Sybille Castle

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Sybille Schloß (born October 15, 1910 in Munich , † December 13, 2007 in New York ) was a German actress .

biography

She was born out of wedlock to the writer Karl Schloß and his later wife Rosa Eva, married Michel (first married to the writer Wilhelm Michel ), née Storck. In 1914 the family moved to Alzey in Rhineland-Hesse , where Karl Schloß took over the family's cigar factory. In 1927, on the occasion of a search for talent, Sybille advertised himself to a Berlin newspaper with the letter: "I think I am ideally suited for the film, because I am completely uninhibited."

Sybille Schloß became the lover of the editor of the newspaper Willy Haas in Berlin , led a bohemian life, worked successfully as a photo model and shot the semi-documentary film Um's Tages Brot (Hunger in Waldenburg) with director Phil Jutzi in 1929 . By Max Reinhardt , she was admitted to the led by him acting school and debuted in 1931 at the Munich Kammerspiele . Before she could take on her first leading role there in 1933, she had to leave the ensemble as the daughter of a Jew .

Schloss joined the cabaret " Die Pfeffermühle " founded by her Munich colleague Therese Giehse and Erika Mann and successfully toured Germany's neighboring countries with their troupe and a program that was hardly veiled against the National Socialists . She lived with Igor Pruzan-Pahlen, a member of the ensemble.

The writer Wolfgang Koeppen fell unrequitedly in love with the young actress and wrote his first novel in 1934 about "An unhappy love" , where he only slightly changed the first name of his beloved to "Sibylle". Decades later, Koeppen's estate included studio nude photos of Sybille Schloß and handwritten notes that document the author's fantasies of killing and suicide .

In 1935 Sybille Schloß left the "Pfeffermühle" to accept an engagement in Switzerland , which was not very successful. In 1936 she entered into a short marriage of convenience with a Swiss citizen in order to obtain another residence permit there. In the same year she met Thomas Michaelis, a friend of Wolfgang Koeppens who - although homosexual - became her own great love and her second husband. She traveled with him to the USA , where Erika Mann was planning a guest performance by the “Pfeffermühle”. This fell through with the American audience. Sybille Schloß stayed in the United States, where her husband found work as a patent attorney . In 1938 she visited her parents for the last time, who were probably able to emigrate to the Netherlands with the help of her husband . They were arrested there by the Nazis in 1943 and died in the concentration camp in 1944, Karl Schloß in Auschwitz-Birkenau , Rosel in Ravensbrück .

In 1946, Sybille, badly shaken by her parents' fate, was divorced. She tried unsuccessfully to get film roles in Hollywood , worked among other things in a New York bookstore and married the painter John Marsteller. This third marriage ended in her husband's suicide.

Sybille Schloß last lived in Manhattan as a pensioner and died on the night of December 13, 2007 at the age of 97 in her apartment.

Filmography (selection)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Castle, Sybille
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Storck, Sybille
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 2007
Place of death New York City