Raoul Aslan

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Raoul Aslan (1917)

Raoul Aslan (born October 16, 1886, Thessaloniki , Ottoman Empire, now Greece ; † June 17, 1958 in Litzlberg, Seewalchen am Attersee ; actually Raoul Maria Eduard Karl Aslan-Zumpart ) worked as an actor at the Vienna Burgtheater for many years and from 1945 to 1948 also director of the Burgtheater. He was not particularly interested in films , which is why he only appeared in comparatively few productions.

Career

Acting was already of particular interest to him in school. However, his academic performance suffered as a result. After an audition with Adolf von Sonnenthal, he recommended him to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, where Aslan received acting lessons from Franziska Ellmenreich as a trainee from 1906 . In the same year he played with Julius Caesar . In the following years he learned to act on a few smaller stages until he had his first major successes in Stuttgart in 1911 .

He achieved great success in 1917 when he got a contract in Vienna. The role of Gabriel Schilling brought him the breakthrough here. He then received a contract at the Burgtheater in 1920 , where he spent most of the time. He made his first film in 1918 . The silent films of this period include The Other I (1918) and The Venus (1922). Nevertheless, he preferred to play at the Burgtheater. In 1926 he was the first to receive the title “ Chamber Actor ” (formerly “ Court Actor ”). At that time he worked as an actor, director and director at this theater. In the 1930s he made several other films, including the films Yorck (1931), The White Demon (1932), Invisible Adversaries or Oil in the Fire (1933) and Girls' Boarding School (1936).

Raoul Aslan is on the God- gifted list of Reich Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels as an important artist of the Nazi state.

On April 20, 1945, Aslan initially took on the position of castle director without a higher order - the only one to this day . The few castle actors who remained in Vienna had rallied around the popular mime, he had taken over the management and was later confirmed by the Soviets, also because he had demonstrated “genuine anti-fascism ” throughout the Nazi era , even if apparently only in personal conversation because there are no written documents. The Burgtheater was not available due to bomb damage, and so Aslan concluded a rental agreement with the owner of the Ronacher establishment after many meetings and visits to the authorities . On April 30, 1945 they managed to organize the first Burgtheater performance after the end of the war with Grillparzer's Sappho , to which the Soviet Marshal Fyodor Ivanovich Tolbuchin appeared - albeit belatedly. Aslan's partner Tonio Riedl played the main role of Phaon .

Before the performance, Aslan gave a speech in which he referred to the time before March 1938, among other things.

“At the place where the great Burgtheater director Heinrich Laube founded the Wiener Stadttheater over 70 years ago, here, near the heart of Vienna, the Burgtheater will open its place of activity for the near future. Again as the Austrian state theater, true to its glorious tradition. [...] We hope to be able to remain what the Burgtheater was: a theater of actors and actresses, united to form a permanent ensemble through our artistic will. The personality wants to be able to develop freely, but it also wants to be properly used again in the place that it is entitled to thanks to the gifts that have been given to it. It is bound by style and custom, tradition, culture and landscape, but unbound by the spirit that works through it. His flame is visible to everyone, it is international and not limited by time. "

- Raoul Aslan : April 30, 1945

From May 19, 1945, the associated academy theater began to be used again . One of the main tasks of the Burgtheater was the revival of three traditions that had been interrupted in 1938: the resumption of plays by authors who had been banned, the reinstatement of members who were once considered intolerable and the reintroduction of closed performances for the “Theater der Jugend”. For the latter there was the first closed performance on March 23, 1946 with Cabal and Love . Aslan's time as director ended on March 7, 1948, but he remained connected to the Burgtheater. His last role in the Burgtheater was the “Voice of the Lord” in Adolf Rott's legendary production of Goethe's Faust , which was still heard on tape after his death in the 1958/59 season.

After the Second World War he only took part in a few film productions, such as the St. Matthew Passion (1949), Mozart (1955) and Wilhelm Tell (1956).

Life

The tomb of Raoul Aslan in the Grinzing cemetery

Raoul Aslan came from a formerly wealthy family with Armenian ancestors, as the etymology of the name shows. His younger brother was actor Didier Aslan . Aslan was raised by a Viennese governess , Fräulein Birn, who also taught him German. He and his mother moved to Vienna in 1896 to attend school there - first the elementary school in Johannesgasse, and from autumn 1897 the kk Staatsgymnasium in Fichtnergasse . After the second grade, Aslan's mother had to send her son to the Piaristenkonvikt in Horn because of poor school success. But even in Horn his performance did not improve and he attended the 7th and 8th grades again in Fichtnergasse, whereby according to the available sources he had to repeat the 7th grade and was never able to successfully pass the school leaving examination.

