Signe from Scanzoni

Signe von Scanzoni (born July 23, 1915 in Frankfurt am Main ; † September 25, 2002 in Ehrwald ) was a German dancer , singer , actress and author. She was Erika Mann's last partner .

Life

Signe von Scanzoni was a daughter of Amélie zu Fürstenberg and the actor Walter Janssen , but carried the name of the lawyer Gustav Scanzoni von Lichtenfels , who married her mother in 1917 and had previously acted as a divorce lawyer for her first marriage: Amélie zu Fürstenberg had in 1908 Married Gustav von Koczian, with whom she had previously run away. There were two children from this connection. Contrary to what Signe von Scanzoni later portrayed, her stepfather tried hard to secure the means for her education and also for costly cures and disease treatments by repeatedly turning to the royal family, the "Inge", as she was Family circle was called, came from. Evidence of this can be found in the Princely Fürstenberg Archives in Donaueschingen .

Signe von Scanzoni grew up in Munich , where she attended the high school for girls on Luisenstrasse. She lost her mother at the age of 14. At the age of sixteen she began her training as a singer in Berlin in 1931 , which she had to interrupt because of a respiratory problem. Instead, she began studying music and theater studies. Julius Petersen and Rolf Badenhausen were among her teachers . Signe von Scanzoni also appeared as an actress during this time. Her stepfather enclosed one of his letters to the Princely House, which at that time still made a significant contribution to the young artist's livelihood, an expert opinion from the chamber singer Walter Kirchhoff , who praised her “musical sensibility” but emphasized the need to interrupt her vocal training. Gustav Scanzoni von Lichtenfels also stated in this letter that - apparently after considerable effort - he had finally been able to persuade Signe von Scanzoni's biological father to recognize his fatherhood, which was of great importance for Signe von Scanzoni at the time because of the required Aryan proof . This first appeared under the name Signe Maria Götzen in the provinces and finally from 1937 under Otto Falckenberg at the Münchner Kammerspiele . One of her roles was Natalie in The Prince of Homburg by Heinrich von Kleist . She did not get an engagement at the Münchner Staatsschauspiel .

During this time Signe von Scanzoni stayed at Herbert Göring's house , whose wife took care of her when she became seriously ill in the spring of 1940. In 1941 pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed. The fact that Signe von Scanzoni was able to travel to Davos for treatment may have saved her from being attacked by the National Socialists , as she and her colleagues, including Hanne Mertens , drew their attention with “defeatist chants”. Hanne Mertens was killed in the Neuengamme concentration camp .

After her illness had been treated surgically in Switzerland , Signe von Scanzoni was no longer able to dance ballet or perform as an actress, and instead worked as a dramaturge .

In 1937 Clemens Krauss took over the management of the Bavarian State Opera ; Signe von Scanzoni became his assistant in the early 1940s. In particular, she was a connoisseur of the works of Richard Strauss and was instrumental in the premieres of Peace Day , Capriccio and Die Liebe der Danae .

Signe von Scanzoni accompanied her name aunt Bella Dispeker , Grete Weil's mother , on her journey into exile in the Netherlands in 1938 during the Third Reich , but did not stay outside the country at the time. After the end of the Second World War , when Krauss was temporarily banned from conducting, she lived and worked for some time in the USA . As a music journalist, she published the works of Wiener Oper. Weg und Irrwege (1962), chat about music theater , Richard Strauss and his singers (1961) and, together with Götz Kende , Clemens Krauss. Facts, Comparisons, Conclusions (1988). She also designed the Richard Strauss exhibition in Munich in 1964 on the occasion of the composer's hundredth birthday and the accompanying catalog.

Signe von Scanzoni, who had known the Thomas Mann family since childhood , met Erika Mann again - presumably by chance - in 1957, with whom she then had a close relationship until her death. At that time Erika Mann owned a house with Magnus Henning in Ehrwald; Scanzoni had lived in the same place since 1948, and Clemens Krauss and his wife Viorica Ursuleac had also lived there since 1950. Erika Mann tried again and again to capture Signe von Scanzoni as a lover and close collaborator, although there were regular disputes about the attitude of people like Krauss or Gustaf Gründgens during the Third Reich. Scanzoni, however, kept a certain distance and independence. Liane von Billerbeck stated with astonishment after Scanzoni's report about these years had been published: “Anyone who remembers Erika Mann as an aggressive fury who did not shy away from it, even in a personally hurtful way Thomas Mann biographers, journalists and critics of von To meet her published editions and to put up with countless lawsuits, one should be surprised at the calm tone in which the two women exchange their opposing points of view. "

For in Scanzoni's estate there was a revised and complete typescript of her depiction of the last few years and especially Erika Mann's last months, which was also handed down in the estate of Grete Weil, which was published under the title When I Still Lived . In 1998 Scanzoni had asserted to Irmela von der Lühe that this writing had been destroyed.

Part of her estate - a bundle of more than 100 letters and a manuscript - is in the Monacensia .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Signe von Scanzoni, When I was still alive. A report on Erika Mann , ed. by Irmela von der Lühe, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27394-7 , p. 214 f.
2. ↑ Signe von Scanzoni, When I was still alive. A report on Erika Mann , ed. by Irmela von der Lühe, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27394-7 , p. 215
3. ↑ Signe von Scanzoni, When I was still alive. A report on Erika Mann , ed. by Irmela von der Lühe, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27394-7 , p. 205
4. ↑ Quoted from Signe von Scanzoni, When I was still alive. A report on Erika Mann , ed. by Irmela von der Lühe, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27394-7 , p. 218
5. ↑ Quoted from Signe von Scanzoni, When I was still alive. A report on Erika Mann , ed. by Irmela von der Lühe, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27394-7 , p. 221.
6. ^ Liane von Billerbeck, A new picture by Erika Mann , December 13, 2010 on www.deutschlandradiokultur.de
7. ↑ Signe von Scanzoni, When I was still alive. A report on Erika Mann , ed. by Irmela von der Lühe, Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27394-7 , p. 203
8. ↑ Scanzoni, Signe from on www.muenchner-stadtbibliothek.de ( Memento of the original from January 29, 2016 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.