Herti Kirchner

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Herti Kirchner (born September 3, 1913 in Kiel as Herta Kirchner ; † May 1, 1939 in Berlin ) was a German actress and writer close to Erich Kästner .

Life

Herti was the daughter of the master roofer Franz Joseph Kirchner and the teacher Herta Kirchner geb. Hartmann. Instead of the mother, who died early, Herti Kirchner was brought up by a housekeeper (“Fräulein Sorge” in “Lütte”) and indirectly by the mother's three unmarried sisters and an aunt. All were teachers who lived in Kiel (Paula, Julia) and Heide (Marina). She evaded this care by secretly taking acting lessons at the Kiel City Theater and then leaving her parents' home against the will of the family.

On May 29, 1931, she married Heinrich Weidinger , who was Kapellmeister at the Stadttheater and director of the Salzwedel Municipal Orchestra . On January 10, 1933, the marriage was divorced in Berlin, with Herti Kirchner taking sole responsibility.

She made her debut in 1930 at the Stadttheater von Salzwedel. In 1932 she went to Berlin and a year later got her first engagement at the German Art Theater . She mainly took on comical and naive roles and was also active as a cabaret artist and soubrette, most recently at the Lustspielhaus .

In her first film, Kampf um Blond , she received the lead role at the age of twenty. She played a schoolgirl who escaped from the reform home and tried herself as a dancer. In the thirties she acted in several films. In 1933 she met the thirteen years older writer Erich Kästner , with whom she was friends in the following years.

In 1937 she published the youth book Lütte. Story of a childhood friendship , which followed in 1938 Who wants to be among the Indians? . Since Kästner was forbidden to write at the time, it was assumed that both books could have come from him.

death

Herti Kirchner died on May 1, 1939 at 5:00 a.m. in a car accident in Berlin. The funeral service took place in Berlin on May 6, 1939, the burial in Kiel at the Südfriedhof on May 8, 1939. Erich Kästner identified the deceased and, because of the shock of her death, avoided driving himself for the rest of his life, preferring instead to take a taxi. Kästner sent money for grave flowers to Paula Hartmann several times, at least until 1943.

Authoring work

Herti obviously wrote her texts on notepads during breaks in performances in the theater or other engagements and later typed them out herself. That Kästner acted as a consultant and editor is, among other things. a. evidenced in various manuscripts by numerous suggestions for changes made in pencil in Kästner's handwriting. The changes requested by the publisher also contributed to the formal similarities between the children's books.

A more precise assessment of the shares of Herti Kirchner and Erich Kästner is still pending. Kirchner was the source of the ideas and the author of the first versions of the manuscripts that reveal a collaboration; However, Kästner's contribution with regard to more concise and more accurate formulations and possibly form suitable for the stage or film is unmistakable.

In 1938, the Nazi teachers' association put “Lütte” on the index of books unsuitable for German schoolchildren. As a result, the book trade no longer ordered both books on a large scale. H. Kirchner's attempts to have the decision revoked were unsuccessful until her death. A third children's book was already in preparation in 1938.

Finished and unfinished manuscripts and typescripts of
• short stories (partly under the pseudonym Hanne Timm); in one of them there is a dog "Nauke"
• frivolous poems and monologues (presumably for / from appearances and programs)
• stage play, scripts
• the handwritten versions of "Lütte" and "Schwarzfußindianer" (published as "Who wants among the Indians") as well as
• material collections.

Letters in the Hartmann / Kirchner estate

  • A. About 170 mostly weekly letters and cards to the aunts and their father with reports from Berlin and trips. Kästner (mostly just as Erich or E.) and his Berlin colleagues and friends Keindorf, Bure, Ohser , Vollmoeller and others are mentioned as if they were well known in Kiel and Heide. A common acquaintance of Erich Kästner, Herti Kirchner and their aunts was also the Berlin bookseller "Hansi" Hein, who came from Hennstedt (near Heide). Kästner asked Paula Hartmann about his fate after the bombing raid on Berlin in 1943.
  • B. Some cards and letters from Erich Kästner and Elfriede Mechnig to Paula Hartmann between 1940 and 1947.

