Ortrud begin

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Ortrud Elsa Elisabeth Beginnen (born February 5, 1938 in Hamburg , † January 19, 1999 in Stuttgart ) was a German film and theater actress.

Beginnings

Ortrud Beginnen was born the only child of an unmarried opera choirist and Wagner fanatic (hence her baptismal name, Ortrud Elsa Elisabeth). After the war she grew up as a refugee child in Schleswig-Holstein with her grandparents. Soon the desire to act matured in her because it was the only way to "leave this sad childhood". She did an apprenticeship as a bookseller and then applied for an acting training. Her first audition in Hamburg failed due to her - according to her own statements - unconventional demeanor.

First successes

In 1964 Ortrud Beginnen moved to Berlin , where he was discovered for the stage by the French director Paul Vasil. Just one year later she made her debut in the piece Knife Heads . In 1970 she took over the management of the West Berlin off-theater Reichskabarett with Vasil , where she celebrated great successes ( Vita dolorosa, Dracula, Auf, auf zum Forum! ) And rose to become a real muse of the 1968 off-scene. Her so-called “trivial theater style” earned her the ironic nickname “Die Duse vom Ludwigkirchplatz ”. In addition, her ironic, subtle interpretation of the classic German songs (first solo program: Last Rose ) became her trademark. In 1974, her wartime revue Fronttheater , together with Jürgen Knieper and Waltraut Habicht, received international attention .

Stage years

In 1976 the city of Mainz awarded her the Cabaret Prize, and in the same year she became a member of the ensemble at the Stuttgart State Theater under the artistic director Claus Peymann . With Peymann she later moved to the Schauspielhaus Bochum , where she has important stage roles in Lessing , Brecht and Achternbusch plays. In addition, she continued to develop her own programs. At the 1979 theater festival in Nancy she made a guest appearance with a German soldier song I want to be your comrade . The guest performance was canceled prematurely with the charge that she had "sneaked in with Nazi songs". In an interview with ZEIT (September 5, 1981), she explained about the allegations: "... I was previously of the opinion that the nature of my presentation made it clear that I do not approve of these songs, but want to expose them".

Between 1983 and 1986 she developed three programs at the Schauspielhaus Bochum (together with her long-time partner, director James Lyons), which are known as the Minna trilogy : Minna, or how to make it; The maid of fate and Minna in Mallorca .

During her time in Bochum, she also created a musical arrangement of Wilhelm Busch's Die fromme Helene (1987) together with the pianist Alfons Nowacki .

In 1989 Ortrud Beginnen moved to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg and shone there in various character roles, including as Frau Grollfeuer in Werner Schwab's Destruction of the People, General Cartwright in Guys and Dolls and as Nazi diva Susi Nicoletti in Turrini's Death and the Devil . In 1991 her solo program 1000 Years of German Humor was created here .

In 1991 she was seen as a loving neighbor in Loriot's film Pappa ante portas .

With the change at the top of the Schauspielhaus in 1993, Beginnen also switched back to the Staatstheater Stuttgart - and at the opening of Friedrich Schirmer's artistic director, showed her home revue Wir Mädel singen, an abysmal satire about Germans and foreigners who were attacked by an asylum seeker home in Hoyerswerda and the riots in Rostock-Lichtenhagen got a special meaning.

In 1995 she was named " Actress of the Year " by the magazine Theater heute for her role in the award-winning Burgtheater production in Vienna, The President (by Werner Schwab ) .

In the Stuttgart ensemble she played Maria Callas in Terrence McNally's play Meisterklasse. In the chanson evening A seductive woman , she sang lyrics by the playwright Michael Zochow (music: Uli Bühl).

Grave begin , Ohlsdorf cemetery

In 1997, in a co-production of the Wiener Festwochen and the Burgtheater, she reintroduced the monarchy in Schönbrunn Palace with her evening Ein Zacken aus der Krone.

In her last theater work, she directed the world premiere of the play Disturbance by Luigi Forte, a production of Styrian Autumn, in Graz in 1998 .

In addition to character roles, the focus of her work was above all humorous performances. In 1975 she published her autobiography Look, cross-eyed!

For its 65th birthday, in 2003 Roof Music brought the double CD songs and stories from the disaster suitcase - Gustav Peter Wöhler and Susanne Betancor read from their autobiography. The audio book also contains many original recordings from interviews and cabaret programs.

Ortrud Beginnen died on January 19, 1999 in Stuttgart from cancer. She is buried in the Ohlsdorf cemetery in Hamburg at grid square U 10 (north of Chapel 1).

Ortrud Beginnen is dedicated to a star in the Walk of Fame of the cabaret in Mainz .

reception

In 2009 the dramaturge Ulrich Beck wrote his diploma thesis entitled Welcome to Germany - The comedy in "We girls sing - A German matter" by Ortrud Beginnen .

As part of a symposium in 2013 in Toulouse on the subject of Contre-Cultures à Berlin de 1960 à Nos Jours , the articles (2013/1 - nr.64) Le comique implacable d'Ortrud Beginnen by Manuel Durand-Barthez and Cahiers D'Études Germaniques were published Ortrud's Merciless Comedy Beginning by James Edward Lyons.

In 2017, a new version of the satirical home play Wir Mädel singen with references to the then current wave of refugees was staged at the Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen under the direction of long-term partner James Edward Lyons. For the 50th anniversary of the revolutionary year 1968, their satirical charity evening for aging 68ers Mein Freund Rudi was re-staged in a co-production of the Zimmertheater Tübingen and the Landesbühne Esslingen.

Filmography

Discography

  • In: Walter Bockmayers Geierwally. Global Records, Munich / BMG Ariola Munich, Munich [1988]

Web links

Commons : Ortrud Begin  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Announcement on the death of Ortrud Beginnen , Der Spiegel , 4/1999
  2. ^ Commemoration of Ortrud Beginnen , Hamburger Abendblatt , January 18, 2003
  3. ↑ Diploma thesis Ulrich Beck , Munich 2011
  4. ^ Symposium article by Manuel Durand-Barthez , Toulouse 2013
  5. ^ Symposium article by James Edward Lyons , Toulouse 2013
  6. ↑ Production by James Edward Lyons , Esslingen 2017
personal data
SURNAME Begin, Ortrud
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Begin, Ortrud Elsa Elisabeth (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German film and theater actress
DATE OF BIRTH February 5, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1999
Place of death Stuttgart