Therese Giehse

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Portrait of Therese Giehse. Photo by Annemarie Schwarzenbach , 1933

Therese Giehse , nee Therese Gift (born March 6, 1898 in Munich ; † March 3, 1975 there ), was a German actress .

Live and act

Therese Giehse on the stairs in front of the Chesa Salis, Segl. Photo by Annemarie Schwarzenbach, 1936
Therese Giehse in the role of Mother Courage, portrait by Günter Rittner , 1966

Therese Gift was born in 1898 as the daughter of the Jewish merchant couple Gertrude and Salomon Gift. From 1918 to 1920 she took acting lessons from Tony Wittels-Stury. In 1920 she took the stage name Giehse. Her seasonal engagements from 1920 to 1926 (“my learning years”) took her through the provinces: Siegen / Westphalia , Gleiwitz / Upper Silesia , Landshut / Lower Bavaria , the Bavarian State Theater, Breslau with Paul Barney . From 1926 to 1933 she was a member of the Münchner Kammerspiele with Otto Falckenberg .

Therese Giehse's grave in the Fluntern cemetery, Zurich

Giehse founded the cabaret " Die Pfeffermühle " in Munich in early 1933 together with the musician Magnus Henning , her partner Erika Mann and her brother Klaus Mann (who later dedicated his novel Mephisto to her) . With this she emigrated in the same year, because as a Jew and artist on the left, she had to reckon with persecution by the National Socialists . The first stop on their escape was Zurich . Her escape route then ran from 1934 to 1936 via Belgium , the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria to Czechoslovakia. On April 26, 1936, the "pepper mill" had its 1000th presentation in Amsterdam .

On May 20, 1936, the lesbian Giehse married the homosexual English writer John Hampson († 1955) in order to obtain a British passport in this way and thus to avoid being attacked by the National Socialists. In 1937, performances of the “Peppermill” that had begun in America were stopped after a short time due to unsuccessfulness. She returned to the Zurich Schauspielhaus , to which she remained loyal all her life. After 1945 she was on stage in Munich, Berlin, Salzburg and also in Vienna.

As a temporary member of Bertolt Brecht's Berlin Ensemble , Giehse was a sought-after interpreter of his works after the war. Her recitation evening Ein Bertolt Brecht evening with Therese Giehse appeared on several records in both the FRG and the GDR .

Therese Giehse died in Munich in 1975 three days before her 77th birthday. During the memorial service at the Münchner Kammerspiele, director Paul Verhoeven died of heart failure when he collapsed during the first sentences of his obituary for Giehse. Therese Giehse was buried at her own request in the Fluntern cemetery in Zurich.

Important engagements and roles

Autograph Therese Giehse

During the period from 1937 to 1966 Giehse was engaged at the Schauspielhaus Zurich both as a permanent member of the ensemble and as a guest. She took part in the Brecht world premieres of Mother Courage and Her Children on April 19, 1941 and of Mr. Puntila and his servant Matti on April 23, 1948. On 22 September 1949 she played in the first premiere following their emigration at the Kammerspiele in Munich in The Beaver Coat of Gerhart Hauptmann with. From 1949 to 1952 Giehse was a member of the Berliner Ensemble and from 1949 to 1973 he was also a member of the Münchner Kammerspiele.

At the Zurich Schauspielhaus Giehse took part in the world premieres of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's theater plays The Visit of the Old Lady (in the leading role) on January 29, 1956 and in Die Physiker on February 21, 1962. The author dedicated the physicists to her. Dürrenmatt made the statement about this piece that he changed the originally male head of the institution to a female one after talking to Therese Giehse. A statement that he later relativized. At the Kammerspiele in Munich she took part in the world premiere of Die Landshuter Erzählungen by Martin Sperr on October 4, 1967 .

Awards, appreciations

On June 24, 1955, Giehse received the silver film tape for her role in the feature film Children, Mothers and a General .

On November 10, 1988 a stamp from the definitive series Women of German History with a face value of 100 Pfennig, Michel no . 1390 with a portrait of Giehse at the post office counter. Since the value of the stamp was the standard postage for letters at the time, Giehse became known to a wider public again.

In 1975 the Therese-Giehse-Allee in Neuperlach was named after her in Munich (which gave its name to the Therese-Giehse-Allee subway station in 1980 ), and the Therese-Giehse-Realschule in Unterschleißheim in 1995. There is a Therese-Giehse-Strasse in Zurich- Oerlikon . In the Hamburg district of Bergedorf, a street in the Neuallermöhe district is also named after her, the Therese-Giehse-Bogen. There is also a Therese-Giehse-Strasse in Berlin-Spandau . Germering named Therese-Giehse-Platz after her.

The Intercity 815 Wismar - Munich bore her name in 1998/1999.

Filmography (selection)

movie theater

watch TV

theatre

Radio plays

Discography

  • A Bertolt Brecht evening with Therese Giehse 1st episode
  • A Bertolt Brecht evening 2nd episode
  • A Bertolt Brecht evening 3rd episode
  • Therese Giehse speaks Dürrenmatt (with Friedrich Dürrenmatt)
  • The mother (3 LP)
  • Further prospects

literature

Web links

Commons : Therese Giehse  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Therese Giehse - Charlies Jewish grandmother , br.de, September 8, 2011
  2. Violation of the "healthy public feeling". Accessed January 24, 2021 .
  3. Topic History Path »History of Lesbians and Gays«. (PDF; 3 MB) published by the cultural department of the City of Munich
  4. ^ BR radioWissen: Therese Giehse - A strong character from November 11, 2014
  5. Jump up to: Ritter: Friedrich Dürrenmatt: Die Physiker , p. 101.
  6. ^ Heinz Ludwig Arnold (ed.): Friedrich Dürrenmatt: The classic on the stage. Talks 1961–1970. Diogenes, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-257-06111-0 , p. 206.
  7. I'm the darkest comedy writer there is
  8. Helga Pfoertner: Living with history. Vol. 1, Literareron, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-89675-859-4 , p. 160 ( PDF; 1.1 MB ( Memento from April 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ))
  9. The beaver fur at deutschlandfunk.de
  10. ^ BR radio play Pool - Kühn / Sperr, Lemsomd