Marie Weiler

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Marie Weiler - contemporary portrait

Marie Weiler (born November 13, 1809 in Vienna ; † October 31, 1864 , née Maria Cäcilia Laucher) was an Austrian singer and actress . She was the illegitimate daughter of the singer Cäcilie Laucher, who mostly called herself Weiler, and of Count Ferdinand Stockhammer, who, according to the baptism certificate, declared himself a father. The Viennese court opera singer Antonia Laucher was Cäcilia Laucher's sister. More than 30 years lived Marie hamlet in a community with the playwright and actor Johann Nestroy and his mother was from three of his four children.

origin

Marie Weiler came from a family of musicians on her mother's side. Her grandfather Joseph Anton Laucher (1737–1813) was, according to contemporary information, “music director, composer, choir director, excellent tenor, horn virtuoso, choir regent, cantor”, most recently in Dillingen an der Donau. His daughters, Marie Weiler's unmarried mother, Cäcilie Laucher, called Laucher, the younger , and Antonia Laucher, called Laucher, the older , were singers in Vienna at the time of Marie Weiler's birth. Her father was Ferdinand Graf Stockhammer, who held the post of kk chamberlain in Vienna and made a name for himself as a patron in the Viennese music world, so he was protector of the Wiedner Kirchenmusikverein . He acknowledged his paternity by hand-signed on Marie Weiler's baptismal certificate.

Living together with Nestroy and artistic career

Documents on Marie Weiler's girlhood and her training as a singer and actress have not yet been disclosed. It was not until she was living with Johann Nestroy that she gained the attention of contemporaries and her fame in popular and scientific literature. Artistically she was valued and promoted by Nestroy above all as a singer. Her role as the organizer of the common household and the joint artistic successes as well as Nestroy's support in all business and financial matters, as “the woman”, as she called Nestroy, was presented in detail in connection with Nestroy's vita.

Graz

In 1827, 18-year-old Marie Weiler, who had just started a job as a singer at the Ständisches Theater in Graz , met 26-year-old Johann Nestroy there. In the same year this was left by his wife Wilhelmine Nespiesni , whom he married on September 7, 1823, because of her love affair with Count Adelbert Batthyány von Német-Ujvar. The three-year-old son Gustav Johann Wilhelm (1824–69) stayed with Nestroy, who broke off contact with his mother. Due to the Austrian marriage law at the time, Nestroy could not get a divorce as a Catholic. Therefore, Marie Weiler's beginning relationship with Nestroy could only turn into a marriage of conscience .

Marie Weiler's first stage appearance in Graz was together with Nestroy on January 11, 1828 as Nanette in Gioachino Rossini's opera semiseria La gazza ladra (German The Thieving Elster ).

The Grazer Zeitung Der Aufmerksame read on January 19th (No. 9):

"Dlle. Weiler has a pleasant shape for the stage, a fine voice and correct intonation. [...] Dlle. Weiler recommended herself to the public and the art world with her first appearance. "

The Vienna daily newspaper on April 19 wrote:

"[...] a real adornment of this theater [...] combines all the advantages of an educated actress and singer and at the same time has a youthful, pleasant figure."

In 1870, the stage author and actor Friedrich Kaiser wrote in his autobiography looking back about Marie Weiler, on whom he often found himself dependent during his career:

"[...] Fräulein Weiler was more of a deterrent than an attractive stage appearance even in her younger years, she had a very pretty singing voice, but a very mediocre performance."

Lviv

When Nestroy got an engagement in Preßburg in 1829 , Marie Weiler could not come with me immediately, because her contract in Graz ran until 1831. That year, the two of them moved to the theater in Lemberg in Galicia , then Austria , from where they soon had to flee to Vienna because of the cholera that broke out there .

Vienna

In the negotiations that followed with the Viennese theater director Carl Carl , the boss of the Josephstädter Theater and the Theater an der Wien , Marie Weiler and Nestroy were skilful and stubbornly negotiating opponents of Carl. He did not want to pay the 1200 guilders annual wage demanded by Nestroy. Marie Weiler and Nestroy mutually refused any reduction. When the couple finally threatened to enter into an engagement with the Hofoper or the Theater am Kärntnertor , Carl gave in and on August 23, 1831 accepted a multi-year contract with Marie Weiler and Nestroy on their terms.

