Trude Berliner

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Signature of Trude Berliner.

Trude Berliner (born February 28, 1903 in Berlin , † February 26, 1977 in Pacific Beach , San Diego ) was a German actress , dancer and singer .

From 1920 to 1933, the popular and busy artist appeared at the Berlin variety and theater stages, mostly in operettas and comedies. From 1924 she starred in silent films before becoming a coveted star of the emerging talkies from 1929 to 1933. After the Nazis came to power in 1933, she fled Germany and appeared on several German-speaking stages abroad and in cabarets in exile in Holland.

In 1939 she emigrated to the USA, where she participated in several German-language cabaret events, first in New York, then in Los Angeles. She did not succeed in following her earlier career as a film actress in Hollywood , she was only hired for a few small supporting roles. To secure her livelihood, she worked as a ceramic painter in the 1940s and 1950s and, together with her husband Max Schoop, as a farm manager.

Life

youth

Busch Circus in Berlin, around 1900.

Trude Berliner was born as Gertrude Gabriele Berliner on February 28, 1903 in Berlin in the Spandau district around Hackescher Markt . Her parents' house was near the Circus Busch , "whose rotunda had a mysteriously fascinating effect and with its colorfulness reached across to the bourgeois world in the house of the Berliner family". Nothing is known about her origins, except that she had a brother, see #Arnold Berliner .

As a child she received singing and ballet lessons in Berlin from Nanny Mangelsdorff, who was a solo dancer at the Royal Opera in Berlin and "a popular dance teacher of the old school of pointe dance ". At the age of eight she became a member of the “Berliner Theaterkinder”, with whom she appeared in Monti's operetta theater and in Christmas plays at the Berlin theater and in the Busch circus . Her first regular stage appearance was the role of Heinerle in the operetta " Der fidele Bauer " by Leo Fall at the Theater des Westens . In 1916, the 13-year-old was hired by Max Mack , a pioneer of the German silent film, for the role of the “child” in the melodrama “Adamant's Last Race”.

Weimar Republic

After the First World War, Trude Berliner began her career as a busy and popular stage actress. She performed at the Berlin variety and theater stages and made guest appearances in theaters in Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki. From 1924 she starred in a few silent films, and from 1930 to 1933 in up to ten sound films a year. Some of her songs were recorded on vinyl in the 1930s (see #Discography ). From 1930 to 1933 she also worked for the radio. In her spare time she was "an avid athlete who prefers tennis, horse riding, rowing and driving".

theatre

In the 1920s, Trude Berliner celebrated successes as an actress and dance soubrette at various Berlin vaudeville stages such as the Scala or the Wintergarten . In the early 1930s she also appeared in the " Tingel-Tangel-Theater ", a political establishment founded in 1931 by Friedrich Hollaender - literary cabaret.

The “charming, comedically gifted artist” mostly played in operettas and comedies at major stages in Berlin: at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm , the Lustspielhaus , the Great Playhouse , the Berlin Theater and the Komische Oper . One of her last major appearances before emigrating was the Berlin premiere of Paul Abraham's operetta “ Ball im Savoy ” in 1932 in the Großes Schauspielhaus, in which she shone in the role of the Argentine dancer Tangolita.

Movie

As a young girl, Trude Berliner had already worked in the film "Adamant's Last Race" in 1916. As an adult, she began her career as a film actress in 1924 with a small role as a maid in the rococo comedy "The Secret Agent". After a few more films, she made the detective film " Masks ", her last silent film in 1930 , in which she played a detective's assistant.

When, at the end of the 1920s, “the pictures learned to speak”, Trude Berliner mastered the transition from silent film to sound film with ease thanks to her stage experience. In 1929 she starred in the film " I loved you ", which became significant for film history as "the first one hundred percent sound film recorded in a German studio". Until the end of her career in Germany, forced by the Nazis, Trude Berliner worked on 30 feature films between 1929 and 1933. The "pretty brunette" with the erotic charisma was not one of the top stars, but she contributed to the success of many films as an audience favorite. Most of the productions were, in keeping with the taste of the times, entertainment films without a great deal of depth, which were intended to cheer up moviegoers in the difficult post-war and inflationary period. Trude Berliner often played supporting or episode roles in which she mimed “perky, lively girls, often of Berlin origin”, but also a number of leading roles. In roles as actress, dancer, singer, drummer, chocolate seller and mannequin, she was also able to "demonstrate her singing and dancing talent". Trude Berliner's last feature film, which she was able to make before emigrating, was the comedy "Once upon a time a musician", which premiered on April 19, 1934, "an audience-safe mixture with a lot of music, humor and witty dialogues".

