Marianne Zoff

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Marianne Josephine Zoff , also Marianne Brecht (born June 30, 1893 in Hainfeld , † November 22, 1984 in Vienna ) was an Austrian actress and opera singer ( mezzo-soprano ). She was Bertolt Brecht's first wife from 1922 to 1927 and then married to Theo Lingen from 1928 until his death in 1978 .

Life

family

Marianne Zoff was born as the daughter of the Austrian officer and later Reichsbahn chief inspector Otto Andreas Zoff and his wife Zdenka nee. Jellinek was born. Among their ancestors were "Spanish aristocrats and Czech Jews". Her mother came from an ancient Sephardim family . Her brother was the writer Otto Zoff .

Career as an opera singer

After graduating from high school, Zoff took acting and singing lessons and sang his first small mezzo roles in Vienna. In September 1919, at the beginning of the 1919/20 season, she was hired as a “special singer” at the Stadttheater Augsburg . There she often appeared under the conductor Karl Tutein . She made her debut there at the end of September 1919 as the gypsy girl Mercédès in Carmen . Until the end of 1919 she sang there a. a. other roles include Lola in Cavalleria rusticana , Venus in Orpheus in the Underworld and, according to a contemporary review, allegedly also Martha in Kienzl's opera Der Evangelimann in November 1919 .

She took on her first leading role at the Stadttheater Augsburg as a substitute or as a substitute at the end of November 1919 with the title role in the opera Carmen (conductor: Karl Tutein). It is possible that Brecht saw her on stage in this role for the first time. After her, albeit modest, success as Carmen in 1920, Zoff received numerous new, larger and smaller roles at the Stadttheater Augsburg: Agnes in The Bartered Bride , Magdalena in Offenbach's opera Der Goldschmied von Toledo , Waltraute in Die Walküre , Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto , Siebel in Margarethe and Hansel in Hansel and Gretel . In January 1921 she sang the trouser role of Niklaus in Hoffmann's Stories and the Second Lady in Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte in Augsburg . At the beginning of March 1921 she appeared at the Stadttheater Augsburg as courtesan Flora Bervoix in La Traviata ; In mid-March 1921 she took over Dorabella in a new production by Così fan tutte . At the end of March 1921 she sang the maid Pepa in Tiefland in several performances . In April 1921 she sang Emilia in Othello at the Augsburg Municipal Theater. In May 1921 she sang her last performance at the Stadttheater Augsburg, in Wagner's Die Walküre .

At the end of the 1920/21 season, Zoff's involvement in Augsburg also ended. As early as April 1921, she had accepted an offer from the then artistic director Carl Hagemann to move to the Nassauische Landestheater Wiesbaden as a character singer for the new season . Her contract in Wiesbaden ran from August 1921 to January 1922. Her inaugural role in Wiesbaden was Wellgunde in Das Rheingold in August 1921 . In October 1921 she sang the small part of Kate Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly . For Wiesbaden she also studied Carmen and Octavian in the Rosenkavalier . In December 1921, however, Hagemann informed her that her contract in Wiesbaden would not be extended.

After a family break of several years, Zoff accepted an engagement at the Münster City Theater in June 1925 at the beginning of the 1925/26 season . Mainly it was used there as an opera and operetta soubrette. She sang her first premiere there in September 1925: Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos and the singer in Molières Der Bürger als Edelmann . In Münster, Zoff was particularly successful in the game opera and operetta . She sang u. a. Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew (October 1925), Bettina in Casanova (November / December 1925), Lotte Nachtigall in the operetta The Two Nightingales (music: Willy Bredschneider , text: Leo Walter Stein, October 1925) and in December 1925 the Prince Orlofsky in Die Fledermaus .

Relationship with Bertolt Brecht

Since 1917, Zoff had had a loose connection with the much older, well-off, “half-Jewish” Munich publisher and businessman Oskar Camillus Recht, from whom she was financially bearable. She had an abortion from a child who was rightfully expecting her.

At the end of 1920, probably in December, she met Bertolt Brecht at the Augsburg City Theater. Brecht is said to have come into her dressing room after a performance, complimented her and offered himself to her as a lover. Zoff got involved in a love affair with him, although both were in a relationship with other partners at the time (she with Oskar Camillus Recht, Brecht with Paula Banholzer ). Zoff then rightly continued their love affairs and Brecht in parallel and wavered between their lovers; At first, she turned down a marriage proposal on the right in early 1921; At the end of April 1921 she finally wanted to marry him. There were multiple arguments, scenes of jealousy and discussions between the two men. Right on Easter 1921, after Zoff had confessed that she had still not given up her relationship with Brecht, he beat his mistress badly.

In 1921 Zoff became pregnant for the first time by Brecht, but lost the child in May 1921 when he left. In June 1921 there was a reconciliation between Zoff and Brecht, which was followed by a love holiday in Munich , in Possenhofen and in Tutzing on Lake Starnberg . When Zoff became pregnant a second time by him in 1922, Brecht married her on November 3, 1922 in Munich so that the child would not be born out of wedlock. Lion Feuchtwanger was one of the best man . On March 12, 1923, their daughter Hanne Marianne was born in the shared Munich apartment on Akademiestraße , who was baptized Catholic in Starnberg at Brecht's request . The marriage then fell apart. In the summer of 1923, Brecht met his future second wife, Helene Weigel , who eventually became pregnant by him in early 1924. In October 1923 Brecht threatened divorce for the first time, but refrained from doing so for fear of losing his daughter Hanne.