How interested Nestroy was in Marie Weiler's professional reputation is shown by a letter dated July 9, 1832, in which he asked Adolf Bäuerle , the publisher of the Wiener Theaterzeitung, for a positive review after a performance of Nagerl and Glove . In it he emphasized:

"[...] that Dlle Weiler performed her difficult aria in the 2nd act with full purity and certainty, and was, as always in her singing numbers, rewarded with loud applause from the public."

The reason for this request was an unfavorable criticism for Marie Weiler about her participation in the farce Die Schwarze Frau by Karl Meisl . Bäuerle granted Nestroy's wish and literally adopted the sentence in his criticism.

But when Nestroy brought a new piece to the stage for a benefit performance by Marie Weiler on January 17, 1834 ( Der Zauberer Sulphurelectrimagneticophosphoratus ), the weak work was mercilessly booed by the audience and Marie Weiler also got off badly. The theater critic Franz Wiest, who was already unbalanced by Nestroy, wrote in the collector :

“We regret the position of the Dlle. Weiler, the beneficiant who also suffered from the disaster; because dlle. Weiler sang the ungrateful aria with visible reluctance and therefore with many intonation errors. We are convinced that Dlle. Weiler would have sung better on any other occasion. "

Nevertheless, thanks to Marie Weiler's skill, the mutual financial success was always given; But she also stepped in as an indispensable helper in deciphering Nestroy's hastily thrown handwriting, which sometimes he could no longer decipher himself. However, when her companion of the young actress Eleonore Condorussi began to write better and better roles and was obviously very fond of her personally, she reacted more clearly for the first time. While the Condorussi was showered with praise for her portrayal of the Sepherl in The Fateful Carnival Night , Marie Weiler, the beneficiary of the evening, received only polite and reserved praise from the Wiener Theaterzeitung :

"As laundress Nani, the meritorious beneficiary also reaped pleasant signs of goodwill from the extremely large number of visitors."
Marie Weiler and Johann Nestroy in a scene from Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt . Photo of a watercolor by Johann Christian Schöller (1782–1851)

Even at the premiere of Der Talisman , the role of the "sweet girl" Salome Pockerl was no longer played by Fräulein Condorussi at Marie Weiler's insistence. Also in the future, she successfully prevented the possible rival for Nestroy's favor in his plays with (main) roles on stage. In the farce The girl from the suburbs she didn't have to worry because the role of Thekla was played by Nestroy's niece. In the difficult to sing duet Rosalie (Weiler) / Schnoferl (Nestroy) in the 2nd act, 12th scene of this piece, Marie Weiler was finally able to show the advantages of her trained voice again:

"Nestroy and Marie Weiler sing a sample card, an acoustic leporello of the types of lecture with (partly new text) excerpts from operas by Meyerbeer , Mozart , Donizetti , Rossini , Wenzel Müller , Joseph Weigl and from folk and harpist songs."

In 1841 Johann Nestroy became seriously ill and could not leave the apartment for weeks. Marie Weiler cared for the impatient and therefore difficult patient with self-sacrificing devotion.

The only surviving letter from Nestroy to Marie Weiler is from 1844. He reports from Berlin about an anonymous letter in which he warned against Nestroy and advised the Prussian king not to let Nestroy appear. The end of the letter reads:

"Well goodbye, my dearly beloved dear wife, goodbye to you and the children a thousand supper / your husband / J. Nestroy"

From 1851 onwards, Marie Weiler gradually restricted her stage presence, because she lost the joy of acting as she got older. In return, she took care of family life even more intensively and took over the financial organization of the guest performances, tours and all salary negotiations. Nestroy's original concern that the comedian Karl Treumann , newly brought into the ensemble by director Carl, could be a competition for him, could not only dispel, it even ensured that a sincere friendship developed between the two in private and on the stage. The sudden death of director Carl in 1854 and the takeover of the Carltheater by Nestroy brought Marie Weiler an abundance of new tasks, as she took care of business matters that Nestroy understood little about and which, thanks to Marie Weiler's commitment, never bothered him.

