Julius Vollmer

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Julius Vollmer's real name Julius-Andreas Szabó von Szathmáry (born February 15, 1927 in Timișoara ( German  Temeswar ), Kingdom of Romania ; † July 23, 2014 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) was a German actor , co-founder of the German State Theater Timișoara . The Freiburg City Theater staged its life in 2012 in the play "Greetings from Timisoara".

Live and act

Julius Vollmer was born as the son of the Banat Swabian Amalia Vogel and the Hungarian nobleman from Transylvania , Julius Szabó von Szathmáry, in the Timișoara district of Elisabetin ( Elisabethstadt in German ). He attended the Nikolaus Lenau Lyceum in Timișoara and graduated from high school in 1946 at the local Piarist High School . Vollmer studied five semesters of medicine and four semesters of biology at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj , but was de-registered because of his critical attitude towards the communist rulers in the early 1950s. He then graduated from the Timișoara music school for singing and acting. In 1953 he stood for the first time on the stage of the German State Theater in Timișoara (DSTT), of which he was a co-founder. On the advice of the dramaturge, he later adopted the stage name Julius Vollmer. Vollmer was expelled from the theater in the late 1950s. As a trained bass, he joined the choir of the Banat Philharmonic and made his way as a funeral cantor or accordion tuner.

At the DSTT he played over 100 roles. Before he left for Germany in 1983, he played in: Laubes “Die Karlsschüler”, Molière's “ The Imaginary Sick ”, Goethe's “ Iphigenie auf Tauris ”, “ Egmont ” and “ Urfaust ”, Nestroy's “ Lumpazivagabundus ”, Shakespeare's “ Romeo and Juliet ” , Schiller's “ Maria Stuart ”, Ibsen's “ Peer Gynt ”, Förster's “ Alt-Heidelberg ”, Goldoni's “ Servant of Two Masters ” and Schiller's “ Wilhelm Tell ”. Thanks to his singing skills, he played in many colorful evenings and musical performances of the theater, such as laughter is healthy , sun in the heart .

Vollmer reached a high point in his career in 1978 when he appeared as Sarafanov in Wampilow's play "The Elderly Son" in the anniversary year of the German State Theater in Timișoara . In Victor Eftimius "The Vagabond" he achieved prestige as a pharmacist. Vollmer had also distinguished himself in the stage performances of his Banat compatriots, such as in Ludwig Schwartz's peasant drama “Matthias Till” (1977) or in Hans Kehrer's “Narrenbrot” (1974). Vollmer also celebrated successes in modern pieces, especially when his singing qualities came into play. At the premiere of Mischa Spoliansky's and Georg Kaiser's “Zwei Krawatten”, he impressed with challenging vocal interludes.

In 1981 he was released because of his application to leave the country, but was allowed to leave for Germany two years later. From 1983 to 1987 he had a guest engagement at the Theater Basel , where he took part in Dürrenmatt's “ The Visit of the Old Lady ”. From 1987 he was a member of the ensemble at the Freiburg Theater. Here he played in more than a hundred roles, such as in "Prince Gaudimax" (1999) or in Donizetti's " Don Pasquale " (1997).

With "Greetings from Timişoara", the Freiburg City Theater staged the life of actor and ensemble member Julius Vollmer. The theater people in Freiburg found Vollmer's life so “exemplary between dictatorships, ideologies and identities” that director Klaus Gehre and dramaturge Heike Müller-Merten went to Timișoara to search for clues. The director and dramaturge followed in the footsteps of their colleague Vollmer through Timișoara with a camera and dictation machine. They went to cemeteries where the unemployed Vollmer had hired himself out as a singer at funerals, or to his parents' house, where in 1945 the young Vollmer had hidden in the garden in front of his grandfather's timber shop in a hole in the ground to avoid being deported to the Soviet Union . In the resulting piece "Greetings from Timisoara", Vollmer played himself in 2012. It was his last role.

Vollmer was buried in the main cemetery in Freiburg im Breisgau in 2014 .

Publications

reception

The Badische Zeitung wrote in its obituary: "The theater meant the world to him - and he always considered himself the" servant of the spectator "".

The actor friend, Ueli Schweizer, remembered: “Julius Vollmer was an incredibly educated person” […] “with a great cultural background”. "He played outstandingly in" Michael Kohlhaas "and" The Trial "."

Ullo von Peinen , actor: "My last meetings mainly took place at his home. Well over 80 he was dependent on care and some colleagues regularly looked after him. So I visited him often. And then he asked:" Dear Friend, what did you bring me today? ”, By which he meant:“ What are you reading to me? ”Whatever I had in my luggage, the way he focused on the spoken word made me bigger every time Impression. His education, his tremendous memory, his sensitivity to language completely filled him in these moments. "

The dramaturge Heike Müller-Maertens said: “Julius Vollmer was a very noble person who, despite the degradation of two dictatorships, did not let his dignity be taken away. He gave his fellow human beings a lot of love, which he also needed himself. He allowed others to gain insight into his stories. "

Julius Vollmer said of himself that he was a "walking European destiny".

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Theater Freiburg , theater-freiburg-blog , Greetings from Timisoara , November 17, 2012
  2. ↑ a b c General German newspaper for Romania , adz.ro , Johann Steiner: Farewell to a thoroughbred actor
  3. ^ Anton Peter Petri : Biographical Lexicon of the Banater Deutschtums. Th. Breit Verlag, Marquartstein 1992, ISBN 3-922046-76-2
  4. ↑ German State Theater in Timişoara , teatrulgerman.ro , taking leave of Julius Vollmer , August 6, 2014
  5. ↑ a b c Horst Fassel : The German State Theater Timisoara (1953-2003). From national identity bearer to experimental theater. Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-643-11413-6
  6. ↑ Theater Freiburg, theater.freiburg.de , Julius Vollmer
  7. ↑ a b TV Südbaden , youtube.com , Julius Vollmer: The role of his life , February 14, 2013
  8. ↑ Theater Freiburg, theater.freiburg.de , blog Freiburg Theater, Julius Vollmer
  9. ^ Theater Freiburg, theaterfreiburg.de , Greetings from Timisoara , November 30, 2012
  10. ↑ a b c d Badische Zeitung , obituary: A servant of the viewer. On the death of the great actor Julius Vollmer. 5th September 2014
personal data
SURNAME Vollmer, Julius
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Szabó von Szathmáry, Julius-Andreas (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, co-founder of the German State Theater Timişoara
DATE OF BIRTH February 15, 1927
PLACE OF BIRTH Timișoara , Kingdom of Romania
DATE OF DEATH 23rd July 2014
Place of death Freiburg in Breisgau