Trude Berliner received a consistently friendly assessment from the trade press: “Trude Berliner has her safe audience”, “Trude Berliner, whose performance is now beyond question”, “very funny: Trude Berliner in a swiping scene”, “Trude Berliner brings for the little one Kanaille from the people ... wit, humor and the necessary chastity with ". The "Filmwelt" wrote about her in 1932:

“With 11 sound film roles, she was at the top of the busiest actors last year. Trude Berliner ... has taken over the basic traits of her being from her hometown: quick decision-making, wit, a certain cheekiness that is softened by good-naturedness, quick-wittedness and tireless agility, all characteristics that she also transfers to her film roles and thus to remarkable acting Sections. "

emigration

Europe

The rise of power by the Nazis in 1933 abruptly ended the Jewish artist's career. She left her domicile in Berlin-Friedenau, Varziner Straße 22, and went first to Zurich and soon afterwards to Vienna, where she appeared with Elisabeth Bergner in the operetta “The Cat in the Sack”. In May 1934, while traveling through England, she briefly appeared in Rudolf Nelson's exile cabaret “ La Gaîté ” in Amsterdam. After an extensive tour of South America in 1936, she took on an engagement at the New German Theater in Prague, from where she fled via Paris to the Netherlands in spring 1938. From May to August 1938 she took part in Willy Rosen's cabaret “Das Theater der Prominenten” in Scheveningen , and from September to October in Amsterdam .

United States

Advert for a variety show with Trude Berliner in New York, 1939.

On February 8, 1939, Trude Berliner fled to New York via Lisbon. (On April 16, 1941, she was formally expatriated from Nazi Germany.) In 1939 and 1940, Trude Berliner participated in several cabaret events in New York, for which she worked with the American actor and cabaret artist Charles Brock (1891–1961) the conference took over.

The meager opportunities that New York offered the cabaret artist and actress prompted Trude Berliner to move to Los Angeles in the summer of 1941, in the hope of finding a livelihood in the Mecca of film. At the turn of the year 1941/1942 she appeared together with numerous other exile artists in Los Angeles at three “artist evenings” which were organized by the Jewish Club of 1933 , but there were no further engagements of this or similar kind.

Trude Berliner was married to a man named Götte or Goette, about whom nothing more is known. In the 1940s she married the painter Max Schoop in Los Angeles , who lived there with his mother and brother Paul . Trude Berliner fared like most film actors in exile, but did not succeed in regaining a foothold. The five mini roles she was allowed to play from 1942 to 1945, mostly without naming her name, hardly contributed to her livelihood. In the 1940s, Trude Berliner temporarily worked as a ceramic painter in the factory of Hedi Schoop , one of her husband Max Schoop's two sisters, who had lived in Los Angeles since 1934. In 1943 she married the film actor Ernö Verebes , whom Trude Berliner knew from her time in Berlin and from filming together. Trude Berliner later ran an animal shelter and, together with her husband, ran the Dos Parlmas Ranch, the cotton and date palm farm of actor Ray Morgan, which was in the California desert near San Diego near the Mexican border, for nine years in the 1950s .

