Gründgens, Gustaf |
ACTOR, PRODUCER, THEATRE DIRECTOR (GERMANY) |
BORN 22 Dec 1899, Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen: Graf-Adolfstrasse 92 - DIED 7 Oct 1963, Manilla BIRTH NAME Gründgens, Gustav Heinrich Arnold CAUSE OF DEATH overdose of sleeping pills GRAVE LOCATION Hamburg: Friedhof Ohlsdorf, Fühlsbüttler Strasse 756 (O6 (5) (ashes)) |
Gustaf Gründgens was born into a family of industrials. During the First World War he served at the Western Front. After the war he joined the theatre group Saarlouis. He worked at theatres in Halberstadt (1920), Kiel (1921) and Berlin (1922) before he joined the Kammerspiele in Hamburg (1923-1928). Although he was homosexual he married Erika Mann in 1926 (she was lesbian and loved Pamela Wedekind). They divorced in 1929. In 1932 he played Mephisto in Goethe's "Faust" for the first time. During the nazi era he was the intendant of the theatres in Berlin (1934-1945) by special request of Hermann Göring. In 1936 he married Marianne Hoppe, who was bisexual. They had seperate houses in Berlin and a home together in the country outside Berlin. Because he got on so well with the nazis, Erica's brother Klaus Mann had him in mind when he wrote his novel "Mephisto" (about an actor in the Third Reich). Mann denied that it was about Gründgens, but nobody believed him. In reality Gründgens never was a nazi himself and he took risks to protect others. After the war Gründgens was imprisoned by the Russians for nine months. Because he had used his good relations with Hitler to help threatened fellow actors, some of them supported him during the denazification trials. He was released mainly because he had saved Ernst Busch from a certain death as Busch testified himself. Gründgens himself spoke for Emmy Goring, Veit Harlan and Fritz Hippler. When Marianne Hoppe became pregnant by the American journalist Ralph Izzard they surprisingly divorced in 1946. From 1947 to 1955 he was general intendant in Düsseldorf. In 1955 he accepted the same position in Hamburg and once more he played Mephisto with great success. In May 1962 he unexpectedly stated that he was unable to sing a new contract in Hamburg. His health was a mess and his doctors had told him long before that he should slow down. He left Germany to travel around the world with his 25 year old lover and adopted son Peter Gorski. In Manilla he poisoned himself with an overdose of sleeping pills and died. It was suggested that he committed suicide, but he left a note in which he stated that he felt strange because he had probably taken too many pills. His ashes were returned to Germany and buried at the Ohlsdorf Cemetery in Hamburg. Family Wife: Hoppe, Marianne (1936-1946, Berlin) (divorce or separation) Related persons employed Badenhausen, Rolf was a friend of Bildt, Paul cooperated with Denk, Paula cooperated with Flickenschildt, Elisabeth cooperated with Göring-Sonnemann, Emmy was teacher of Gorvin, Joana Maria attended funeral of Gottschalk, Joachim cooperated with Hellberg, Ruth cooperated with Hildebrand, Hilde directed Hiob, Hanne knew Kemp, Paul cooperated with Kolldehoff, Reinhard was written about by Mann, Klaus directed Maybach, Christiane knew Neumann, Hertha cooperated with Walbrook, Anton cooperated with Wedekind, Pamela cooperated with Weisgerber, Antje cooperated with Weissner, Hilde Events |
21/1/1933 | Premiere of Gustaf Gründgens adaption of Goethe's "Faust II" at the Schauspielhaus am Gendarmemarkt. Werner Krauss was Faust and Gründgens was Mephistopheles. Other actors were Hans Otto, Paul Bildt, Elenonora von Mendelssohn, Veit Harlan, Maria Koppenhöfer, Wolfgang Heinz and Elsa Wagner. [Bildt, Paul][Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von][Harlan, Veit][Koppenhöfer, Maria][Krauss, Werner][Otto, Hans][Wagner, Elsa] |
26/21/1934 | Gustaf Gründgens is appointed intendant of the Theater am Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin  |
Sources Blubacher, Thomas, Gibt es etwas Schöneres als Sehnsucht?, Die Geschwister Eleonora und Francesco von Mendelssohn, Henschel Verlag, Leipzig, 2008 Leisner, Barbara, Helmut Schoenfeld, Ohlsdorf-Führer, Der, Spaziergänge auf der grössten Friedhof Europas, Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg, 1993 Stern, Carola, Auf dem Wassern des Lebens, Gustav Gründgens und Marianne Hoppe, Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Hamburg, 2007 Gustaf Gründgens - Wikipedia http://www.content.landesarchiv-berlin.de/php-bestand/arep167-pdf/arep167.pdf |