Kurt Horwitz
Kurt Horwitz (born December 21, 1897 in Neuruppin , † February 14, 1974 in Munich ) was a German actor , theater director and theater manager .
Life
He grew up in Düsseldorf and from 1919 received acting lessons from Ferdinand Gregori in Berlin . In the same year he moved to Munich to work with Otto Falckenberg at the Münchner Kammerspiele , where he was part of the ensemble until 1933 .
In Falckenberg productions he played light in Der zerbrochne Krug (1922), Tersites in Troilus and Cressida (1925), Claudius in Hamlet (1930, with Ewald Balser in the title role), St. Just in Dantons Tod (1926), General Möllendorf in Neidhardt von Gneisenau (1926, after Wolfgang Goetz ), Dr. Schön in Lulu (1928), Kuckuck in Cyankali (1930), Ricaut in Minna von Barnhelm (1931), Mephisto in Urfaust (1931) and Mechelke in Die Ratten (1932). He was also seen in the premieres of the Brecht pieces Drums in the Night (1922) and the Life of Edward II of England (1924).
Under the direction of Hans Schweikart , he played Mackie Messer in Brecht / Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper in 1929 , he also offered his own productions and made guest appearances at the Volksbühne in Berlin . After the Nazis came to power in 1933, Horwitz emigrated to Switzerland.
From 1933 to 1938 and again from 1940 to 1946 he was an actor and director at the Schauspielhaus Zürich , in between he worked at the Theater Basel from 1938 to 1940 . In Switzerland, Horwitz was seen as the title character of Professor Mamlock (1934), Julius Caesar and King Johann (both 1941), Wallenstein (1943) as well as Helmer in Nora or a doll's house and Jupiter in The Flies (both 1944). In 1945 he staged the world premiere of Max Frisch's Now They Sing Again .
In 1946 he became director of the Stadttheater Basel, in 1950 he returned to Zurich as an actor and director for three years. In 1947 he premiered Friedrich Dürrenmatt's It is written in Zurich . In addition to numerous other productions, he often directed Molière's plays , in which his friend Ernst Ginsberg always played the main character.
At the end of 1952 Horwitz was appointed artistic director of the Bavarian State Theater in Munich. In 1953 Horwitz appointed Hans-Reinhard Müller as his personal assistant and in 1954 as deputy director. Horwitz held this office until August 1958 and made Fritz Kortner his main director, under whom he became the title figure in Heinrich VI in 1956 . played. He then stayed in Munich as an actor and director with no permanent ties. In 1959 he received the Kainz Medal for his production of Der Menschenfeind . In 1962 he brought Dürrenmatt's Die Physiker to the stage for the first time in Zurich . On May 9, 1961, he received the Bavarian Order of Merit . In 1975 he was awarded the Schwabing Art Prize.
In film and television, Horwitz was only seen in relatively unimportant roles.
He was buried in the north cemetery in Munich .
Filmography
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Radio plays
- 1954: Leonhard Frank : The cause (chairman of the court) - Director: Walter Ohm (radio play - BR )
literature
- Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. Pp. 251 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8
- Anna Beck, Thomas Blubacher : Kurt Horwitz . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 874 f.
Web links
- Literature by and about Kurt Horwitz in the catalog of the German National Library
- Kurt Horwitz in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Schwabinger Art Prize on München.de (accessed on August 5, 2011)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Horwitz, Kurt |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 21, 1897 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Neuruppin |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 14, 1974 |
| Place of death | Munich |