Werner Krauss

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the professor of Romance studies, see Werner Krauss (academic).

Werner Krauss
Krauss about 1920
Born
Werner Johannes Krauß

(1884-06-23)23 June 1884
Gestungshausen, Bavaria, German Empire
Died20 October 1959(1959-10-20) (aged 75)
Vienna, Austria
OccupationActor
Years active1902–1959
Spouses
Paula Saenger
​
​
(m. 1908; div. 1930)​
​
​
(m. 1931; div. 1940)​
Liselotte Graf
​
​
(m. 1940)​
AwardsStaatsschauspieler (1934)
Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft (1938)
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (1954)
Iffland-Ring (1954)
Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (1955)

Werner Johannes Krauss (Krauß in German; 23 June 1884 – 20 October 1959) was a German stage and film actor. Krauss dominated the German stage of the early 20th century. However, his participation in the

Nazis
made him a controversial figure.

Early life

Krauss was born at the parsonage of Gestungshausen bei

extra
at the Breslau Lobe-Theater, he was suspended from classes and decided to join a travelling theatre company.

Acting career

Werner Krauß in 'Dantons Tod'

In 1903 he debuted at the

Bromberg at the Theater Aachen, in Nuremberg and in Munich
.

By the agency of

Goethe's Faust, wherefore after his military discharge as a midshipman of the Imperial German Navy
in 1916 he also pursued a career as a film actor.

Krauss' first film role was in

F.W. Murnau's Tartuffe, and The Student of Prague
(1926).

In 1924 Krauss continued his theatre career by joining the ensemble of the

Prussian State Theatre in Berlin. He again appeared on stage of the Deutsches Theater from 1926, as in Strindberg's A Dream Play filling five roles or as Wilhelm Voigt in the 1931 premiere of Carl Zuckmayer's The Captain of Köpenick. He also performed at the Vienna Burgtheater, and guest performances even brought him to London and on Broadway in New York City, where Max Reinhardt staged Karl Vollmöller's The Miracle
in 1924.

Krauss' consummate skills in characterization earned him the title of "the man with a thousand faces".[1][failed verification] His fellow actress Elisabeth Bergner called him "the greatest actor of all time" and a "demonic genius" in her memoirs. Oskar Werner, born Oskar Josef Bschließmayer, chose his stage name in Krauss' honour.

Nazi Germany

Werner Krauss

Krauss was an unapologetic

Reichskulturkammer theatre department and served in that capacity from 1933 to 1935. In 1934, Krauss was designated as a Staatsschauspieler ('State Actor', i.e. an actor of national importance). Upon the death of Reich President Paul von Hindenburg in August, he signed the Aufruf der Kulturschaffenden to merge of the offices of President and Chancellor in the person of Adolf Hitler. Goebbels and Hitler rated Krauss as a cultural ambassador of Nazi Germany
.

Krauss and Max Reinhardt worked together for the last time at the 1937

Jud Süß, implementing Harlan's concept of a common Jewish root. When asked by Wolfgang Liebeneiner about the devastating effects of his performance, he replied: "that's no concern of mine – I'm an actor!" Krauss also played Shylock in Lothar Müthel's defamatory production of The Merchant of Venice staged at the Burgtheater in 1943. In 1944, Krauss was added to the "Gottbegnadeten list" of indispensable German artists, which exempted him from military service in the Wehrmacht forces, including service on the home front
.

Postwar

After the war, Krauss had to leave his home in Mondsee near Salzburg and was expelled from Austria. He also was banned from performing on stage and in films in Germany. His films were proscribed and he was ordered to undergo a denazification program from 1947 to 1948, whereafter he could return to Austria to become a naturalized citizen. In 1950, he again performed as King Lear at the Ruhr Festival in Recklinghausen. However, in December his performance with the Burgtheater ensemble at the Kurfürstendamm Theatre in Berlin met with protest.

In 1951 Krauss again received

film festivals. In 1954, he received the Iffland-Ring, though not determined by the previous holder Albert Bassermann but by a committee of German-speaking actors. In the same year, Krauss was awarded the Order of the Federal Republic of Germany; in 1955, he received the High Decoration of the Republic of Austria.[3] In 1958, Krauss published his autobiography titled Das Schauspiel meines Lebens (The Play of my Life).[3]

Krauss died in relative obscurity in

Zentralfriedhof
.

Filmography

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-674-57640-7
    . Retrieved 9 November 2011.
  2. ISBN 978-0-313-29516-4
    . Retrieved 3 November 2011. Gottfried (Reinhardt) refers to Krauss as (an) "unashamed anti-Semite"
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57181-655-9
    . Retrieved 1 November 2011.

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Werner_Krauss&oldid=1198973748"