Martin Bendix

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Martin Bendix , also often called Martin Bendix, der Urkomische , (* July 22, 1843 in Berlin ; † October 16, 1915 ibid), was a German entertainer , singer , comedian and actor .

Live and act

"Bendix, the hilarious", as he was often called, was considered the original Berlin original and, even before Otto Reutter , who achieved great popularity with his couplets, as one of the most popular entertainers in Berlin at the end of the 19th century. Bendix began his career on November 1, 1862. He quickly realized that, thanks to his wit and his art of speaking, he could inspire the masses, mostly simple people from the people, with his stand-ups, as one would say today. His puns filled the American Theater on Dresdener Strasse evening after evening, the refrains of his saucy couplets earned him ovations. His Berlin pun and his own linguistic creations, which are no longer comprehensible today, quickly became common linguistic property in the German capital and were often copied by his followers. A particularly popular creation was the role of a “typical” Berlin cab driver who talks the way he can.

In later years, Berlin's Apollo Theater in particular became the artistic home of Martin Bendix, who wrote most of his texts and skits (including one-act plays such as "Bulgaria in Berlin" and "The Million Heiress of Rixdorf") himself, as well as numerous of his couplet interludes composed himself. With his son, the entertainer Paul Bendix, he was also one of the earliest comedians to be immortalized on the phonograph cylinder and gramophone record . Together, father and son made over 200 recordings, and Bendix junior continued his recording career into the 1920s. In the early days of cinematography, Martin Bendix stood in front of the camera several times with his sketches in sound images and short silent films by Alfred Duskes . When Martin Bendix died in a collision with a Postbus in the middle of the First World War, one of the obituaries attested that he had a “really primitive, coarse sense of humor” which “so often led to a diaphragmatic effect”, as the Phonographische Zeitung in its edition of November 1915 meant. As it was further stated there, Bendix was "not one of the very big ones, of course not, but his modest light knew how to shine so well into the soul of the people, his innocent, never-offensive joke so aptly gripped the lives of the broad masses".

Filmography (sound images and short films)

  • 1907: At the dentist
  • 1908: The old Berliner
  • 1908: Max and Moritz in the theater gallery
  • 1913: Age does not protect against folly
  • 1913: If you go for a stroll
  • 1913: When two do the same thing
  • 1913: the second me
  • 1914: Who owns the shirt

Skits (selection)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ z. B. "Now but out", "Slowly, it gets stuck", "Lose nothing, it stuckles", "We don't beep at the calamus"
personal data
SURNAME Bendix, Martin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bendix, Martin the hilarious
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entertainer, singer, comedian and actor
DATE OF BIRTH July 22, 1843
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH October 16, 1915
Place of death Berlin