Margot Höpfner

Margot Höpfner (born January 30, 1912 in Berlin ; † August 23, 2000 in Bad Bevensen ) was a German dancer , actress , director and acting teacher.

Life

Margot Höpfner completed dance training with her sister Hedi Höpfner at the Städtische Oper Berlin in Bismarckstraße and made her debut at the age of four at the side of Paul Hartmann in the silent film Kindertränen, and as a daughter at the side of Maria Solvey in Peer Gynt and in several productions on Berlin fairy tale stages. In addition to the opera school, Hedi and Margot received acting lessons from Carl Winter and Robert Müller (called "Nasenmüller"; Staatsschauspiel Berlin), singing lessons from Fredl Strauss and pedagogical training from Niedecken-Gebhardt. They attended the dance schools of Victor Gsovsky (ballet), Trümpy-Skoronel (modern), Morrow (flamenco) and Raden Mas-Jodjana (Indian dance teaching).

In 1928 the Höpfner siblings received a young talent award for their appearances in the comedians' cabaret . Margot's big breakthrough came in 1932 with the role of the Spanish princess in Gustaf Gründgens ' production of the play Banditen by Jacques Offenbach . Although Margot Höpfner mainly played theater, she also took part in several Ufa productions in the 1930s and 1940s , primarily in dance roles, including the Hans Albers film Münchhausen . However, among other scenes with her fell after the premiere of censorship to the victim. At Hans Albers' request, one of the first color films of the German Reich was made with the title Der Bunte Reigen , in which Georg Jacoby directed. It was about a ten-minute supporting film from three dance scenes, in which the emperor waltz was the showpiece. Contrary to their ideas, the young sisters had to implement a repertoire loyal to the regime. Another fact was that both were in second place after Leni Riefenstahl among the artists on the list of the Reich Propaganda Ministry. This happened more at the request of Adolf Hitler than at Joseph Goebbels ', whom the Höpfner siblings had met for the first time in November 1935 on the Pfaueninsel on the occasion of an artists' festival. The listing meant that the sisters had to keep busy. The now rather slightly entertaining program, which could not demonstrate the full range of their skills and was tailored to the times, led one of their best friends, the cabaret artist Werner Finck , to give them the title “Reichshupfdohlen”. They never got rid of this image afterwards. During this time Margot Höpfner managed to keep her marriage to a Munich orthopedic surgeon, from which a child (* 1944) emerged, a secret. This is reflected in the fact that in the year her offspring was born she received an honor from Hitler with the salutation “For Miss Margot Höpfner”.

Before the end of the war, the sisters moved to Gaitau in southern Germany. After they got their license again in 1947, they toured throughout Europe with dance evenings and appeared as actresses on several stages. Hamburg became her adopted home, where Margot met her second husband, the dentist Dr. Axel Westphal, got to know. With her colleague Eva Fiebig , she began teaching dance and drama at the Hamburger Kammerspiele in the mid-1950s. This laid the foundation for her later work as a teacher.

At the end of the 1950s, Margot Höpfner ended the collaboration with her sister for private reasons and opened a drama school in Hamburg, where she a. a. also taught the art of pantomime after taking lessons from Marcel Marceau . When Gründgens took over the management of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus , he asked Margot to join him as co-director. A successful collaboration followed. Margot drew more and more from her experience, and her motto “A chance for the next generation” became the most important content of her life for 40 years. In 1986 she staged Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus in Remscheid , which was recorded over three seasons, with great success . Her most famous students include u. a. the singer Alexandra (Doris Nefedov), the bestselling author and actress Peggy Parnass , the actor Wilfried Baasner ( Das Erbe der Guldenburgs ), the singer Jonny Hill , the actors Dirk Mierau and Andreas Brucker , the TV announcer Heidrun von Goessel , the NDR3 TV presenter Susanne Reimann , as well as Jan Fedder , Axel Olsson , Jens-Werner Fritsch , actress Angélique Duvier , Gino D'oro , Angelika Milster and the actor and voice actor Marc Degener .

Filmography

• The Czardas Princess (1934)
• Make me happy (1935)
• Cherries in the Neighbor's Garden (1935)
• Savoy Hotel 217 (1936)
• Blond man on a path (1936)
• Honeymoon (1936)
• Four Girls and a Man (1936)
• Truxa (1936/37)
• Hussars Out (1937)
• The Stars Shine (1938)
• Capriccio (1938)
• The funnel (1938)
• Front Theater (1942)
• The Colorful Round Dance (1942/43)
• Remember Paris (1959)
• in various Ufa short sound films, including in Alessandro Ziliani sings (1930s)

Web links

• Margot Höpfner in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• The Höpfner siblings on Cyranos.ch