{{Short description|German actor (1893–1946)}} {{Expand German|topic=bio|date=August 2010|Heinrich George}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox person | name = Heinrich George | image = Heinrich George by Hugo Erfurth 1930.jpg | caption = Publicity portrait by [[Hugo Erfurth]], 1930 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1893|10|9|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Stettin]], German Empire | birth_name = Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz | death_date = {{Death date and age|1946|9|25|1893|10|9|df=y}} | death_place = [[Sachsenhausen (Oranienburg)|Sachsenhausen]], Germany | spouse = [[Berta Drews]] | children = 2, including [[Götz George]] | relatives = | occupation = Actor | years_active = 1912–1945 | website = }} '''Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz'''<ref name="Stettin_1893_1934" /> (9 October 1893 – 25 September 1946), better known as '''Heinrich George''' ({{IPA|de|ˈhaɪnʁɪç ɡeˈ(ʔ)ɔʁɡə|lang|De-Heinrich George.ogg}}), was a German stage and film actor.
==Early life==
George was born in [[Pomerania]] to August Friedrich Schulz, a former [[Deck department|Deck Officer]] in the [[Imperial German Navy]], and Anna Auguste Wilhelmine Glander. He had one older brother. He did not complete school, but instead took acting classes in [[Szczecin|Stettin]]. In 1912, he made his stage debut in a production of ''[[Die keusche Susanne]]'' playing the head waiter. His acting career was interrupted by the advent of [[World War I]]. He volunteered to fight and was seriously wounded in 1915.
==Career==
===Weimar Republic=== After the war, George worked at the Albert Theatre in Dresden and the [[Schauspiel Frankfurt]]. He appeared in a production of [[Oskar Kokoschka]]'s ''Hiob'' in Frankfurt which ended up with the audience rioting due to the appearance of a naked woman onstage. In 1921, he moved to Berlin to work at the [[Deutsches Theater (Berlin)|Deutsches Theater]]. The same year, he appeared in his first film, ''[[The Story of Christine von Herre|Der Roman der Christine von Herre]]'' by director [[Ludwig Berger (director)|Ludwig Berger]].
George is noted for having spooked the young [[Bertolt Brecht]] in his first directing job, a production of [[Arnolt Bronnen]]'s ''Parricide'' (1922), when he refused to continue working with the director.<ref>{{Citation | last = Thomson | first = Peter | last2 = Sacks | first2 = Glendyr | title = The Cambridge Companion to Brecht | publisher = Cambridge University Press | year = 1994 | edition = 2 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_e1x6/page/22 22–39] | isbn = 978-0-521-41446-3 | url = https://archive.org/details/cambridgecompani0000unse_e1x6/page/22 }}</ref>
In 1923 he founded the ''Schauspielertheater'' with fellow actors [[Elisabeth Bergner]] and [[Alexander Granach]] in order to be able to work more independently as an artist. From 1925 to 1929 he appeared primarily onstage at the [[Volksbühne]]. From 1926 to 1938 he also appeared regularly at the Heidelberg Festival.
He appeared in [[Fritz Lang]]'s ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' (1927) and ''[[Dreyfus (1930 film)|Dreyfus]]'' (1930), as well as starring in ''[[Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1931 film)|Berlin Alexanderplatz]]'' (1931).
In 1929, George organized a memorial service for his friend and colleague [[Albert Steinrück]] at the ''Staatstheater'' in [[Gendarmenmarkt]]. The purpose of the event was to ensure that Steinrück's descendants made a living through the sale of Steinrück's paintings which were exhibited in the theater.
George was an active member of the [[Communist Party of Germany|Communist party]] during the Weimar Republic.<ref name="FilmReference.com">{{cite web |first=Josef |last=Škvorecký |title=JUD SÜSS |url=http://www.filmreference.com/Films-Jo-Ko/Jud-S-ss.html |access-date=30 October 2011}}</ref> He worked with theatre director [[Erwin Piscator]] and playwright [[Bertolt Brecht]], both of whom identified with the political left.
