Maria Becker

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Maria Becker (1963)

Maria Becker (born January 28, 1920 in Berlin ; † September 5, 2012 in Uster , Canton of Zurich ) was a German - Swiss film and theater actress , director and radio play speaker .

Life

Maria Becker was born in 1920 as the daughter of the German actress and theater director Maria Fein and the German actor Theodor Becker . After her parents divorced, with her sister staying with her father, she grew up with her mother in Berlin, but was mostly looked after by her grandmother. Becker attended the Kleistlyzeum in Berlin and then from 1930 to 1933 the boarding school Schule am Meer on the North Sea island of Juist . She later described her visit to the reform school on Juist, where she also had her first theater experience in its specially built theater hall , as the “happiest time in her life”.

From 1933 she went to school again in Berlin. When her mother, the Jewish descent was, after the seizure of power of the Nazis no longer at Theater Berlin Germans could occur, they took her in 1936 to Vienna . Despite her young age, Becker attended the Reinhardt seminar there. After Austria was annexed to the German Reich in March 1938, both emigrated abroad.

Becker first went to England for a short time and in 1938 received an engagement as an actress in Switzerland, at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich . There she met the Austrian-Swiss actor Robert Freitag (actually Robert Freytag ). Freitag had also received his acting training at the Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna and had been working at the Zürcher Schauspielhaus from 1941, which had a high point as an emigrant theater during the Second World War . In 1945 Maria Becker and Robert Freitag married, which is why the emigrant Becker obtained Swiss citizenship .

Later Becker had engagements at the Burgtheater in Vienna, at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg and at the Residenztheater in Munich . Together with her husband and the German theater actor Will Quadflieg , Becker founded the touring theater Die Schauspieltruppe Zürich (also Zürcher Schauspieltruppe ) in Zurich in 1956 , with which she performed on numerous tours throughout German-speaking countries and the USA . Her marriage to Robert Freitag was divorced in 1966; However, both continued to work together after the divorce and performed together until the 1990s, especially in productions by the Zurich traveling ensemble they founded. The marriage resulted in three sons, two of whom became actors, Benedict Freitag and Oliver Tobias .

Becker became internationally known mainly for his interpretations of large female figures ( Elektra , Johanna von Orléans , Iphigenie ), radio play adaptations for the BBC and for roles in plays by Euripides , Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and George Bernard Shaw . Her portrayal of Mephisto in 1977 at the Residenztheater as "first woman" (or at least: first known actress) in this role was sensational . In Germany she has also worked on numerous radio play productions, including at RIAS , WDR and NDR . Becker was also often seen in films and on television ; She became known to a wide audience through her appearances in television crime novels such as Derrick and Der Alte . In addition to the acting profession, she later devoted herself to directing , especially in the "family business" Schauspieltruppe Zurich , which she later headed. Her son Benedict Freitag also performed there, who initially led the ensemble together with her in the 1980s and then became sole director in 1987.

Her recitations of poetry and prose , which she presented at lecture evenings, are documented on numerous speech plates . In 2009 Maria Becker's autobiography was published by Zurich-based Pendo Verlag under the title After all, every evening you are a different person: My life . She was friends with actress Anne-Marie Blanc . Becker was considered the “last living legend of the great Zurich theater era during the Third Reich” and the “grande dame of Swiss theater”.

Maria Becker died in Uster in 2012 at the age of 92. The family said they slept peacefully in their home. She was buried in the grave of her mother Maria Fein at the Enzenbühl cemetery in Zurich .

Filmography

  • 1940: Is Dr. Ferrat guilty? (Dilemma)
  • 1956: Before sunset
  • 1958: Everyman (TV movie)
  • 1960: Emilia Galotti (TV movie)
  • 1961: Wilhelm Tell
  • 1961: Rosmersholm (TV movie)
  • 1964: King Richard III. (TV movie)
  • 1965: The Cardinal of Spain (TV movie)
  • 1965: The King dies (TV movie)
  • 1970: Right or Wrong - Mariotti Trial (TV series)
  • 1970: general cargo (TV film)
  • 1972: The Commissioner - Sister Ignatia (TV series)
  • 1974: Mary Stuart (TV movie)
  • 1975: The Commissioner - A Murder by the Clock (TV series)
  • 1977: A glass of water (TV movie)
  • 1977: The Principal - Maria Becker: Life for the Theater (TV portrait)
  • 1980: Love does not go without pain (TV movie)
  • 1980: The Old Man - Magdalena (TV series)
  • 1981: The Old One - Till Death Do Us Part (TV series)
  • 1983: Katzenspiel (TV movie)
  • 1990: Wings of Fame
  • 1991: The Old Lady - The Old Lady's Birthday (TV series)
  • 1991: The Magic of Venus
  • 1995: Derrick - Kostloffs Subject (TV series)
  • 1996: Derrick - Ruth and the World of Murderers (TV series)
  • 1996: Derrick - Bleichröder is dead (TV series)
  • 1998: Derrick - Mr Kordes Needs a Million (TV series)
  • 1998: Derrick - The Farewell Gift (TV series)
  • 1998: Effis Nacht (TV movie)
  • 2001: Siska - Evil per se (TV series)
  • 2005: Police call 110: Dettmann's wide world (TV series)
  • 2008: For heaven's sake - Christmas in Kaltenthal (TV movie)

theatre

Radio plays

Awards

Fonts

  • After all, you're a different person every evening: my life. Autobiography. Pendo, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-86612-233-8 (with Regina Carstensen).
  • with Robert Freitag: Die Schauspieltruppe Zürich. Die Schauspieltruppe (self-published), Zurich 1968.
  • with Will Quadflieg, Robert Freitag: The acting company Will Quadflieg, Maria Becker, Robert Freitag shows: Penthesilea . Tragedy by Heinrich von Kleist . World premiere of the original version of the work dictated by the poet and improved by himself. Die Schauspieltruppe (self-published), Zurich 1962.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Barbara Lukesch: "On the way" with Maria Becker. (No longer available online.) In: Annabelle . April 27, 2001, archived from the original on January 2, 2011 ; Retrieved July 11, 2010 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.lukesch.ch
  2. ↑ a b Michael Laages: History of an Emigration. In: book review. Deutschlandradio Kultur , January 28, 2010, accessed on July 11, 2010 .
  3. ↑ a b Oliver Meier: I still have stage fright today. In: Berner Zeitung . March 4, 2010, accessed July 11, 2010 .
  4. ↑ a b Actor and director Robert Freitag has died. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . July 9, 2010, accessed July 10, 2010 .
  5. ^ Mathilde Köhler: A Mephisto with the first name Maria. Hamburger Abendblatt , July 9, 1977, accessed on August 20, 2015 .
  6. ↑ Actress Maria Becker is dead. In: Blick.ch from September 7, 2012.
  7. ↑ knerger.de: The grave of Maria Becker
  8. ↑ Journal de Genève - 03/09/1965 - Pages 10/11. Retrieved January 14, 2018 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Becker, Maria
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss actress
DATE OF BIRTH January 28, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 5th September 2012
Place of death Uster , Switzerland