Satyr buttons

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The two satyr buttons , also called Gorgon buttons , are an award for the most important actor of his time. They are decorated with the heads of satyrs or gorgons and are passed on from actor to actor, but usually not during the lifetime of the wearer.

history

The two buttons are said to come from Goethe's rock . August Wilhelm Iffland received the buttons from Goethe , later Ernst von Possart .

Possart's heirs handed the buttons over to Werner Krauss in 1923 , according to the latter in a letter to Gustaf Gründgens dated December 22, 1938. In the same letter, Krauss expresses his wish to bequeath the buttons to Gründgens.

"I have to pass it on and have given it to you, and since I know that I will not change my opinion about you, I will give you one of these buttons today. So that you can wear it, I had a second one made for you with a dedication. You get the other one when I'm dead .... If you die before me, the button falls back to me "

- Werner Krauss in a letter to Gustaf Gründgens dated December 22, 1938

Allegedly, Gründgens had cufflinks made from it. Before his death he did not appoint a successor for the buttons.

On the occasion of Gründgens' 100th birthday, the director Imo Moszkowicz , who had been the director's assistant at Gründgens, asked members of the former Prussian State Theater in Berlin to determine a new sponsor. The choice fell on Martin Benrath , whom Gründgens hired in 1953 to Düsseldorf and promoted there. Benrath died about a month after getting the buttons. Shortly before his death, he passed the buttons on to Sunnyi Melles . She keeps them in the safe.

swell

  1. ↑ a b c Martin Benrath: Goethe's buttons as a prize The actor Martin Benrath receives the so-called Gorgon buttons. The theatrical award goes back to a legend according to which the buttons decorated with Gorgon heads come from Goethe's skirt. The honor is passed on from actor to actor and is given to the most important actor of the time. , www.spiegel.de, December 15, 1999, accessed on November 28, 2015.
  2. ↑ a b c Letter from Werner Krauss to Gustaf Gründgens dated December 22, 1938, letter text according to auction catalog. , www.stargardt.de, No. 816, p. 407, accessed on November 28, 2015.
  3. ^ Letter from Werner Krauss to Gustaf Gründgens dated December 22, 1938. December 22, 1938, accessed on November 28, 2015. 
  4. ↑ a b Sunnyi Melles in an interview with Susanne Hermanski: When the world tears apart. The actress Sunnyi Melles is the child of Hungarian emigrants. Her parents' escape shaped her life and work. At the third SZ-Kultursalon she talks about 'old money and new roots.' In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , No. 274, November 27, 2015, p. R17.
  5. ↑ Roland Koberg: We say goodbye every day. , www.berliner-zeitung.de, February 2, 2000, accessed on November 28, 2015.
  6. ↑ Sabine Dultz in an interview with Sunnyi Melles: It's like soul striptease. , www.merkur.de, April 13, 2009, accessed on November 28, 2015.