During her engagement in Münster at the end of 1925, Zoff met the actor Theo Lingen , who was ten years younger than him , and who also took care of Brecht's daughter Hanne. When Brecht found out about this in February 1926, out of jealousy he threatened the cancellation of all financial payments. He tried several times to bring his daughter Hanne to Zoff's parents in Baden near Vienna in order to remove her from Lingen's influence. At the end of March 1926, Zoff threatened to sue Brecht in court should cash payments continue to fail. In April 1926, Brecht finally filed for divorce. The divorce finally took place on November 22, 1927 before the Prussian District Court III, in Berlin-Charlottenburg ; the regional court found in September 1928 that both parties were to blame for the divorce.

In November 1928, Zoff married the actor Theo Lingen for the second time. From then on Zoff used the double name Lingen-Zoff ; Her civil married name was probably Schmitz-Lingen . The daughter from the marriage with Bertolt Brecht grew up with Marianne Zoff and Theo Lingen and later celebrated successes as a stage actress under her married name Hanne Hiob . In June 1935, Brecht finally agreed to the adoption of his daughter Hanne by Theo Lingen. The popularity of Lingen, who played mainly comic roles since the beginning of the National Socialist rule, in which he liked Joseph Goebbels , protected Marianne Zoff, who was considered a " half-Jewish " (mixed breed 1st degree) according to the racial laws applicable at the time , and her daughters Hanne and Ursula from being persecuted by the National Socialists. The daughter Ursula Lingen from the marriage of Zoff and Lingen also became an actress.

After his return from exile, Brecht again contacted Marianne Zoff by letter. Until Brecht's death, there was still occasional letter contact between Zoff and Brecht with regard to family and inheritance matters (preservation of his father's country house in Utting am Ammersee for their daughter Hanne) and with regard to taking on auxiliary services for mutual friends.

literature

  • Bertolt Brecht: Letters to Marianne Zoff and Hanne Hiob. Suhrkamp Verlag , Berlin 1990, ISBN 3-518-40222-6 .
  • Ronald Hayman : Bertolt Brecht. The uncomfortable classic . Translated from the English by Alexandra von Reinhard. Wilhelm Heyne Publishing House. Munich 1985. ISBN 3-453-13895-3 .
  • Werner Hecht : Brecht Chronicle 1898–1956. Suhrkamp Verlag. Frankfurt am Main. 1997.
  • Sabine Kebir : An acceptable man? Brecht and the women . Development of the paperback publishing house. 1998. ISBN 3-7466-8028-X .
  • John Fuegi : Brecht & Co. Biography. Authorized, ext. and corrected German version by Sebastian Wohlfeil. Ullstein publishing house. Berlin 1999. ISBN 3-548-26565-0 .

See also

Brecht (film biography)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Focus Berlin: Prague Writers , page 294
  2. ↑ Bertolt Brecht, Hanne Hiob, Günter Glaeser: Letters to Marianne Zoff and Hanne Hiob , 1990, Suhrkamp
  3. ^ A b Ronald Hayman : Bertolt Brecht. The uncomfortable classic . Translated from the English by Alexandra von Reinhard. Wilhelm Heyne Publishing House. Munich 1985. Page 72. ISBN 3-453-13895-3 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Marianne Zoff . In: Jürgen Hillesheim: Augsburger Brecht Lexicon: people, institutions, scenes . Königshausen and Neumann. Würzburg 2000. ISBN 3-8260-1276-3 .
  5. ↑ a b Albrecht Dümling: Don't let yourself be seduced. Brecht and the music . Kindler 1985. Page 107. Excerpts from Google Books. Retrieved January 29, 2017.
  6. ↑ However, it is questionable whether the reviewer's criticism did not confuse roles. Martha is a leading role that is usually played by a lyrical or youthful-dramatic soprano. Zoff, a lyric mezzo-soprano, was not singing any leading roles at the time. It therefore seems more likely that she sang the second major female role Magdalena, a role for mezzo-soprano / alto.
  7. ↑ a b c d Jan Knopf: Bertolt Brecht . Life work effect. Suhrkamp BasisBiographien No. 16. Suhrkamp Verlag. Frankfurt am Main 2006. Pages 19–21. ISBN 3-518-18216-1
  8. ↑ a b theater, theater. In: literaturportal-bayern.de. Retrieved March 7, 2016 .
  9. ^ Wolfgang Görl: Marriage certificate appeared in Munich - Bert Brecht and his amorous entanglements. In: sueddeutsche.de . January 4, 2013, accessed March 7, 2016 .
  10. ↑ Werner Hecht: Brecht Chronicle , Suhrkamp 1997, p. 239
  11. ↑ a b Hannoveraner Museum recalls Theo Lingen's beginnings . In: Neue Westfälische of February 22, 2011. Accessed on January 29, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Zoff, Marianne
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zoff, Marianne Josephine (full name); Brecht, Marianne
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actress and opera singer (mezzo-soprano)
DATE OF BIRTH June 30, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Hainfeld
DATE OF DEATH November 22, 1984
Place of death Vienna