Walter Oehmichen

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Walter Oehmichen (born July 30, 1901 in Magdeburg , † November 2, 1977 in Augsburg ) was a German actor and director . In 1948 he founded the “ Augsburger Puppenkiste ” puppet theater .

Life

At the request of his parents, Walter Oehmichen initially became a photographer , but then wanted to realize his dream job and studied drama in Düsseldorf with Louise Dumont . Gustaf Gründgens and Paul Kemp were among his friends during his studies . From 1920 he had many engagements in north and west Germany. From 1931 he played in the Augsburg city theater and became senior director there.

When he was stationed in Calais in 1940 during World War II , he discovered a small puppet theater in a school where he and his troupe were quartered. To entertain his comrades, he made a few figures out of cardboard and played them for them. As soon as he was released that fall, he began building a house theater for his family. This house theater, "the puppet shrine", could be placed in a door frame and a table behind it served as a stage.

On November 15, 1943, he and his wife and two daughters gave the first performance of the puppet shrine with the play The three wishes for Count Franz von Pocci in front of family and friends. Hansel and Gretel was the second part of the puppet shrine that Oehmichen and his family played for war-wounded patients in the hospital. The puppet shrine was destroyed in a bombing raid on Augsburg on February 26, 1944 after Walter Oehmichen had given a performance for the actors' children in the city theater the previous evening and left the shrine there. He had taken his characters home with him.

When Oehmichen was called up for military service again in the autumn of 1944 and shortly afterwards ended up in the hospital ( Elisabethenstift ) in Darmstadt because of an tonsillitis , he made the acquaintance of a wood sculptor there who taught him to carve and with whose help he made two marionettes (a stork and a Godfather) built.

Augsburger doll crate

Honoring Walter Oehmichen

After he was released from captivity in 1945 , he started planning and building a new puppet theater in Augsburg. His wish was to build a portable stage that could be packed in a box and taken with you. From this the idea for the Augsburger Puppenkiste developed . In search of a suitable space for his theater, the city gave him the old Heilig-Geist-Spital , built by city architect Elias Holl , in which the puppet box is still located today. After three years of work, Walter Oehmichen opened his “Augsburger Puppenkiste” with the fairy tale Puss in Boots on February 26, 1948, exactly four years after the doll's shrine was destroyed .

Private

Walter Oehmichen was married to the actress Rose Oehmichen (1901–1985), who dressed many dolls and gave her voice to some. The daughters Ulla and Hannelore , who made over 6,000 dolls, came from the marriage . Oehmichen was also a member of the Schlaraffia men's association . The grave of Walter and Rose Oehmichen (B12-20) is in the Stadtbergen cemetery in the Augsburg district .

Filmography

actor
Director
script

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ List of members of the Augusta Vindelicorum
  2. ^ Knerger.de: The grave of Walter and Rose Oehmichen
personal data
SURNAME Oehmichen, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and director
DATE OF BIRTH July 30, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH November 2nd 1977
Place of death augsburg