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-H09160, Heinrich George.jpg|thumb|George in front of his house at Bismarckstraße 34 in Wannsee-Berlin with his mastiff Fellow in 1930]] On 12 October 1932, he changed his legal name to his stage name ''George''.<ref name="Stettin_1893_1934">{{cite web |title=Transscription of birth certificate of Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz, born 1893-10-09 |id=3600 |publisher=Civil registry, Stettin (Szczecin), Poland |language=de |location=Stettin |orig-year=1893-10-14 |date=5 November 1934 |url=http://www.szczecin.ap.gov.pl/media/arch/65/672/0/01/147/65_672_0_01_147_0266.jpg |access-date=27 June 2016 |archive-date=7 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200807200744/https://www.szczecin.ap.gov.pl/media/arch/65/672/0/01/147/65_672_0_01_147_0266.jpg |url-status=dead }} (NB. This document documents ''Georg August Friedrich Hermann Schulz''s birthday on 1893-10-09, as well as the change of his legal name from ''Schulz'' to ''George'' on 12 October 1932.)</ref>
===Nazi era=== After the Nazi takeover, George was classified as a "non-desirable" actor at first because of his earlier political affiliations and was thus barred from working in cinematic productions. However, he was eventually able to reach an accommodation with the Nazi regime. In 1937, George was designated as a ''[[Staatsschauspieler]]'' (i.e. an actor of national importance) and in 1938 was appointed director of the [[Schiller Theater]] in Berlin. As director, he hired artists who were considered "non-desirable" including the art historian [[Wilhelm Fraenger]] (a communist), the Catholic actor Robert Müller, and the graphic artist Karl Rössing (a communist who converted to the NSDAP) and his student [[Günther Strupp]]. George actively collaborated with the Nazis and agreed to star in Nazi propaganda films such as ''[[Hitlerjunge Quex (film)|Hitler Youth Quex]]'' (1933), ''[[Jud Süß]]'' (1940), and ''[[Kolberg (film)|Kolberg]]'' (1945) as well as appearing in numerous newsreels.
George had a stocky build and a Berlin accent which made him readily recognizable to German audiences. George's prestige as a leading actor of the day made him an "extraordinarily valuable catch for the Nazis."<ref name="Fritzsche2008">{{cite book|first=Peter |last=Fritzsche|title=Life and death in the Third Reich|url=https://archive.org/details/lifedeathinthird0000frit|url-access=registration |access-date=2 November 2011|year=2008|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-02793-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/lifedeathinthird0000frit/page/48 48]}}</ref> Cooke and Silberman describe him as "the actor most closely tied with fascist fantasies of the autocratic and the populist leader".<ref name="CookeSilberman2010">{{cite book|last1=Cooke|first1=Paul|last2=Silberman|first2=Marc|title=Screening war: perspectives on German suffering|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m1MdufwL9QgC&pg=PA115|access-date=8 November 2011|date=30 July 2010|publisher=Camden House|isbn=978-1-57113-437-0|page=115}}</ref>
On the occasion of [[Adolf Hitler's 50th birthday|his 50th birthday]], [[Adolf Hitler]] awarded George the title of ''Generalintendant''. [[Joseph Goebbels]] personally presented George with a portrait of Hitler to commemorate the event.
After firebombs severely damaged the Schiller Theater in September 1943, Goebbels presented him with a ''Verdienstkreuz 2. Klasse'' (Cross of Merit, 2nd Class) for helping to extinguish the fire.
==Postwar==
On 14 May 1945, according to his wife, George was arrested for the first time by Soviet officers with the words "He won't stay long" and was released the next day. He was given meat and wine for his family. A week later he was imprisoned again for one day, and on 26 May for the third time for five days. He is said to have told his interrogators "Please shoot me" and his wife reported in her memoirs (1956/1986) that he said:
"They should take away everything I have, starve me and humiliate me. But if they forbid me to act, I will die".
On 31 May, George received a certificate from the mayor of [[Charlottenburg]] stating that he was not allowed to be involved in clean-up work "as he must be available to the authorities for questioning at any time". In the beginning of June, the Soviet city commander for Berlin [[Nikolai Berzarin]] issued him a letter of protection which appeared in his KGB file as a "passport" confiscated during his last arrest. George was arrested again, after the death of Berzarin on 16 June, when his motorcycle collided with a truck convoy near his office in Berlin-[[Friedrichsfelde]].
George's KGB file includes an undated report from five informers, three of them with legible signatures. The letter states: "Just 14 days before the Red Army liberated us from the Nazi yoke, he made himself available to the NSDAP and tried to incite Berliners to active resistance in the form of a call in the Berlin press. The entire German people can stand as a witness against George. If George were put on any German stage, in our opinion he would be lynched."