Relationship crises and late years

Again and again it had been Marie Weiler's endeavor to ignore the only problem between her and Nestroy, namely his predilection for the "girls", his innumerable affairs. However, she was not a quiet sufferer, but a thoroughly resolute woman who made sure with natural authority that he could not rush into expensive financial adventures because of it.

However, in 1856 there was a serious rift that lasted for several months. Nestroy began a violent affair with the young actress Karoline Köfer, who felt very flattered as a result . He furnished her with jewelry and a wardrobe, furnished her with an apartment and was otherwise extremely generous. However, when the young lady made hopes of being able to replace Marie Weiler at Nestroy, she insisted, seriously offended, on Nestroy's move out of the shared apartment and immediate separation of property. Nestroy traveled with his daughter Maria Cäcilia to Berlin , Hamburg and Helgoland to avoid the conflict. He asked some friends like Friedrich Kaiser and Ernst Stainhauser to stand up for him with Marie Weiler, but she was initially implacable. But when Karoline Köfer tried to discredit Marie Weiler at Nestroy through intrigues - such as an anonymous letter - Nestroy dropped her indignantly. In the event of a conflict between wife and lover, he was always ready to uncompromisingly choose Marie Weiler, whom he always called "the woman" .

On December 9th of this year Nestroy Marie Weiler transferred the sole administration of the Carltheater. He was able to reconcile with her and Marie Weiler showed herself in the new position as an excellent business woman who achieved great financial success.

But in May 1858 there was another rift between the two companions because Nestroy still could not leave his "girls". Marie Weiler even put the administration of the Carltheater back and wanted the separation.

On June 19, 1858, Nostroy wrote to Ernst Stainhauser about Marie Weiler:

“In any case, she is more right than I am about our domestic quarrel. I did a lot, a lot to her [...] "

Bad Ischl and Graz, death in Vienna

Marie Weiler 1861, photograph by Ludwig Angerer

Another reconciliation was achieved in July 1858. A house in Graz and a villa in Bad Ischl were bought as retirement homes. Marie Weiler was particularly enthusiastic about the pretty villa and furnished it - like the Graz house - carefully to suit her taste.

Nestroy was already plagued by thoughts of death, so in 1861 he wrote a will in which Marie Weiler was appointed sole heir.

“I appoint Fraulein Marie Weiler, the loyal friend of my days, who through self-sacrificing work contributed most to the acquisition of this fortune, as the universal heiress, so that I do not say too much when I claim that she has more established claims to it than myself. "

On May 25, 1862 at 11 a.m. Johann Nestroy died of a stroke in Graz. His body was brought to Vienna and buried in the Währing local cemetery.

Marie Weiler died in Vienna on October 31, 1864.

Marie Weiler's and Johann Nestroy’s children

Marie Weiler and Johann Nestroy had three children together who - recognized as children by Nestroy - were born out of wedlock. Since the parents often performed together, a nanny looked after the children on such evenings.

  • Karl Johann Anton; * October 3, 1831; † July 30, 1880; Discharged from active military service in 1863 after a military career; 1880, although already seriously ill, late marriage to Stefanie Maria Franziska von Bene; died about two weeks later because of an "organic heart defect".
  • Maria Cecilia; * April 2, 1840; † April 18, 1873; In 1857 she married the Rittmeister Karl Sluka (1827-1891); their daughter Maria Karolina was born in 1861 and died after just two weeks.
  • Adolph Johann; * March 25, 1842; † April 14, 1842.

Adolph died after just twelve days. Karl and Maria were legitimized in 1858 by the "highest permission" of Emperor Franz Joseph I as the descendants of Johann Nestroy.

Marie Weiler's roles in the works of Nestroy (excerpt)

As an artist, Marie Weiler was rather less important than her partner, but he stood up for her and her career at all times and always wrote her (vocal) roles in his pieces. The fact that she was a better singer than an actress barely allowed important roles on the speaking stages in later years.