Retirement

At the beginning of June 1955, Trude Berliner temporarily returned to Berlin. She played a supporting role in the film " Before God and the People ", but could not follow on from her pre-war successes. She spent the last two decades of her life in Pacific Beach , a suburb of San Diego on the Pacific Ocean . Trude Berliner died two days before her 74th birthday, on February 26, 1977 in Pacific Beach. She was cremated as requested and her ashes were thrown into the sea at Point Loma , a peninsula at the entrance to San Diego Bay. Her husband survived her by seven years and died in 1984.

details

Arnold Berliner

Little is known about the birth and life of Trude's brother Arnold Berliner (born February 25, 1897). A few months after the end of World War II, on October 19, 1945, Trude Berliner placed the following search ad in the German-language exile magazine Aufbau :

“Who can provide information about my brother Arnold Berliner, most recently Camp de Drancy, France on September 7, 1942, from there unknown where deported. Grateful for any information. Expense reimbursement. "

Coming from Marseille, Arnold Berliner was deported to the Auschwitz extermination camp via the Drancy assembly camp in the north-east of Paris on the above date, where he was presumably murdered immediately upon arrival.

Casablanca

In 1942 Trude Berliner was allowed to take part in an American feature film for the first time, namely in the film of the century " Casablanca ". Like some other exiled actors, she made a small contribution to the illustration of the atmosphere in Rick's Café, the main location of the plot, with her unnamed mini-role.

In the film, Trude Berliner portrayed a woman who was playing baccarat with a Dutch banker . To the passing head waiter Carl she said: “Hello waiter, please ask Rick if he wants to have a drink with us?” And Carl replied: “Madame, he never drinks with customers. Never. I've never seen anything like it ", whereupon Trude Berliner complained to her playing partner:" Where does it come from that innkeepers are so snooty? "That ended her appearance in the film.

"Remorseful Declaration"

Audubon Ballroom in New York, 2014.

In a letter to the editor to the exile magazine “ Aufbau ” on December 22, 1939, Trude Berliner and Charlie Brock “ruefully” complained about a scandal for which they were not at all to blame. They had rented the “Audubon Ballroom” in New York for a “Variety Show”, at which a dozen artists in exile were supposed to appear under their double conference (see illustration of the #Preview ). The hall allegedly held 1,800 people, as the owner of the restaurant assured. On the evening of the event, 1500 people with valid tickets turned up, but it turned out that only 700 people could fit into the hall!

Of course, despite everything, the organizers were delighted with the great popularity, and the letter to the editor reflected a certain pride that they had succeeded in attracting so many spectators. Trude Berliner, who had only arrived in New York a few months ago, had to be confident of this success. But all too soon it became clear that in the long run American audiences were apparently not taking much pleasure in European-style variety programs, and Trude Berliner had to look for other ways of earning a living.

Filmography

Silent films

  • 1916: Adamant's last race
  • 1924: The secret agent
  • 1925: War in Peace
  • 1925: The fire dancer
  • 1928: The modern Casanova
  • 1929: speed! Tempo!
  • 1929: The circus princess
  • 1929: The night whispers
  • 1929: Marriage in need
  • 1930: masks

Feature films

Weimar Republic

Note: Most of the films are described in #Wendtland 1988 and #Klaus 1988 or the corresponding subsequent volumes.

  • 1929: I loved you
  • 1930: The singing city
  • 1930: A girl from the Reeperbahn
  • 1930: the tiger
  • 1930: A waltz in a sleeping coupé
  • 1930: Pension Schöller
  • 1930: The Rhineland girl
  • 1930: Assault on three hearts
  • 1931: Three days of love
  • 1931: My heart longs for love
  • 1931: Checkmate
  • 1931: Weekend in Paradise
  • 1931: The high tourist
  • 1931: I marry my husband
  • 1931: The mute from Portici
  • 1931: Shadow of the ring
  • 1931: Every woman has something
  • 1931: The rejuvenated Adolar
  • 1932: Your Highness is having fun
  • 1932: The invisible front
  • 1932: The two from the South Express
  • 1932: Miss - Wrongly connected
  • 1932: Modern dowry
  • 1932: The ship without a port
  • 1932: The pride of the 3rd company
  • 1932: Night column
  • 1933: City night
  • 1933: Kaiserwalzer
  • 1933: A thousand for one night
  • 1933: Once upon a time there was a musician

United States

Federal Republic of Germany

Short films

  • 1931: Cabaret program No. 1
  • 1933: The great stranger

Discography

"I have no time for great love" by Trude Berliner, 1932.

Source: #Leimbach 1991 .