A Lieutenant Bibler reported to his boss Pyrin on 28 July 1945 that George was “one of the most respected fascist artists" who "contributed to the continuation of the war through his pro-fascist agitation in radio and newspapers". The day before, Bibler's Soviet colleague had ordered George's transfer to the [[Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial|NKVD special camp in Hohenschönhausen]], citing NKVD Order No. 0016 of 11 January 1945.
George managed to set up a prison theater at the camp and put on a production of ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]''. His wife was allowed to speak to him at the gate once a week for five minutes and also bring him textbooks and music. On 6 December he was allowed to hug his son Götz; it was the last time his wife saw him. In February 1946, communist writer [[Friedrich Wolf (writer)|Friedrich Wolf]] (the father of the later [[Stasi]] head [[Markus Wolf]]) tried to facilitate George's release; other attempts by his theater friends to get him released were unsuccessful.
George was transferred to the [[NKVD special camp Nr. 7]] in Sachsenhausen.<ref name="FuchsCosgrove2006">{{cite book |first1=Anne |last1=Fuchs |first2=Mary |last2=Cosgrove |first3=Georg |last3=Grote |title=German memory contests: the quest for identity in literature, film, and discourse since 1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QDO8cAyRFl4C&pg=PA199|access-date=30 October 2011 |year=2006 |publisher=Camden House |isbn=978-1-57113-324-3 |page=199}}</ref> According to a fellow prisoner, George continued to perform at the camp in front of 12,000 prisoners and the Soviet guards.
[[File:2016-08-31 Grab-Heinrich-George.jpg|thumb|Grave of George at the Zehlendorf Cemetery in Berlin]] The once massive man lost weight rapidly - a record from February 1946 documented a weight loss of 80 pounds (40 kilograms) - and was now completely exhausted. On 22 September, during preliminary rehearsals for a dramatization of the ballad ''Death of Tiberius'', George went to the internal medicine outpatient clinic, according to a fellow prisoner. The examining doctor diagnosed [[appendicitis]]. The next morning he was taken to the hospital on a stretcher by the paramedics. As a result of the appendix operation, George died on 25 September 1946. The death certificate, signed by Soviet and German doctors, shows the diagnosis as "[[laparotomy]], [[bronchopneumonia]], cardiac atrophy." The cause of death is given as "bronchopneumonia and [[heart failure]]". However, his cause of his death may have been starvation, despite official reports.<ref>{{Citation | last = Neimi | first = Robert | title = History in the Media: Film and Television | publisher = ABC-CLIO | year = 2006 | page = 6 | isbn = 978-1-57607-952-2}}</ref>
Through the intercession of one of the camp staff who admired his acting, George was buried in an individual grave at the camp rather than in the customary mass grave. According to a fellow prisoner, his bones were found in an overgrown forest near Sachsenhausen in 1994. The remains were identified using DNA from his two sons and his body was moved to Berlin to the [[Zehlendorf (Berlin)|Zehlendorf]] Cemetery.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Heinrich George. Mensch aus Erde gemacht: die politische Biographie|first=Werner|last=Maser|date=1998|isbn=9783861243519|pages=20|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=rJMaAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> His tombstone is topped by a bronze bust and an inscription commemorating his wife who died in 1987. In 1995, the [[Senate of Berlin]] declared the grave an ''Ehrengrab des Landes Berlin'' (Honorary Grave).
==Personal life== In 1930, George was playing the role of [[Götz von Berlichingen]] in the [[Götz von Berlichingen (Goethe)|play of the same name]] and needed to find an actress to play Adelheid von Walldorf. [[Ernst Legal]] suggested actress [[Berta Drews]] for the role based on her work as Adelhaid at [[Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts|Reinhardt-Schule]]. The couple's first child Jan George was born the following year and they were married in 1933. They had a second son in 1938 who was named [[Götz George]] after his father's character. Götz became an actor while Jan George worked as a photographer.
