Daughter of George Weissbeck, who worked as a brewer in Russia
when she was born. Her father died when she was four years old.
Her stepfather was George Siegler, Edler von Eberswald, an officer
in the Austrian army. Her mother came from Heidelberg and nearly
reached the age of ninety.
Ida was educated at a convent
and - after the death of Siegler - at the private Ottosche Theaterschule
in Vienna. When she was thirteen she tried to drown herself.
She was saved, but thoughts of suicide would return during her
life. A small part in "Die Büchse der Pandora" by Frank Wedekind
in a performance staged by Wedekind and Karl Krauss in Vienna
attracted the attention of Otto Brahm, who brought her to Berlin.
She
had already assumed the name Ida Orloff and was often called
Iduschka because she was born in St. Petersburg and spoke Russian
fluently. In Berlin she performed in "Hanneles Himmelfahrt"
(1905) by Gerhart Hauptmann. Hauptmann was stunned by the young
girl and fell in love with her immediately. Secretly he wrote
a play especially for her, "Und Pippa tanzt". They started an
affair, but Hauptmann had recently remarried and would not leave
his wife Margaretha Marschalk.
The affair with Hauptmann
ended, but the image of Idinka (as he had called her) would
return in his work for years. Their relationship became known
to the general public only decades later, allthough people like
Frank Wedekind, Anton Wildgans and Alfred Kerr knew about it
at the time.
On July 23th, 1907 she married a friend
from her youth, Karl Satter, just to be able to enjoy more freedom
without causing scandals. She divorced him on January 26th,
1908 because she had what she wanted - a married name on her
passport - but against her own expectations they stayed together
for 10 years. She bore him a son, Heinrich, on September 27th,
1908.
Ida Orloff signed a contract at the Burgtheater
in Vienna, but she was hardly given any parts for several years.
Her part in the first performance of "Feuer" by Cszokor at the
Ronacher Varieté during a free period in 1912 was considered
scandalous for an actress of the Burgtheater. In 1913 she played
in the Danish movie "Atlantis", based on the novel that Hauptmann
had conceived during a trip to America, during which he was
accompanied by Orloff and the circus artist Charles Unthan.
Because she had left for Norway without permission she was fired
by Hugo Thimig, the manager of the Burgtheatre. But her contract
didn't exclude appearances in movies and she received damages
of 8.000 crowns.
She left for St. Petersburg with her
own ensemble in 1913, including Hermann Benke, Rudolf Forster,
George Saiko and dramatist Franz Csoko. But the German colony
there was too small and she lost most of her money during this
venture. Shortly after her return she fled with her husband
to Denmark to keep him out of the army during the First World
War. They had a second son there, but he died after only six
weeks. During her third pregnancy her marriage to Satter finally
broke down and she returned to Vienna alone to give birth to
a son, Hermann, on March 31th, 1918.
She gave the child
into the care of Satter's older sister Hanna and went to Berlin
with her other son. There she returned to the theatre and played
several parts before she decided to marry the critic and journalist
Franz Leppman and left the stage.
She started working
for the radio, reading poems and parts from plays. She also
translated books from Russian into German, among them Dostojevski.
Leppmann was a Jew and when the nazi's came to power in 1933
they left Germany and went to Italy.
In Italy she
was unable to work and soon she got in serious financial trouble.
She asked Hauptmann to help her (he knew Mussolini), but he
refused, stating that he couldn't trouble Mussolini with private
affairs. She and Leppmann went to England, but in 1939 - in
need of money - she returned to Germany alone.
When
Germany declared war on England she could no longer go back
and was effectively seperated from Leppmann and their son Wolfgang.
In 1941 she performed once more in a play by Hauptmann, "Der
rote Hahn" at the Rose-Theater in Berlin. It was to be her last
succes and Hauptmann and his wife Margarete came to see the
last performance. They met and acted like they hadn't heard
from each other since 1908 and Hauptmann kept his distance.
Margarete boldly invited Ida to inspire her husband again, stating
she had never had any objection to her doing so in the first
place.
A period of illness followed and she settled
at Tullnerbach near Vienna, where she spent her last years.
She met Hauptmann for the last time in 1943 in Vienna when the
Austrians celebrated his 80th birthday. When the Russian army
invaded Austria she was confident that she could talk to the
soldiers and stop them from plundering, but when news went round
that the Russians were extremely violent and raped Austrian
women everywhere she committed suicide to escape that faith.
Around the same time her son Hermann fell in the war near Vienna.
Wolfgang
Leppman became an eminent germanist. He was a professor at the
University of Eugene, Oregon and the author of biographies of
Goethe, Rilke and Hauptmann. He was known for his wit and irony
and died in 2002.
Related persons
• cooperated with Csokor, Franz Theodor
• has a connection with Thimig, Hugo
• knew Wedekind, Frank
• was a friend of Wedekind, Tilly
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Events
1905/5/29: Private performance in Vienna of Frank Wedekind's "Die Büchse der Pandora"
The play was first performed at 1 Feb 1904 at the Intime Theater in Nürnberg, but banned by the German censors afterwards. Karl Kraus organised a private performance at the Trianon Theatre in Vienna. Tilly Newes played Lulu and Albert Heine played Schigolg and was the director. Adele Sandrock had the part of Gräfin Geschwitz, Ida Orloff was Kadidja di Santa Croce and Karl Kraus was Kungu Pote. Wedekind himself played the murderer Jack.
1908/1/11: Premiere of "Kaiser Karls Geisel" by Gerhart Hauptmann in Berlin
Ida Orloff played Gersuid, the fifteen year old girl from Saxony who turned the head of Charlemagne.
1913/12/29: Ida Orloff's theatre group performs Csokor's "Feuer" in Mödling
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Sources
• Grosse Frauen der Weltgeschichte, Neuer Kaiser Verlag, Klagenfurt, 1987
• Hauptmann, Gerhart/Ida Orloff, Gerhart Hauptmann und Ida Orloff, Dokumentation einer dichterischen Leidenschaft, Propyläen, Berlin, 1969
• Satter, Heinrich, Weder Engel noch Teufel, Ida Orloff, Scherz Verlag, München, 1967
• Siegler von Eberswald Ida, Künstlername Ida Orloff, Schauspielerin
• Bakos, Eva, Wilde Wienerinnen, Leben zwischen Tabu und Freiheit, Ueberreuther, Wien, 1999
• Grieser, Dietmar, Im Dämmerlicht, Ungewöhnliche Totesfalle, Buchverlag, St. Pölten, 1999
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