Buska, Johanna

ACTOR, OPERA SINGER (GERMANY)
BORN 14 Apr 1847, Königsberg (now: Kaliningrad, Russia) - DIED 16 May 1922, Dresden, Sachsen (near)
BIRTH NAME Butzková, Johanna Katharina
GRAVE LOCATION Praha: Strasnice Evangelical Cemetery, Vinohradská

Johanna Buska started her theatre career in Königsberg in Kleist's "Käthchen von Heilbronn" when she was seventeen years old. In 1865 Von Hülsen engaged her at the Royal Theatre Berlin where she had smaller parts. In 1867 Von Hülsen transferred her to Wiesbaden where she soon became a favourite. She retuned to Berlin in 1868 and in 1871 she went to the Court Theatre at St. Petersburg. On 23/04/1873 her performance was attended by Tsar Alexander II and Emperor Wilhelm I.

She was engaged at the Burgtheater in Vienna in 1873. When she worked there she had an affair with the Austrian crown prince Rudolph from 1874 to 1880. Ordered by emperor Franz Joseph, on 20 May 1880 she married to the Hungarian nobleman Miklós Kázmér Török de Szendro and she left the stage. In 1881 she had a son, Alexander, who was possibly fathered by Rudolph. Theodor Fontane's novel "Count Petöfy" was inspired by her marriage to Török.

After Török died in 1884 she returned to the stage and was hired by Angelo Neumann in Prague. After they married in 1887 she was still allowed to call herself countess. In 1888 she played Ibsen's "Nora" and on 18/12/1888 she gave birth to a daughter, Angela Elisabeth. After Neumann's death in 1910 she left the stage. She died in 1922 during a medical stay in a spa near Dresden and she was buried with her mother in Prague. Only in 2010 it became clear in which common grave she was buried.

Family
• Husband: Neumann, Angelo (1887-1910)

Related persons
• was painted by Makart, Hans
• was the lover of Rudolf von Habsburg, Crown Prince of Austria and Hungary

Images

The grave of Johanna Buska at the Strasnice Evangelical Cemetery, Prague.
Picture by Androom (12 Aug 2019)

 

Sources
Johanna Buska - Wikipedia
BLKĂ–:Török von Szendrö - Wikisource


Busken Huet, Conrad

Published: 04 Apr 2021
Last update: 27 Jan 2023