Wilhelm Kunst (actor)

Wilhelm Kunst, lithograph by Josef Kriehuber , 1827

Wilhelm Kunst , origin. Wilhelm Kunze , (born February 1, 1799 in Hamburg , † November 17, 1859 in Vienna ) was a German actor.

Life

Wilhelm Kunst came from a family of craftsmen, his father Simon Kunze was a shoemaker. His enthusiasm for the theater earned him various extras at the municipal theater in his hometown in his youth .

His first independent role was the "major" in the play " Misanthropy and Remorse " and he completely failed. He was so disliked that the management banned him from the house the day after his performance.

When the French general Louis-Nicolas Davout besieged his hometown, art entered his service as an interpreter. After the city was handed over to the Allies, Kunst enlisted in the army and fought in the Wars of Liberation until the summer of 1815 , including taking part in the storming of Wedel near Hamburg. Art later tried its hand at the theater again. This time with better success, and in 1819 he was engaged at the Lübeck City Theater .

Short and long engagements followed at the theaters of Stettin , Danzig , Bremen , Cologne , Würzburg and Munich . In the latter city he came to the Isartortheater and its director Carl Carl . Through this he met the actress Sophie Schröder (1781–1868) and married her after a short time in December 1825. However, the marriage did not last long, and so the two quickly divorced.

Moved to Vienna with his ensemble, Carl Carl took over the management of the Theater an der Wien (which was initially intended to be a guest performance for two months) on August 19, 1825 (which was closed from June 1 to August 18) and opened the same evening with Die Robber on Maria Kulm or The Power of Faith by Heinrich C. Cuno († 1829) and art in the role of Ottomar .

Art also achieved its artistic breakthrough on the Wiedner stage and experienced a period of splendor until almost the 1840s.

In 1840, as a result of a bloody affair , art was expelled from the city of Vienna. In 1841, as a citizen of Hamburg, he joined the cavalry corps of the Citizens Guard and showed himself with preference in the decorated guards uniform, to which he pinned the bronze medal awarded to him by the Hamburg Senate in 1815 . When he traveled to Saint Petersburg for the first time in the same year , he also appeared in the Hamburg civil uniform to the theater director who engaged him. At that time (until around 1845) art was very popular : he traveled with his foster son and a Mr. Artmann , employed a hunter, a servant and a coachman, kept five horses, two mastiffs  - and a myriad of white mice. Added to this was a large dressing room, because the actor had in those years everything he needed for the stage: four full armor , various weapons, Ritter clothing , et cetera .

In 1857 art gave its farewell performance in Vienna. Plans for guest performances in Ried , Upper Austria , came to nothing at short notice in the summer of the last year of his life when his foster son Wilhelm Kunst (1822–1873) was hired instead. Wilhelm Kunst, the most famous Karl Moor who ever owned the German stage , died completely impoverished on November 17, 1859 in Vienna-Josefstadt , Strozzengrund 28 (today: Josefstädter Straße  35); Accompanied by the words of the Lutheran Third Preacher Gustav Porubsky (1812–1876), he found his final resting place in the Matzleinsdorf Evangelical Cemetery in a poor grave .

Roles (selection)

• Major - Hatred and Remorse ( August von Kotzebue )
• Othomar - Robbers in Maria Culm ( Heinrich Cuno )
• Rolla - Sun Maiden (August von Kotzebue)
• Karl Moor - The Robbers ( Friedrich Schiller )
• Franz Moor - The Robbers (Friedrich Schiller)
• Hamlet - Hamlet ( William Shakespeare )

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Art, Wilhelm . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 13th part. Kaiserlich-Königliche Hof- und Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1865, pp. 382–388 ( digitized version ).
• Joseph Kürschner:  Art, Wilhelm . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 389 f.
• Ludwig Eisenberg: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage of the 19th century . List, Leipzig 1903, pp. 559-560.
• (Edith) Lining:  Kunze Wilhelm. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1969, p. 356 f. (Direct links on p. 356 , p. 357 ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Little Chronicle. (...) From the life of art. In:  Die Presse , Abendblatt, No. 303/1859 (XII. Year), November 23, 1859, p. 1, bottom center. (Online at ANNO ). .
2. ^ News from the field of the arts and sciences. (…) From Munich. In:  Abend-Zeitung , No. 207/1825, August 30, 1825, p. 828. (Online at ANNO ). .
3. ^ Anton Bauer: 150 years of Theater an der Wien . Amalthea-Verlag, Zurich / Vienna (among others) 1952, p. 115.
4. ↑ KK priv. Theater an der Wien. In:  Wiener Zeitschrift für Kunst, Literatur, Theater und Mode , No. 103/1825, August 27, 1825, p. 859 f. (Online at ANNO ). .
5. ↑ ^{a b} Little Chronicle. (...) Wilhelm Kunst †. In:  Die Presse , Abendblatt, No. 298/1859 (XII. Volume), November 18, 1859, p. 1, bottom left. (Online at ANNO ). .
6. ↑ Furriers (ADB).
7. ^ Deceased in Vienna. (...) In the suburbs. In:  Die Presse , No. 300/1859 (XII. Year), November 20, 1859, p. 1 (running page), center right. (Online at ANNO ). .
8. ↑ Art Notes. (...) Wilhelm Kunst †. In:  Blätter für Musik, Theater und Kunst , No. 93/1859 (5th year), November 22, 1859, p. 372, center left. (Online at ANNO ). .
9. ^ Moriz Bermann : Illustrated guide through Vienna and surroundings . Fourth edition. Hartleben, Vienna / Pest / Leipzig 1885, p. 159, online .

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Kunst  - Collection of images, videos and audio files