Filmography

  • 1932: Battle for Blond
  • 1932: Eight girls in the boat
  • 1933: The tank girl
  • 1933: Gretel draws the big lot
  • 1933: Everyone participates
  • 1934: Spring fairy tale
  • 1934: The cuckoo at the wheel
  • 1934: Pappi
  • 1934: Mr. Kobin goes on an adventure
  • 1935: Schnitzel flies
  • 1935: The present
  • 1936: specialist for everything
  • 1936: Listen, listen, the lark in the ethereal blue
  • 1936: Blind zeal
  • 1936: The mysterious Mister X
  • 1936: You are so beautiful, Berliner
  • 1936: soldiers - comrades
  • 1936: How Eulenspiegel painted the Landgrave in Marburg
  • 1936: We congratulate
  • 1937: The musician from Dornburg
  • 1937: The niece from the USA
  • 1938: Love letters from the Engadine
  • 1938: The enemy fathers
  • 1938: Freight from Baltimore
  • 1939: The Florentine hat
  • 1939: who kisses Madeleine?

Theater, cabaret, radio and television

  • 1934 with Heinz Rühmann in "Mustergatten" on tour through Germany
  • 1935 April-May Tingel-Tangel, Berlin
  • 1937, 1. – 31. October: Cabaret (Hofgarten Games) Annast Munich
  • 1938, from August Lustspielhaus, Berlin, Friedrichstrasse

In addition to theater, cabaret and film, she had numerous small engagements in radio and television, e.g. B. 1938: approx. 25 recordings as an actress, speaker or singer, e.g. Sometimes especially chansons, at Reichsrundfunk Berlin GmbH , Reichssender Stuttgart , TV station Berlin, TV station Paul Nipkow , mostly “live”, otherwise “wax recordings” (next to Metro Goldwyn Mayer Berlin and Luis Trenker Film this year).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview, Nordische Rundschau, 25./26. March 1937
  2. ^ Death certificate from the Berlin-Wilmersdorf registry office dated May 4, 1939
  3. ↑ There are different details about the date of death. Filmportal.de and two of the well-known biographies name May 1st as the day of death. In the article “Erich Kästner and Herti Kirchner” there is the quote from the Kästner note “Herti is dead. Car accident on May 1st at 5:00 am.” Shortly afterwards (Kirchner's films and children's books), however, reference is made to the fact that the date of death was 22. April known. IMDb and the third biography mention April 22nd, Kay Less in The Film's Big Personal Lexicon as November 22nd
  4. ^ Letter from the publisher, C. Dressler, dated August 25, 1938
  5. ^ Letter to the aunts undated (mid-July 1938)
  6. ↑ Scripts each with synopsis and short version: Sixty-seven Freckles. A short sound film by Terra Filmkunst GmbH Book Herti Kirchner. Typographic carbon copy, 67 pages, undated.
    The dimensions of Venus,
    1st synopsis , without author, with handwritten corrections Erich Kästner
    2nd synopsis Herti Kirchner (with incorporated corrections)
    3rd version Idea: Hertha Plessow (pseudonym Herti Kirchner), script: Harald Röbbeling IMDb , without pagination, 22 images, approx. 50 pages. (1 and 2 HK typewriters, 3 probably Meschnig)
  7. ↑ Ohser noted in a "Father and Son", Vol. 2, dedicated to H. Kirchner, in the margin of the sequence of pictures Unsuccessful ingratiation : "Suggestion Herti Kirchner"
  8. ^ Postcard to Paula Hartmann dated August 30, 1943
  9. ↑ program booklet Annast October 1938th

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Kirchner, Herti
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kirchner, Herta; Timm, Hanne; Plessow, Hertha (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actress and writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH May 1, 1939
Place of death Berlin