From 1914 he had a love affair with his childhood friend Zeljko Koconda. In 1932 he met the actor Tonio Riedl (1906–1995), 20 years his junior, at Café Ritter on Mariahilfer Strasse . In 1936 he finally separated from Koconda. Riedl left Vienna temporarily to pursue a career himself, and after the war began in 1939 he played in front theaters. Aslan made friends with the Burgtheater director Lothar Müthel , who, in Lotte Tobisch's opinion , covered him as best he could. He played leading roles at the castle and in three years wrote almost a thousand pious and longing letters to his "beloved angel". In addition, Aslan tries unsuccessfully to get a “ uk position” for Riedl, that is, indispensability as an actor in the theater, as he himself had. After all theaters were closed in 1944, Aslan was drafted into the Volkssturm and completed air raid protection at the Burgtheater. Even during the National Socialist era , he did nothing to camouflage his homosexuality, just as little as his rejection of the National Socialist system. Apparently he only developed the latter in a personal conversation, as there are no written records. Aslan is, like Gustaf Gründgens , one of the few known homosexuals who did not have any problems with the authorities during these years. He was also deeply Catholic and attended mass every day whenever possible.

From 1934 until his death, Aslan lived with Riedl on the top floor of the Strudl hofgasse 13. In recent years they shared the apartment with the private secretary Hermann Fanslau. After Aslan died of a heart attack, Riedl and Fanslau went on a trip around the world and stayed together.

Raoul Aslan is buried in the Grinzinger Friedhof (group MA, number 24 A) in Vienna in an honorary grave . His partner Riedl, whom Aslan had adopted, was buried in the same grave under the name Riedl-Aslan.

Awards

Filmography

Sound documents (selection)

Accompanied by Hilde Loewy, better known by her stage name Henry Love , on the piano, Aslan sang several of the composer's chansons for the Austrian Columbia around 1930.

Audio samples:

  • Columbia 7024 (mx. A 7231) Your letter came late. Boston (Henry Love, text by W. Steinberg-Frank)
  • Columbia 7024 (mx. A 7238) (32 342) The trampled heart (Henry Love, text by Béla Lasky)
  • Columbia 14 139 (mx. WA 7239) The old song. Boston (Henry Love, text by Beda)
  • Columbia 14 139 (mx. WA 7240) decays. Song u. Tango (Henry Love, text by W. Steinberg-Frank)

For this company he also spoke recitations:

  • Columbia SV 120 (mx. CHA 1288-1 P) a) Heidenröslein (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe) b) Get intoxicated! (Charles Baudelaire)
  • Columbia SV 120 (mx. CHA 1289-1 P) Prometheus (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
  • Columbia SV 122 (mx. CHA 1292-1P) The Princess and the Pea (Hans Christian Andersen)
  • Columbia SV 122 (mx. CHA 1293-1P) a) The tea table by H. Heine b) 3 stanzas from "Critique of the Heart" by W. Busch.

literature

  • Erhard Buschbeck : Raoul Aslan and the Burgtheater . Müller, Vienna 1946.
  • Didier Aslan : A life story about Raoul Aslan . Wilhelm Frick Verlag, Vienna 1953.
  • Herta David: Aslan's time at the Burgtheater . Dissertation, Vienna 1966.
  • Margarethe Gruber (Ed.): Raoul Aslan encounter in the light - correspondence with Tonio Riedl . Wilhelm Braumüller Verlag, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7003-0178-2 .
  • Felix Czeike : Historical Lexicon Vienna. Volume 1: A – Da. Kremayr & Scheriau, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-218-00543-4 , pp. 173-174.

Web links

Commons : Raoul Aslan  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Klee: Cultural Lexicon for the 3rd Reich . ISBN 978-3-596-17153-8 , pp. 23 .
  2. ↑ a b c Andreas Brunner , Hannes Sulzenbacher : Schwules Wien - travel guide through the Danube metropolis , Promedia 1998, ISBN 3-85371-131-6 , p. 85
  3. ↑ Minna von Alth, Gertrude Olzyna, Rudolf Holaubek; Austrian Federal Theater Association (publisher): Burgtheater 1776-1976. Performances and casts spanning two hundred years. 1. Volume , Carl Ueberreuter, Vienna 1992, ISBN 978-3-8000-6340-6 , p. 630
  4. ↑ a b c d Lucian O. Meysels : The world of Lotte Tobisch . Edition Va Bene, Klosterneuburg / Vienna 2002, ISBN 978-3-85167-120-9 , p. 30 f .; Google book preview
  5. ↑ Hellmut Laun: This is how I met God. (DOC; 370 kB) Andreas Laun , February 3, 1999, p. 95 , archived from the original on August 18, 2006 ; accessed on January 22, 2015 .
  6. ↑ October 16, 1946: Ring of Honor of the City of Vienna for Burgtheater Director Raoul Aslan
  7. ↑ E. Juice of Life:  Aslan, Raoul . In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 . 2nd revised edition (online only).
  8. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)
  9. ↑ [1] (audio document)
  10. ↑ [2] (audio document)
  11. ↑ [3]
  12. ↑ [4]
  13. ↑ [5]
  14. ↑ [6]
  15. ↑ [7]
  16. ↑ [8] (audio document)
personal data
SURNAME Aslan, Raoul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Aslan-Zumpart, Raoul Maria Eduard Karl (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Actor of the Vienna Burgtheater
DATE OF BIRTH October 16, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Thessaloniki , Ottoman Empire today Greece
DATE OF DEATH June 17, 1958
Place of death Litzlberg, municipality of Seewalchen am Attersee