Karl Drews (actor)

This article is about the actor Karl Drews. For other people see Karl Drews .

Stumbling block for Karl Drews in Graz

Karl Drews (born October 29, 1901 in Trieste , † October 7, 1942 in Vienna ) was an Austrian actor , director and resistance fighter against National Socialism .

Life

Karl Drews was born on October 29, 1901 in Trieste in Habsburg Austria. He was the nephew of the folk song researcher Viktor Zack . In 1911, when his father retired, who was employed by the Austrian Lloyd , the family moved to Graz . There he attended high school, took violin lessons at the conservatory and received acting lessons. As an actor and director, Drews accepted engagements on stages in Czechoslovakia, Graz, Salzburg, Linz and Leoben, which was followed by unemployment during the Great Depression. Drews struggled intensively and successfully to found various clubs and associations. In the mid-1920s, his political involvement with the Social Democrats and Communists grew. In May 1929 he became managing director of the Grazer Bildungsverein Apolloneum. In December of the same year he left the club again. In 1932 he became the director of the Opera and Drama School in Zagreb . In 1935 he was deported from there to Graz, since Drews did not have Yugoslav citizenship. Back in Graz he took over the management of the Orpheum .

Drews founded a film and acting school. Graduates from this school were e.g. B. the writer Wilhelm Muster and the actor Carl Möhner . As a member of the ruling Patriotic Front party , he spoke out against the threatened Anschluss of Austria . He had to break off advanced plans and the trip to France that had already started to work as a director there and returned to Graz because his wife had been arrested there by the Gestapo in Austria. She later traveled to Great Britain, he stayed at the Schauspielhaus in Graz and played a few smaller roles in 1938/39. He was arrested after his first appearance in Kleist's “Prince Friedrich von Hamburg”, but was released a few days later.

Arrests and executions

After Karl Drews had been briefly imprisoned on September 26, 1938 "in the course of arrests of well-known communists", he was arrested again on February 2, 1941 as a result of denunciation by a former work colleague. Drews was sentenced to death together with Josef Neuhold and Franz Weiss on July 28th in Graz by the 2nd Senate of the People's Court “for preparation for high treason”. While Josef Neuhold died in prison on August 25, 1942 due to serious illness, the death sentences of Karl Drews and Franz Weiss were carried out on October 7, 1942.

Memorials

A stumbling block was laid for Karl Drews in Graz on July 17, 2015. Furthermore, Drews is remembered on a plaque in the Regional Court for Criminal Matters in Vienna, at the National Memorial for Group 40 at the Vienna Central Cemetery and at the Schauspielhaus in Graz.

Newspaper articles

• “Who remembers Karl Drews?” The new reminder call. 1997. Issue 5 p. 7.
• "An upright fighter fell under the hangman's ax - last letter from an executed man to his mother". Grazer Volkszeitung. May 27, 1945. p. 4.
• "The executed Karl Drews". Grazer Volkszeitung. June 2, 1945. p. 3.
• "Martyr". London-Information Of The Socialists In Great Britain. 1942. Issue 18. S. 1.
• "Heroes And Hangman". Young Austrian. 1943. Issue 1. p. 5.

Web links

• Heimo Halbrainer: Karl DREWS. Actor, director and resistance fighter. 4/16. (PDF) Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Association for Memorial Culture - Stolpersteine ​​in Graz. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Curriculum vitae on Karl Drews at Gruppe 40, National Memorial of Resistance Fighters against the Nazi Regime at Vienna's Central Cemetery. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Biography of Karl Drews at the Alfred Klahr Society, an association for research into the history of the labor movement. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Article from the KPÖ Graz on the unveiling of a plaque for Karl Drews at the Schauspielhaus in Graz. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Die Presse (Erich Hackl): “Goodbye Aunty, your dearest Karl.” Excerpt from Karl Drews' farewell letter to his aunt. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Biography of Karl Drews by Haimo Halbrainer. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Biography and documentation of the laying of the Stolperstein for Karl Drews by Günther Demnig in Graz, Elisabethstraße 4. Accessed on April 27, 2020.
• Heimo Halbrainer, Mugrauer, Manfred: Resistance and persecution in Styria. In: DÖW Mitteilungen, April 2019 (PDF) Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• Copy of the judgment of the 2nd Senate, criminal court at the documentation archive of the Austrian resistance. (PDF) Retrieved April 27, 2020.
• List of stumbling blocks in Styria
• Karl Drews: Theater, Literature, Politics and Resistance. Retrieved April 28, 2020.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ korso - The sustainable magazine for Graz and Styria, Heimo Halbrainer: “Revered. Persecuted - forgotten ... Graz actors as Nazi victims ”. [1] .
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Heimo Halbrainer: Karl Drews. Actor, director and resistance fighter. , www.klahrgesellschaft.at. ( [2] ).
3. ↑ ( Association for Memorial Culture - Stolpersteine ​​in Graz: "Karl Drews" )
4. ↑ Grazer Tagblatt dated May 7, 1929. P. 5.
5. ↑ Grazer Tagblatt dated December 17, 1929. P. 7.
6. ^ Theresia Kantian: Das Grazer Varietät Orpheum (1899–1938). Diploma thesis Graz 1994. Quoted from Heimo Halbrainer: “Karl Drews. Actor, director and resistance fighter ”, www.klahrgesellschaft.at ( [3] ).
7. ^ Documentation archive of the Austrian resistance: copy of the judgment (PDF) .