Siegfried Lewinsky
Siegfried Lewinsky (born May 24, 1881 in Kempen ; died June 29, 1958 in Dresden ) was a German actor .
Life
Siegfried Lewinsky was born on May 24, 1881 in Kempen, then Prussia, attended the humanistic grammar school here and initially went to Berlin to prepare for a stage career with Heinrich Oberländer . After completing his studies, the first engagement followed in 1901 at the city theater in Wesel , and later in Stettin . In 1909 Nikolaus Graf von Seebach and Karl Zeiss brought him to the Royal Court Theater in Dresden. Initially entrusted with supporting roles, he then played leading roles after the inauguration of the theater, such as Priam in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida .
On August 31, 1934, Lewinsky was retired because of his Jewish descent, as he could not be dismissed after 25 years of service. On February 16 of this year he had already performed as part of the winter program of the Fraternitas Lodge of the Israelite Religious Community in Dresden. From then on he was one of the most active artists who from now on appeared regularly in the Jewish community, u. a. he stood here on stage with Jenny Schaffer , Julius Wahle , Otto Bernstein and Walter Goldmann.
After the Reichspogromnacht in 1938, Lewinsky was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp on November 13 , but was released again on December 14, 1938. Siegfried Lewinsky was with Martha, geb. Müller, a non-Jewish woman, married (“privileged marriage”), and was therefore under a certain, but increasingly insecure protection. In 1943 Victor Klemperer recorded visits from Lewinsky to him several times in his diary, as he procured books and newspapers for him.
Lewinsky was supposed to be deported from Dresden to the Theresienstadt concentration camp with the last transport of Jews on February 16, 1945 , but this transport did not take place (or no longer) due to the bombing of Dresden on February 13. Lewinsky was able to go into hiding and was one of the very few Jewish artists in Dresden to survive the Nazi regime. In the same year he played again in the Dresden State Theater in interim venues, later at the Großer Haus and stood a. a. in Kater Lampe (folk comedy), Der Hauptmann von Köpenick ( Carl Zuckmayer ) and Das Gottes Kind (a Christmas play by Emil Alfred Herrmann (1871–1957)). He also appeared again in the Jewish community, both at general cultural events and among other things. a. at Purim Feasts .
1951 was Lewinsky as a pedestrian in the play The Glockenspiel des Kremlin (original title: Кремлёвские куранты ) by Nikolai Fedorowitsch Pogodin for the last time on stage. Siegfried Lewinsky died in Dresden on June 29, 1958. Less than a year later, his wife also died and was buried next to him in the New Jewish Cemetery (grave number: AIR 19/27).
literature
- Hannes Heer ; Jürgen Kesting ; Peter Schmidt: Silent voices: the expulsion of the “Jews” and “politically intolerable” from the Dresden theaters 1933 to 1945; an exhibition . Semperoper Dresden and Staatsschauspiel Dresden May 15 to July 13, 2011. Berlin, Metropol 2011, ISBN 978-3-86331-032-5 , short biography p. 136.
- Lewinsky, Siegfried , in: Joseph Walk (ed.): Short biographies on the history of the Jews 1918–1945 . Munich: Saur, 1988, ISBN 3-598-10477-4 , p. 231
Web links
- Biography ( memento from April 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) on juden-in-mittelachsen.de
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lewinsky, Siegfried |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 24, 1881 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kempen |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 29, 1958 |
| Place of death | Dresden |