Der Cross Section 10 (91926), pp. 750ff.
  4. ↑ See for example the representation in Lothar Fischer: Anita Berber. Goddess of the night. Edition Ebersbach, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-938740-23-X
  5. ↑ Klaus Mann: Memory of Anita Berber. In: The stage. 7 (1930), No. 275, pp. 43-44
  6. ↑ Entry (1931) in Pierre Key's musical who's who (Lit.)
  7. ^ Spring Grove Hospital Center at Wikipedia
  8. ↑ Death Records, Zion Church of the City of Baltimore
personal data
SURNAME Hofmann, Henri Châtin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chatin-Hofmann, Henri; Hofmann, Heinrich Victor Agricola (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American dancer
DATE OF BIRTH May 25, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Baltimore
DATE OF DEATH January 7, 1961
Place of death Baltimore