Konrad Dreher

Photo taken around 1904

Konrad Dreher , also Conrad Dreher , (born October 30, 1859 in Munich , † December 7, 1944 in Fessenheim , district of Donau-Ries ) was a German film and theater actor, character and singing comedian in the tenor buffo voice range .

Life

Portrait of Wilhelm Trübner , 1908

Konrad Dreher was born the son of a carpenter in Munich. His father, Heinrich Dreher, was mentally ill and had been a patient at the Giesingen sanatorium since 1860. After a broken apprenticeship as a businessman, he turned to acting. He made his debut at the theaters of Augsburg , Wiesbaden, Frankfurt am Main and Ingolstadt , among others . At the Munich Gärtnerplatztheater he made a name for himself with the performance of so-called “folk plays” in which he performed scenes from everyday life in Bavarian dialect.

At the age of twenty he was on the stage of the Munich theater for the first time in the comedy "Die Zwei Reichenmüller" by Anton Anno . After a short detour to the "Ringtheater" in Vienna, the artist returned to his home stage to take on the role of jailer "Enterich" in the first performance of "Begelstudent". Dreher's flair and "comical talent for parodic tricks is already reflected in his young acting years, in which he testifies that Sarah Bernhardt 'in the prime of a woman' in one of her 'great modern roles' as a lady of the camellia ... far less 'outrated' than hers Advertising campaigns were to be expected. In his travested embodiment of the splendidly self-marketing femme fatale, which he himself dubbed a 'Camelia parody', his lanky, angular figure, which is less fatal than clumsy, lacks any expression of seductive irresistibility "(Ponte 2015, p. 41 f ). The steep career took its course: "Soon he was also playing Valentin in 'Verschwender' and the tailor Zwirn, next to his delicious frog in 'Fledermaus'. And when the magic of his personality was already taking root, luck threw him the executioner Ko -Ko in 'Mikado' in the lap and not long afterwards Bader Zangerl in Rauchegger's indestructible 'Jägerblut', not his most important but perhaps most popular role "(Bayerisches Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz 1965, p. 108). Finally, as the culmination of his acting career, he was appointed "Royal Bavarian Court Actor".

In 1892 Konrad Dreher, together with the Schuhplattler Xaver Terofal , whom he met in Berlin in 1889, founded the Schliersee Farmers' Theater in Schliersee . On Friday, June 24th, 1892 the first public performance took place in front of a sold out house. Was played Benno smoke Eggers "Jägerblut".

In contrast to other theaters, the Schlierseer Bauerntheater did not have professional actors, but simple but talented butchers, carpenters, innkeepers, seamstresses, chambermaids, farmers, etc. This form of performance was very well received and attracted the urban population to the theater to " real rural life ". The peasant pieces "Der Hergottschnitzer von Ammergau" and "Die Zuwiderwurzen" were particularly popular.

With his troupe, Konrad Dreher undertook much acclaimed guest tours, including to Austria, Switzerland and the USA (1895/96). In the United States of America, the comedian and character actor enjoyed great popularity, especially among German emigrants. There he gave solo performances in 1909 and 1912.

The popular artist returned to the Gärtnerplatztheater year after year: "The year 1907 brought the first performance of the operetta 'Der fidele Bauer' with Dreher in the title role in Munich. The high-profile comedian was able to show himself as a character actor in a well-balanced, clean folk piece , while soon afterwards, as mustard manufacturer Dotter Weich in the 'Spanische Fliege', he again delivered a cabinet piece of powerful humor ... In November 1934, the seventy-five year old returned to the place of his previous work as a cobbler Weigel in 'Mein Leopold' Sentimentality. It was the artist himself who wiped the tears of the touched women from the corner of their eyes with a smile "(Bayerisches Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz 1965, p. 108).

Dreher left recordings on Edison cylinders and worked as an actor and writer in several silent films after the First World War.

