Peter Gorski

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Peter Gründgens-Gorski (born Peter Gorski , born September 7, 1921 in Berlin ; † March 3, 2007 in Manacor ) was a German theater director who also directed several films. In the years 1965 to 1971, as the adopted son and sole heir of Gustaf Gründgens , Gorski prevented the publication of Klaus Mann's 1936 novel Mephisto in the Federal Republic of Germany in several lawsuits against the Nymphenburg publishing house .

Life

Gorski, who first made contact with Gründgens as a soldier during World War II in 1942 while on leave from the front in Berlin, was later his partner. Gründgens adopted Gorski in 1949 on the grounds that he had saved his life: “After Mr. Gorski saved my life in 1945 through his fearless dedication, such a close relationship developed between us that prompted me to adopt Mr. Gorski as a child . "

Gorski began a career as a director in the 1950s. Since 1953 at the latest he has been working as assistant director and director in the Düsseldorf theater under the artistic director Gustaf Gründgens. In 1955 he was assistant director in the film Maturing Youth . At the time of Gustaf Gründgens' directorship at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg he staged various plays, such as Gerd Oelschlegel's comedy Dust on Paradise in 1957, Jules Romains ' comedy The Triumph of Medicine in 1958 , Marcel Pagnol's Monsieur Topaze in 1960 , Dylan Thomas ' Unter dem Milchwald . and most recently in October 1963 Shakespeare's Funny Wives of Windsor , already under the direction of Oscar Fritz Schuh .

In 1960 Gorski was director of the Salzburg Festival for the revival of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Don Carlo , a production from 1958 directed by Gustaf Gründgens.

In the film adaptation of the acclaimed Gründgens production of Faust I at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg , in which Gründgens played Mephisto, Gorski was given the direction of the film Faust (1960) . The film was the official candidate of West Germany at the Academy Awards in 1961 as best foreign film , did not reach the nomination, but received the same year the German Film Award as outstanding documentaries and cultural films .

When, after the death of Gustaf Gründgens, the Nymphenburger Verlagbuchhandlung also wanted to publish his novel Mephisto as part of a complete edition of Klaus Mann's works , Gorski, as Gründgens' sole heir, first sued the regional court of Hamburg for an omission from 1963 on the grounds that the novel, which is based on the life story of his adoptive father, draws “a falsified, grossly defamatory picture of Gründgens”. After the complaint was dismissed, Gorski appealed to the Hamburg Higher Regional Court in 1965, with the result that distribution of the novel was banned. The publisher then sued the Federal Court of Justice and the Federal Constitutional Court, which in the 1971 Mephisto decision banned the distribution of the novel in the event of a tie in the last instance because it placed the protection of (post-mortem) human dignity higher than the freedom of art. When the novel was published by Rowohlt Verlag in 1981 , Gorski no longer sued against publication of the work.

In 1995, Gorski, who was living on Mallorca at the time, litigated as the sole heir of Gründgens for ownership claims on the Zeesen estate in Königs Wusterhausen . This villa, owned by the Jewish banking family Goldschmidt, was sold to Gründgens in 1935 at the instigation of Hermann Göring at half of the standard value at the time, which Gustaf Gründgens later described as "rather dubious". After the end of the Second World War, the villa was u. a. used by the Foreign Ministry of the GDR as a home for diplomatic children. Restitution claims were made by both Peter Gorski and the descendants of the former owner and the Foreign Office . In 1998 a new trial began before the Cottbus Administrative Court before the villa was awarded to Goldschmidt's descendants in 1999.

On the occasion of Gustaf Gründgens '100th birthday and a planned exhibition in December 1999, Peter Gorski presented the Berlin State Library with part of Gründgens' estate with over 70 linear meters of documents. On the day the exhibition opened, Gorski spoke up again about Klaus Mann's Mephisto novel, with the Berliner Zeitung commenting on Gorski's appearance as follows: “It was rather embarrassing and inappropriate when Gorski gave Klaus Mann and his 'badly informed' on the day the exhibition opened Roman scolded like a cane with a cane. "

Movies

Directed at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Curt Ries: Gustaf Gründgens. A biography . Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 1966, p. 250
  2. ^ Mephisto trial . In: Der Spiegel . No. 35 , 1965, pp. 82-83 ( Online - Aug. 25, 1965 ).
  3. ↑ Affair Theater. Chin hook in the backdrop . In: Der Spiegel . No. 42 , 1953, pp. 27 ( Online - Oct. 14, 1953 ).
  4. ↑ a b Theater programs of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg from November 19, 1957, September 20, 1958, January 2, 1960 and April 30, 1960
  5. ^ Theater program of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg on October 29, 1963
  6. ^ Salzburg Festival 1960
  7. ^ Salzburg Festival 1958
  8. ↑ Dieter E. Zimmer: The case Mephisto Reprinted from the time feature from January 23, 1981
  9. ↑ Pretty dubious . In: Der Spiegel . No. 28 , 1995, pp. 72-73 ( online - 10 July 1995 ).
  10. ↑ Christine Dankbar: The dispute over Zeesen Castle is entering the next round before the Cottbus Administrative Court. The Gründgens villa is still waiting for its owner . In: Berliner Zeitung of March 25, 1998
  11. ↑ Stories from history ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been 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 / deutschland-im-internet.de
  12. ^ A b Roland Koberg: Before the hundredth birthday of Gustaf Gründgens: The State Library shows its new purchase. Late effects of a failed theater policy in: Berliner Zeitung of December 10, 1999
  13. ↑ Entry about Peter Gorski in filmportal.de ( Memento of the original from March 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) 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.filmportal.de
  14. ^ Theater programs of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg on May 5, 1961, September 20, 1961, September 6, 1962; January 25, 1963
  15. ^ Theater programs of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg from September 1963 to October 29, 1963, already under the direction of Oscar Fritz Schuh
personal data
SURNAME Gorski, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gründgens-Gorski, Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater and film director
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2007
Place of death Manacor