Honor grave

Nestroy's grave of honor - Marie Weiler's name on the gravestone

On September 22, 1890, Nestroy was reburied in an honorary grave of the City of Vienna in the Vienna Central Cemetery, but with the restriction that Marie Weiler could also be buried with him,

"[...] but the name Nestroy has to appear alone on the grave monument and an inscription referring to Marie Weiler is excluded."

It was not until 2004 that Marie Weiler received a late honor when her name was added to Nestroy's tombstone.

The Marie-Weiler-Weg in Vienna-Floridsdorf was named after her in 2008.

literature

Apart from this lexicon article, there is no explicit literature on Marie Weiler. Her life and work are reflected in the popular Nestroy literature such as the works of Helmut Ahrens (1982) and Renate Wagner (2001) or in anthologies such as that of Renate Wagner (1995), in which Marie Weiler and 41 other Austrians receive a brief tribute , treated. Mentions in contemporary memoirs and newspaper reports as well as in scientific literature not directly dedicated to Marie Weiler are listed in the individual references.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Walter Obermaier, Hermann Böhm (Ed.): Johann Nestroy. Historical-critical edition. Documents. Vienna 2009, p. 78.
  2. ↑ Name of the mother in the CERL Thesaurus . Retrieved September 23, 2017
  3. ↑ a b Walter Obermaier, Hermann Böhm (Ed.): Johann Nestroy. Historical-critical edition. Documents. Vienna 2009, p. 77.
  4. ^ A b Adolf Bäuerle: Almanac for theater, music and poetry to the year 1811 . Vienna 1811, p. 21.
  5. ^ Walter Obermaier, Hermann Böhm (Ed.): Johann Nestroy. Historical-critical edition. Documents. Vienna 2009, p. 77.
  6. ^ General musical newspaper. 43rd year Leipzig - Breitkopf & Härtel 1841, column 462 f.
  7. ^ Wolfgang Neuber: Nestroy, Johann . In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 19 (1998), pp. 81–83 online version . PDF (93 kB). Retrieved September 25, 2017.
  8. ↑ a b c d e f Lorenz: "An Unknown Child of Johann Nestroy" , Vienna, 2015
  9. ↑ handwriting directory Nestroy: roles played by Marie Weiler (01.01.1828 - 11.29.1829) , the catalog of the manuscript collection in the Vienna City Library , IN 135,828.
  10. ↑ Harald Miesbacher: The early Graz years of Johann Nestroy (1826-1831). In: Nestroyana , 35th year 2015, issue 3–4, ISSN 1027-3921. P. 140.
  11. ↑ Dlle. is the abbreviation for Demoiselle (= Fräulein), the name used to describe the unmarried women of an ensemble; the married actresses were titled Mad. ( Madame )
  12. ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. Pp. 79-80.
  13. ^ A b Friedrich Kaiser: Under fifteen theater directors. Colorful pictures from the Viennese stage world . Vienna 1870, p. 33.
  14. ^ Friedrich Kaiser: Under fifteen theater directors. Colorful pictures from the Viennese stage world . Vienna 1870, p. 24.
  15. ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. P. 119. Spelling corrected according to netroy-werke.at: PDF of the letter.
  16. ^ Friedrich Walla (Ed.): Johann Nestroy; Pieces 6. In: Jürgen Hein / Johann Hüttner : Johann Nestroy, Complete Works, Historical-Critical Edition. Jugend und Volk, Vienna / Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7141-6965-2 ; P. 172.
  17. ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. P. 211.
  18. ^ Johann Nestroy, Urs Helmensdorfer (ed.): Singing is a proteus: singing theater songs with the piano. LIT Verlag, Münster 2010, ISBN 978-3-8258-0742-9 , p. 162.
  19. ↑ PDF of the letter at nestroy-werke.at (29.5 kB). (Accessed September 28, 2017).
  20. ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. P. 362.
  21. ↑ Helmut Ahrens: I am not auctioning myself off to the laurel. P. 380.
  22. ↑ Town hall correspondence of October 29, 2004: Late honor for Marie Weiler . Retrieved February 9, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Hamlet, Marie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Laucher, Cäcilia Maria (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actress and singer
DATE OF BIRTH November 13, 1809
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 1864
Place of death Vienna