Josef Kainz

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Josef Kainz. Photo by Erwin Raupp
Josef Kainz in the role of Henri from The Green Cockatoo by Arthur Schnitzler (1900)
Josef Kainz (portrait of Wilhelm Trübner )
Josef Kainz (Portrait of Ludwig Keller , 1895)

Josef Gottfried Ignaz Kainz (born January 2, 1858 in Wieselburg (today Mosonmagyaróvár ), † September 20, 1910 in Vienna ) was an Austrian actor .

Josef Kainz is considered one of the greatest German-speaking theater actors. In his honor, the Kainz Medal was awarded every year in Austria from 1958 to 1999 for important achievements by actors and directors.

Life

Kainz was the son of the former actor and railway official Josef Alexander Kainz and his wife Mathilde (born Bernhardt, 1835-1884). After his father's early accidental death, he received significant support from his mother, who valued the theater and recognized him as a talented actor. So Kainz turned to the stage and made his debut at the age of fifteen at the Sulkowskitheater in Matzleinsdorf . In 1874 Kainz took acting lessons from Caesarine Kupfer-Gomansky , received his first engagement as a lover in Marburg an der Drau in the following year and was committed to the New City Theater of Leipzig in 1876 , before he began his engagement at the Meininger Hoftheater in 1877 . In 1879 Kainz went on a tour of Germany with this ensemble, followed in 1880 a call by Ernst von Possart to the Court and National Theater in Munich , where he repeatedly took over leading roles in separate performances for King Ludwig II of Bavaria . Josef Kainz, Emil Rohde (1839–1913) and Franz Innozenz Nachbaur (1830–1903) were the three Munich stage artists who had close personal relationships with King Ludwig II. Since 1883 Kainz worked at the newly founded Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where he developed into the most famous German-speaking character actor of his time and shone as Hamlet , Richard II , Don Carlos and Franz Moor in Friedrich Schiller's drama Die Räuber . His mother, with whom he was in lively correspondence, followed him to Berlin after her illness in 1883 and died there in April of the following year. Kainz had her buried in St. Hedwig's cemetery. His first marriage was the German-American Sara Hutzler , who died in 1893. In June 1898 he married again, this time Margarethe (Grete) Nathanson, b. 1858 in Berlin, which outlived him by decades and only died in Vienna in 1950.

In 1889 he followed the director Ludwig Barnay to his newly opened Berlin theater , but broke his contract after differences with him. He was then expelled from the theater club. He and his wife joined in 1891 to a successful American tour, other guest performances led him (see. The way to Russia Russian Travel by Hermann Bahr ).

Then Kainz played again at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, and in 1899 the longed-for engagement began at the Burgtheater in Vienna , to which the director Max Burckhardt appointed him as Mitterwurzer's successor. Here he was appointed court actor on Christmas Eve 1899 and then switched to the difficult character subject . The widower had meanwhile been married a second time. Kainz created numerous roles here, including Shylock and Tartuffe. He worked here for ten years until, after lengthy negotiations, he was awarded a six-year vacation. The incompatible and capricious artist could no longer meet the quality demands on the part of this theater, which in his opinion was civilized .

Josef Kainz died on 20 September 1910 at the Vienna sanatorium Loew of colon cancer , five days after his appointment to the Court Theater Director.

His honorary grave is located in the Döblinger Friedhof in Vienna (group 18, number 15).

Career

Josef Kainz as Romeo (around 1895)

After entering the Mariahilfer Realgymnasium, Kainz played theater himself for the first time in school performances. At the age of 15 he was on stage in the “amateur theater of Karl Kappermann” and later he played with Valentin Niklas, former head of the Burgtheater extras series, in a private theater - a kind of rehearsal stage for young talents. In the spring of 1874, Kainz was introduced to the castle actress Césarine Kupfer, who criticized his pronunciation and dialect, but gave him speaking and acting lessons in the months that followed.

On May 4, 1875, Kainz auditioned at the Burgtheater as an actor - among others for Förster, who was already preparing his direction in Leipzig. Since Kainz still seemed too inexperienced to the designated director Förster, it was considered that he should first try out a year in the province. So Kainz first went to the royal court theater in Kassel, but received no engagement there after his guest appearances, but received an offer from Director Dietz in 1875 to go to Marburg an der Drau as “first hero and lover”. As a 17-year-old he played there almost every day and wrote just as often to his parents in Vienna.

On June 21, 1876, Förster fulfilled his promise and gave Kainz an engagement in Leipzig. With enormous expectations of Förster's theater, Kainz hoped that his talent would be fully encouraged here. Although Kainz was able to celebrate numerous successes on the Leipzig stage, Förster did not cast the cast as Kainz had hoped. Since he wanted to play in order to learn and to advance further, he kept clashing with Förster until it finally came to a falling out.

