Rosa Albach-Retty

{{Short description|Austrian actress (1874–1980)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2016}} {{Infobox person | image = Rudolf Krziwanek - Rosa Albach-Retty.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Rosa Albach-Retty {{circa}} 1902 | name = Rosa Albach-Retty | birth_name = Rosa Clara Franziska Helene Retty | birth_date = {{birth date|1874|12|26|df=y}} | birth_place = [[Hanau]], [[Hesse-Nassau]],<br>[[German Empire]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1980|8|26|1874|12|26|df=y}} | death_place = [[Baden bei Wien]], [[Lower Austria]],<br>Austria | othername = | occupation = Actress | yearsactive = 1890–1958 | spouse = Karl Walter Albach | relatives = [[Romy Schneider]] (granddaughter)<br> [[Sarah Biasini]] (great-granddaughter) | children = [[Wolf Albach-Retty]] }} '''Rosa Albach-Retty''' (born '''Rosa Clara Franziska Helene Retty'''; 26 December 1874 – 26 August 1980) was an Austrian film and stage actress.<ref name=Munzinger>[https://www.munzinger.de/search/go/document.jsp?id=00000015374 "Rosa Albach-Retty"], [[Munzinger-Archiv]]</ref>

==Life== Born into a well-known family of actors, she was the daughter of actor and director {{ill|Rudolf Retty|de}}. Trained by her father, she began her stage career in 1890 at the [[Deutsches Theater (Berlin)|Deutsches Theater]] and the [[Lessing Theater]] in Berlin, where she performed as Franziska on ''[[Minna von Barnhelm]]''.<ref name=Munzinger /> [[Hermann Sudermann]] wrote his play ''{{ill|Die Schmetterlingsschlacht (play)|de|Die Schmetterlingsschlacht (Theaterstück)|lt=Die Schmetterlingsschlacht}}'', which premiered in 1894 at the Lessing Theater, for her.<ref name=Munzinger /> She was also known for [[Breeches role|breeches roles]] in ''[[Little Lord Fauntleroy]]''<ref>[https://www.theatermuseum.at/de/object/546431/ "Role photo"] as "Der kleine Lord", {{circa|1895}}, [[Austrian Theatre Museum]]</ref> and ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' (1909 at the Burgtheater).<ref>[https://www.theatermuseum.at/online-sammlung/detail/1414150/?offset=66&lv=list "''Der Kaufmann von Venedig'' playbill], 23 December 1909, Burgtheater, [[Austrian Theatre Museum]]</ref> In 1895, she went to the [[Volkstheater, Vienna|Volkstheater]] in Vienna and in 1903 joined the [[Burgtheater]] ensemble, where she received the title of ''Hofschauspielerin'' (Actress of the Court) in 1912.<ref name=AEIOU>{{Austriaforum|AEIOU/Albach-Retty,_Rosa}}</ref> She became an honorary member of the Burgtheater in 1928 and in 1958, she gave her final performance.<ref name=AEIOU />

She was married to the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]] officer Karl Albach; she was the mother of [[Wolf Albach-Retty]] (1906–1967), an Austrian movie actor who married German movie actress [[Magda Schneider]] in 1937. She was the grandmother of actress [[Romy Schneider]] and great-grandmother of actress [[Sarah Biasini]].

Albach-Retty made her first film appearance in 1930, in [[Georg Jacoby]]'s ''[[Money on the Street]]'', and made her last appearance in the 1955 remake ''[[The Congress Dances (1955 film)|The Congress Dances]]'' directed by [[Franz Antel]]. She died in 1980 at the [[Centenarian|age of 105]], not long after she had published her autobiography ''So kurz sind 100 Jahre'' for her hundredth birthday. Her grave of honour and that of her son are located in the [[Vienna Central Cemetery]] (group 32 C, number 50).<ref>[https://www.lagis-hessen.de/pnd/118501356 "Albach-Retty, Rosa "], Hessian Biography</ref>

== Ties to the Nazis == {{Unreferenced section|date=January 2025}} The proximity of Rosa Albach-Retty to the [[Nazism|NS Regime]] is well documented. The annexation of Austria to [[Nazi Germany]] in 1938 was celebrated by her in the ''[[Oesterreichische Volks-Zeitung|Kleine Volks-Zeitung]]''. Rosa Albach-Retty's membership in the [[Nazi Party|NSDAP]] is not proven, but she and her husband were supporting members of the [[Schutzstaffel|SS]]. As a celebrity of the public and a confessed admirer of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]], Rosa Albach-Retty was courted by the Nazi cultural policy and included in the so-called "God-privileged List" of the National Socialists.