  • 1930: "A girl from the Reeperbahn". Homocord 4-3925, matrix number H-83226. Contained on the CD "Popular Jewish Artists", published by " Trikont ".
  • 1930: "Make a red light, we want to dance the tango". Homocord 4-3925, matrix number H-83227. Contained on CD 1 of the double CD "Frivole Songs, Pearls of Cabaret", published by Membrane Music, Hamburg .
  • 1932: "I have no time for great love". Waltz from the film “Your Highness is amused” (A. Guttmann - Ch. Amberg). With the Paul Godwin Dance Orchestra. Polydor 24450-A, matrix number 4302 BR, youtube: .
  • 1932: "A little bit of love (a little thing to love)". Foxtrot from the film "Nachtkolonne" (Buder - Amberg). With the Paul Godwin Dance Orchestra. Polydor 24450-B, matrix number 4303 BR, youtube: .

literature

Life

  • Stephanie D'heil: Trude Berliner , online: Steffi-Line .
  • Herbert A. Frenzel , Hans Joachim Moser (ed.): Kürschner's biographical theater manual. Drama, opera, film, radio. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. De Gruyter, Berlin 1956, DNB 010075518 , pp. 47-48.
  • Philippe Pelletier: Trude Berliner , online: cinéartistes.com .
  • Frithjof Trapp (editor): Handbook of the German-speaking Exile Theater 1933–1945. 1. A - K. Munich 1999, page 82.
  • Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 1: A - C. Erik Aaes - Jack Carson. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 355.
  • Kay Less : "In life, more is taken from you than given ...". Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. ACABUS Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8 , p. 99.

job

  • Horst JP Bergmeier: Chronology of German cabaret in the Netherlands 1933–1944. Hamburg 1998.
  • All kinds of adventures for the "high tourist". In: Movie World , Number 48, November 29, 1931 Page 4-5, online: .
  • The right Berliner. In: Movie World , number 4, January 24, 1932 page 10-11, online: .
  • Ulrich J. Klaus: Deutsche Tonfilme: Film lexicon of the full-length German and German-language sound films after their German premieres (1929–1945). 1st year 1929.30. Berlin 1988.
    • 2nd year 1931. Berlin 1989.
    • 3rd year 1932. Berlin 1990.
    • 3rd year 1933. Berlin 1992.
  • Berthold Leimbach (editor): Berliner, Trude. Film actress. Dance soubrette. In: Sound documents of cabaret and their interpreters 1898–1945. Göttingen 1991, 2 pages (without page number).
  • Karlheinz Wendtland; Helga Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp: all German feature films from 1929–1945. Total register. Berlin 1991.
  • Karlheinz Wendtland; Helga Wendtland: Beloved Kintopp: all German feature films from 1929–1945; with numerous artist biographies. Born in 1929 and 1930. Berlin 1988? - Short biography of Trude Berliner: Pages 164–165.
    • Born in 1931. Berlin 1991.
    • Born in 1932. Berlin 1992.
    • Born in 1933 and 1934. Berlin 1988.

swell

  • An evening in the Lachtopp. In: Structure , Volume 5, Number 22, November 29, 1939 page 9, 10, online: .
  • Remorseful explanation. [Letter to the editor from Trude Berliner and Charlie Brock]. In: Structure , Volume 5, Number 25, December 22, 1939 page 8, online: .
  • [Wanted ad from L. Bernstein to Trude Berliner]. In: Structure , Volume 7, Number 34, August 22, 1941 page 19, online: .
  • Three artist evenings. [Display]. In: Structure , Volume 7, Number 44, October 31, 1941 page 17, online: .
  • [Wanted: Arnold Berliner]. In: Structure , Volume 11, Number 42, October 19, 1945 page 27, online: .
  • Klaus Budzinski ; Reinhard Hippen : Metzler Cabaret Lexicon. Stuttgart 1996.
  • Michael Hepp (editor): The expatriation of German citizens 1933–45 according to the lists published in the Reichsanzeiger. 1. Lists in chronological order. Munich 1985, page 486, number 68.
  • Hans Kafka : Hans Kafka: Hollywood Calling ... In: Structure , Volume 9, Number 51, December 17, 1943 page 10, online: .
  • Carl Seelig : Original characters from the Schoop family. In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , 33rd year, 1958, page 110.