However, Kainz did not remain without commitment for long. He moved to the Meininger Hoftheater where he had his first appearance on August 27, 1877. Until 1880 he went on tour with the Meiningers and played on many big stages, such as in Berlin, Frankfurt, Vienna and Prague. However, as later records show, he does not seem to have been really enthusiastic about the performance practice of the Meininger (such as the proper style, historical accuracy in costume and decoration).

So after three years he left Meininger in order to advance artistically on another stage. He first appeared at the Munich Court Theater on September 4, 1880, in Schiller's Maria Stuart as Mortimer. However, his Munich debut was a failure. His second role as Romeo in Shakespeare's drama Romeo and Juliet was far more successful. On April 30, 1881 Kainz played in a private performance for King Ludwig of Bavaria the young Didier in the drama Marion Delorme of Victor Hugo . The king was immediately enthusiastic about the slim and sensitive actor. He made friends with him and wished that Kainz and Didier would become one. Didier was Kainz to him, and Kainz was Didier. Kainz accompanied King Ludwig II as a reader on some of his many trips. He had to be available to the monarch at any time of the day or night and declaim the desired parts from plays. When the artist once refused to go to the king because he was exhausted, the king withdrew his benevolence from him. The actor's wife, Sarah Hutzler, wrote about the relationship between king and actor: The confidentiality of their intercourse made the partition, which lay in the position of the artist to the monarch, completely sunk. And so it happened that in the course of the days it was no longer artist and king, but man and man who faced each other. The artist must gradually lose his shyness of majesty, and with the originality of his youthful heart he may have often jumped too far over the chasm of positions, too often felt himself a preferred friend, than entitled to speak as he liked , and to think how the thoughts just come (Hutzler 1886, p. 478). Kainz took part in two private performances for the king, who had the artist presented with an emerald ring, a writing set and a painted coat of arms in recognition of his acting achievements. The actor's request to be allowed to say goodbye in person before leaving for Berlin was not fulfilled by the king.

In 1883 Kainz moved to the newly opened German Theater in Berlin, where he celebrated countless theater successes in the years that followed. When the Berlin theater opened in Berlin in 1887, Kainz initially wanted to move there, as he was hoping for a new artistic challenge under Director Barnay. But when Kainz discovered that he was wrong about Barnay, he broke his contract after long negotiations, so that the stage arbitration court sentenced him to a heavy fine and a ban on the theater. Kainz then toured Germany with lectures and readings and finally emigrated to the USA in 1891.

In America he played successfully at German theaters in New York, Milwaukee and Chicago. Only in 1892 did he return to the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the directorship of Adolph L'Arronge , where he was soon able to build on his old successes.

During his time in Berlin, Kainz appeared in 98 different roles over 2000 times on the Berlin stages. But he was drawn back to his old home in Vienna. Kainz's most ardent wish came true in 1899 when he was awarded the title of “imperial and royal court actor” at the Vienna Burgtheater. His contract was extended from two to 12 years the following year. He played here Hamlet, Orest, Richard III, Mephisto, Shylock, Tartuffe, Oswald, Valentin and Tasso, among others.

In 1910, Kainz became seriously ill with colon cancer. On his deathbed on September 20, 1910, Kainz received a special award, the written appointment of Burgtheater director. (from: Program for the reading "I carry a treasure in me" in the Vienna Burgtheater 2007)

On November 26, 1898, Hugo Thimig wrote in his diary:

“Romeo: Kainz great triumph. The public was beside themselves with enthusiasm; it called, Kainz cheered 40 times in front of the curtain. Kainz was gorgeous in every way. Overflowing temperament and always artistic. A volcano of love. After the theater together with Kainz at the Hôtel de France. He is a nice, natural, stimulating person. What a difference to the well-mannered, conscious Mitterwurzer in life. "

Honors

Josef Kainz Monument in Vienna-Währing

On November 12, 1910 , a monument by Alexander Jaray was unveiled in the 18th district in the city ​​garden opposite the Türkenschanzpark , then still called Meridianpark. In 1931, both the square and the park located there were named after him.

literature

Web links

Commons : Josef Kainz  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 252. Keyword: Mathilde Kainz
  2. ^ Sulkowskitheater in the Vienna History Wiki of the City of Vienna
  3. ↑ Judith Eisermann: Josef Kainz - Between Tradition and Modernity: The Path of an Epochal Actor , Herbert Utz Verlag, 2010, ISBN 3-8316-0913-6 , p. 102 ( limited preview in the Google book search).
  4. ↑ Große Österreicher , Ueberreuter , 1985, publisher and author Thomas Chorherr
  5. ^ Kainz 'farewell to Berlin. In:  Neue Freie Presse , July 2, 1899, p. 9 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
  6. ↑ Hugo Thimig tells , selected and introduced by Franz Hadamovsky, Böhlau, Graz-Cologne 1962, p. 139.
  7. ↑ The unveiling of the Kainz monument. In:  Neue Freie Presse , November 13, 1911, p. 6 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp
personal data
SURNAME Kainz, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kainz, Josef Gottfried Ignaz (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Wieselburg
DATE OF DEATH September 20, 1910
Place of death Vienna