Konrad Dreher's grave in Schliersee

In 1939 the popular actor, whom Adolf Hitler made a state actor on the occasion of his 80th birthday, retired from the theater. He was evacuated during the war, died on December 7, 1944 in Fessenheim im Donau-Ries and was buried in the Schliersee cemetery.

In the Hadern district of Munich, a tavern commemorates the artist in the street of the same name.

Works

Konrad Dreher also appeared as the author of various volumes of poetry:

• Funny hunt. 25 drawings by Hugo Engl with poems in Upper Bavarian dialect. Bonz, Stuttgart 1884.
• The shooting time. Humorous hunting book in Upper Bavarian dialect. Bassermann, Munich 1886.
• The Juhschroa. Poems in Upper Bavarian dialect. With 25 illustrations by Munich artists. Bassermann, Munich 1888.
• Parish fair. Poems in Upper Bavarian dialect. Illustrated by Munich artists. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart et al. 1889.
• Munich originals. Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt, Stuttgart et al. 1894.
• as editor: French horn songs. Hunting songs from old and new times. Weber, Leipzig 1905.
• with Franz Pocci: Kunterbunt. With funny verses and stories. Dietrich, Munich 1910.
• Tear-off calendar of my life. Knorr & Hirth, Munich 1929 (autobiography).

Filmography (selection)

• 1915: The Tyrann von Muckendorf (his first film)
• 1918: The tired Theodor
• 1918: The blonde girls from Lindenhof
• 1919: All of grandpa [role: Tobias Freudenberg, reindeer]
• 1919: King Krause
• 1919: Lolo's father [role: Fritz Klemm, retired postman]
• 1919: My Leopold [role: August Weigelt, shoe manufacturer]
• 1920: Hasemann's daughters
• 1920: In der Sommerfrisch'n (also screenplay)
• 1920: Doctor Klaus [role: Lubowski, coachman]
• 1921: Little Muck [role: Sultan]
• 1921: Der Zechpreller (screenplay)

Audio documents

• Humorous all sorts. Edison cast gold roller No. 15 469
• Out of fashion and modern. Edison cast gold roller No. 15 743
• There's water in the wine too, couplet. Edison cast gold roller No. 16 387

literature

• Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 212. ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive )
• Bavarian State Theater on Gärtnerplatz (Ed.): 100 Years of Theater on Gärtnerplatz Munich. Emha-Verlag, Munich 1965.
• Berthold Leimbach: audio documents of cabaret and their interpreters 1898-1945. Self-published, Göttingen 1991, DNB 911350551 .
• Karl Richter:  Dreher, Konrad. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1959, ISBN 3-428-00185-0 , p. 108 ( digitized version )., Wrong place of death there, first letter J instead of F.
• Susanne de Ponte: Konrad Dreher: offspring of the Gärtnerplatztheater and Munich "brand". Between folk play, farce and operetta. In: Stefan Frey, German Theater Museum Munich (ed.): The people to lust and to flourish. 150 years of the Gärtnerplatztheater. Leipzig 2015, ISBN 978-3-89487-784-2 , pp. 37-49.
• Friedrich von Zglinicki: The way of the film. History of cinematography and its predecessors. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1956, DNB 455810680 , p. 384.

Web links

Commons : Konrad Dreher  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Konrad Dreher with photo
• Konrad Dreher in the Bavarian literature portal (project of the Bavarian State Library )
• Konrad Dreher at valentin-museum.de ( Memento from April 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
• Konrad Dreher in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Konrad Dreher at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

1. ^ Gerhard Lamprecht : German silent films. 1915-1916 . Deutsche Kinemathek eV, Berlin 1969, p. 106 .
2. ↑ the little Muck played the Afro-German child actor Willy Allan , real Willy Panzer
3. ↑ republished as track 9 on the CD "Rare Schellacks - München - Lieder & Couplets" by Trikont US-0262, editor: Andreas Koll & Achim Bergmann, with a detailed booklet
4. ↑ Information from Leimbach