Web links

Commons : Trude Berliner  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Year of birth according to #Less 2011 1903, according to #Trapp 1999.1 and #Leimbach 1991 1904.
  2. ↑ #Filmwelt 1932 , # D'heil 2015 .
  3. ↑ #Filmwelt 1932 , # Trapp 1991.1 .
  4. ↑ # D'heil 2015 .
  5. ↑ #Pelletier 2005 , IMDb .
  6. ↑ #Frenzel 1956 .
  7. ↑ #Filmwelt 1932 .
  8. ↑ It is not known in which year Trude Berliner began her theater career.
  9. ↑ # Trapp 1991.1 .
  10. ↑ # D'heil 2015 .
  11. ↑ #Leimbach 1991 .
  12. ↑ Current name of the theater.
  13. ↑ #Trapp 1991.1 , #Weniger 2011 , #Frenzel 1956 .
  14. ↑ # D'heil 2015 .
  15. ↑ #Wendtland 1991.1 .
  16. ↑ # D'heil 2015 .
  17. ↑ # D'heil 2015 .
  18. ↑ # D'heil 2015 .
  19. ↑ #Wendtland 1991.1 .
  20. ↑ Quotes from the magazines "Der Film" and "Filmwoche" based on #Wendtland 1991.1 .
  21. ↑ #Filmwelt 1932 .
  22. ↑ # Bergmeier 1998 , page 212.
  23. ↑ # Trapp 1991.1 .
  24. ↑ # Bergmeier 1998 , page 99, 101, 203, 212, # Trapp 1991.1 , # less 2011 . - For the cabarets in exile in the Netherlands see also: #Budzinski 1996 , page 90.
  25. ↑ #Less 2011 : “on February 8, 1939”. Since it appeared in New York from December 1939 to at least the end of March 1940, the statement “remained until the German attack in the Netherlands; emigr. 1940 “( #Trapp 1991.1 ) are not true.
  26. ↑ #Hepp 1985 .
  27. ^ According to the German exile magazine " Aufbau ": "An evening in the Lachtopp" on December 10, 1939, "Great New Year's Eve celebration in the Lachtopp" on December 31, 1939, "Great cabaret evening in the Thirty Nine Club" on January 28, 1940 , "Berlin Evening" on April 3, 1940.
  28. ↑ #Building 1941.1 , #Building 1941.2 .
  29. ↑ The "Deutsche Reichsanzeiger and Prussian State Gazette No. 87 of April 16, 1941", which announced Trude Berliner's expatriation, contained the entry: "Götte, Gertrude Gabriele Sara, geb. Berliner, born on February 28, 1904 in Berlin ”( #Hepp 1985 ).
  30. ↑ At the time of the 1940 census, Max Schoop was still listed as "single" ( ancestry.com ).
  31. ↑ #Kafka 1943 .
  32. ↑ #Trapp 1991.1 , #Less 2011 , #Seelig 1958 .
  33. ↑ #Trapp 1999.1 , #Less 2011 , Trude Berliner in the Find a Grave database . Retrieved March 3, 2016. .
  34. ↑ #Building 1945.3 .
  35. ^ Arnold Berliner in the Holocaust Survivors and Victims Database
  36. ↑ # construction 1939.2 .
  37. ^ The German Early Cinema Database .
  38. ↑ filmportal.de .
  39. ↑ #Klaus 1988 , number 084.30.
  40. ↑ Trude Berliner is only mentioned as an actress in the "TCM Movie Database": [1] . According to the structure of March 16, 1945, she acted as a "technical advisor".
  41. ↑ filmportal.de , youtube .
  42. ↑ filmportal.de .
personal data
SURNAME Berliner, Trude
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berliner, Gertrude Gabriele (maiden name); Götte, Gertrude Gabriele (married name); Goette, Gertrude Gabriele (married name); Schoop, Gertrude Gabriele (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actress, dancer and singer
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH February 26, 1977
Place of death Pacific Beach