== Filmography == {| | valign="top" width="25%" | * ''[[The Story of Christine von Herre]]'' (1921) as Count Dieter Von Herre * ''[[Lady Hamilton (1921 film)|Lady Hamilton]]'' (1921) as [[John Willett Payne|Capitain John Willett Payne]] * ''[[Kean (1921 film)|Kean]]'' (1921) as [[Edmund Kean]] * ''[[Die Perlen der Lady Harrison|The Pearls of Lady Harrison]]'' (1922) * ''[[Lucrezia Borgia (1922 film)|Lucrezia Borgia]]'' (1922) as Sebastiano * ''[[Das fränkische Lied|The Frankish Song]]'' (1922) * ''[[Lola Montez, the King's Dancer]]'' (1922) as Don Miguel * ''[[Earth Spirit (film)|Earth Spirit]]'' (1923) as Rodrigo * ''[[Fridericus Rex]]'' Part 4 (1923) as [[Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine]] * ''[[The Sun of St. Moritz (1923 film)|The Sun of St. Moritz]]'' (1923) * ''[[Man by the Wayside]]'' (1923) as a landlord * ''[[Quarantine (1923 film)|Quarantine]]'' (1923) * ''Steuerlos'' (1924) * ''[[Debit and Credit (film)|Debit and Credit]]'' (1924) as Hippus * ''Zwischen Morgen und Morgen'' (1924) * ''[[She (1925 film)|She]]'' (1925) as Horace Holly * ''Mirakel der Liebe'' (1925) * ''[[Metropolis (1927 film)|Metropolis]]'' (1926) as Grot * ''[[The Armoured Vault (1926 film)|The Armoured Vault]]'' (1926) as Cracker * ''[[Superfluous People]]'' (1926) as Balagula * ''[[Wrath of the Seas]]'' (1926) as Röwer * ''[[The Sea (1927 film)|The Sea]]'' (1927) as Yann * ''[[Orient Express (1927 film)|Orient Express]]'' (1927) as Peter Karg * ''[[Bigamy (1927 film)|Bigamie]]'' (1927) as Otto Engel * ''Die Ausgestoßenen'' (1927) * ''[[The Serfs]]'' (1928) as Nikita the gamekeeper * ''[[The Lady with the Mask]]'' (1928) as Otto Hanke * ''[[Song (film)|Song]]'' (1928) as Jack Houben | valign="top" width="25%" | * ''[[Theatre (1928 film)|Theatre]]'' (1928) as Stroganoff * ''[[The Last Fort]]'' (1928) as Croff * ''[[Rutschbahn|Whirl of Youth]]'' (1928) as Jig Hartford * ''[[Manolescu (film)|Manolescu]]'' (1929) as Jack * ''[[Children of the Street]]'' (1929) * ''[[The Man with the Frog]]'' (1929) as The Man with the Frog * ''[[The Convict from Istanbul]]'' (1929) as Thomas Zezi * ''[[Explosives Excavator 1010]]'' (1929) as Director March * ''[[Dreyfus (1930 film)|Dreyfus]]'' (1930) as [[Emile Zola]] * ''[[The Other (1930 film)|The Other]]'' (1930) as Dickert * ''[[Menschen im Käfig]]'' (1930) as Cass * ''[[The Man Who Murdered]]'' (1931) as Lord Fackland * ''[[1914 (film)|1914]]'' (1931) as [[Jean Jaurès]] * ''[[Berlin-Alexanderplatz (1931 film)|Berlin Alexanderplatz]]'' (1931) as Franz Biberkopf * ''[[Men Behind Bars]]'' (1931) as Butch * ''Wir schalten um auf Hollywood'' (1931) * ''Goethe lebt …!'' (1931) * ''[[Tugboat M 17]]'' (1933, also director) as Henner * ''[[Hitlerjunge Quex (film)|Hitlerjunge Quex]]'' (1933) as Mr. Volker * ''[[Das Meer ruft|The Lake Calls]]'' (1933) as Terje Wiggen * ''[[Ripening Youth (1933 film)|Ripening Youth]]'' (1933) as Brodersen * ''[[Hermine and the Seven Upright Men]]'' (1934) as Fryman * ''[[Joan of Arc (1935 film)|Joan of Arc]]'' (1935) as [[Philip the Good]] * ''[[A Night of Change]]'' (1935) as Boris Pettkof * ''[[Pillars of Society (1935 film)|Pillars of Society]]'' (1935) * ''Die große und die kleine Welt'' (1936) * ''[[When the Cock Crows]]'' (1936) | valign="top" width="25%" | * ''[[Stjenka Rasin]]'' (1936) * ''[[Ball at the Metropol]]'' (1937) * ''[[Don't Promise Me Anything]]'' (1937) as Felder * ''[[Unternehmen Michael]]'' (1937) as General Commander * ''[[An Enemy of the People (1937 film)|An Enemy of the People]]'' (1937) as Doctor Hans Stockmann * ''[[The Beaver Coat (1937 film)|The Beaver Coat]]'' (1937) as Baron von Wehrhahn * ''Frau Sylvelin'' (1938) * ''[[Es leuchten die Sterne|The Stars Shine]]'' (1938) as himself * ''[[Heimat (1938 film)|Heimat]]'' (1938) as Leopold Dall'Orto Schwartze * ''[[The Immortal Heart]]'' (1939) as [[Peter Henlein]] * ''[[The Sensational Casilla Trial]]'' (1939) as Vandegrift * ''[[Der Postmeister]]'' (1940) as The Postmaster * ''[[Jud Süß (1940 film)|Jud Süß]]'' (1940) as [[Charles Alexander, Duke of Württemberg|Duke Karl Alexander]] * ''[[Friedrich Schiller – Der Triumph eines Genies|Friedrich Schiller –The Triumph of a Genius]]'' (1940) as [[Charles Eugene, Duke of Württemberg|Duke Charles Eugene]] * ''[[Pedro soll hängen|Pedro Will Hang]]'' (1941) as Manuel * ''[[Destiny (1942 film)|Destiny]]'' (1942) as Stephan Ratikin * ''[[Wedding in Barenhof]]'' (1942) as Baron van Hanke * ''[[Wien 1910|Vienna 1910]]'' (1942) as [[Georg Ritter von Schönerer]] * ''Der große Schatten'' (1942) * ''[[Andreas Schlüter (film)|Andreas Schlüter]]'' (1942) as [[Andreas Schlüter]] * ''Der Verteidiger hat das Wort'' (1944) * ''[[The Degenhardts]]'' (1944) as Karl Degenhardt * ''[[Kolberg (film)|Kolberg]]'' (1945) as Joachim Nettlebeck * ''[[Anna Alt]]'' (1945) * ''Frau über Bord'' (1945) * ''Das Leben geht weiter'' (1945, unfinished) * ''Dr. phil. Döderlein'' (1945, unfinished) |}
==References== {{Reflist}}
== Further reading == * Berta Drews: ''Wohin des Wegs: Erinnerungen.'' Langen Müller, 1986. {{ISBN|978-3-7844-2098-1}} * Peter Laregh: ''Heinrich George. Komödiant seiner Zeit''. Langen Müller (Herbig), München 1992, {{ISBN|978-3-7844-2363-0}} * Werner Maser: ''Heinrich George. Mensch, aus Erde gemacht.'' Quintessenz Verlag, 1998, {{ISBN|978-3-86124-351-9}} * Kurt Fricke: ''Spiel am Abgrund. Heinrich George – eine politische Biographie''. Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2000, {{ISBN|978-3-89812-021-0}} * Kurt Fricke: ''Heinrich George'', in: Bernd Heidenreich/[[Sönke Neitzel]] (eds.): Medien im Nationalsozialismus. Schöningh Paderborn, 2010, S. 83–107, {{ISBN|978-3-506-76710-3}} * Michael Klonovsky, Jan von Flocken: ''Stalins Lager in Deutschland 1945–1950. Dokumentation – Zeugenberichte.'' Ullstein-Verlag, 1991, {{ISBN|978-3-550-07488-2}} * Horst Mesalla: ''Heinrich George. Rekonstruktion der schauspielerischen Leistung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der zeitgenössischen Publizistik.'' Dissertation, Freie Universität Berlin, 1969.
==External links== * {{IMDb name|id=0313447|name=Heinrich George}} *[http://film.virtual-history.com/person.php?personid=825 Virtual History - Bibliography and Tobacco cards]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Heinrich}} [[Category:1893 births]] [[Category:1946 deaths]] [[Category:Male actors from Szczecin]] [[Category:Actors from the Province of Pomerania]] [[Category:German male film actors]] [[Category:German male silent film actors]] [[Category:German male stage actors]] [[Category:People who died in NKVD special camp Nr. 7]] [[Category:Deaths by starvation]] [[Category:20th-century German male actors]] [[Category:Communist Party of Germany members]] [[Category:German Nazi propagandists]] [[Category:Nazis who died in prison custody]]