None of this did anything to diminish the esteem in which Albach-Retty was held after the end of the Nazi regime, as the awards she received after 1945 prove. Even a Viennese municipal building was named after her: the Rosa-Albach-Retty-Hof in the 19th district, built in the 1970s. [[File:Albachretty grab.jpg|thumb|Grave of Albach-Retty at Vienna's [[Zentralfriedhof]]]]

==Selected filmography== {{Unreferenced section|date=January 2025}} * ''[[Money on the Street]]'' (1930) * ''[[Episode (film)|Episode]]'' (1935) * ''[[Maria Ilona]]'' (1939) * ''[[Hotel Sacher (film)|Hotel Sacher]]'' (1939) * ''[[Thrice Wed]]'' (1941) * ''[[Whom the Gods Love (1942 film)|Whom the Gods Love]]'' (1942) * ''[[Vienna 1910]]'' (1943) * ''[[Maria Theresa (film)|Maria Theresa]]'' (1951) * ''[[Adventure in Vienna]]'' (1952) * ''[[The Spendthrift (1953 film)|The Spendthrift]]'' (1953) * ''[[The Congress Dances (1955 film)|The Congress Dances]]'' (1955) * ''Klaus Peter Dencker in conversation with Rosa Albach-Retty. A production of Saarländischer Rundfunk / Television (45 minutes)'' (1979)

==Decorations and awards== * 1955: [[Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = German | page=7 |trans-title=| access-date = 4 March 2013 }}</ref> * 1958: [[Josef Kainz]] Medal<ref name=AEIOU /> * 1960: Medal of Honour of the City of Vienna<ref name=AEIOU /> * 1963: [[Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = German | page=136 |trans-title=| access-date = 4 March 2013 }}</ref> * 1977: [[Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria]]<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf | title = Reply to a parliamentary question | language = German | page=460 |trans-title=| access-date = 4 March 2013 }}</ref>

== Literature == * {{cite book|author=Rosa Albach-Retty|url=https://archive.org/details/sokurzsindhunder0000alba|url-access=registration|title=So kurz sind hundert Jahre. Erinnerungen|editor=Gertrud Svoboda-Srncik|publisher=Herbig|location=Munich, Berlin|year=1978|isbn=3-7766-0864-1|oclc=5031371|via=[[Internet Archive]]|ref=none}} * Robert Kittler: ''Rosa Albach-Retty. Ein Leben für das Theater.'' Diss. University Vienna, Vienna 1958 * [[Oliver Rathkolb]]: ''Führertreu und gottbegnadet. Künstlereliten im Dritten Reich.'' Österreichischer Bundesverlag, Vienna 1991, {{ISBN|3-215-07490-7}} * Robert Teichl: ''Österreicher der Gegenwart. Lexikon schöpferischer und schaffender Zeitgenossen.'' Verlag der Österreichischen Staatsdruckerei, Vienna 1951 * Jürgen Trimborn: ''Romy und ihre Familie''. Droemer, Munich 2008, {{ISBN|3-426-27451-5}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{Commons category|Rosa Albach-Retty}} * [http://www.filmportal.de/person/rosa-albach-retty_268f8dd37f3d4864a75bfe48d2934d49 Rosa Albach-Retty] on filmportal.de * [https://www.geschichtewiki.wien.gv.at/Rosa_Albach-Retty Rosa Albach-Retty] in the Vienna History Wiki * [https://www.mediathek.at/portalsuche?searchId=52244743 Audio and video recordings of Rosa Albach-Retty] in the Online Archive of the [[Österreichische Mediathek|Österreichischen Mediathek]] * {{IMDb name|0016207}} * [https://collection.theatermuseum.at/objekte/suche?q=Albach-Retty&query=Albach-Retty&cHash=92971b80ed8e929f55542d8e6aef7818 "Collection of photos and playbills"], [[Austrian Theatre Museum]]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Albach-Retty, Rosa}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1980 deaths]] [[Category:Actresses from Hesse]] [[Category:Austrian film actresses]] [[Category:Austrian stage actresses]] [[Category:Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class]] [[Category:Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria]] [[Category:20th-century Austrian actresses]] [[Category:Austrian women centenarians]] [[Category:Romy Schneider]] [[Category:People from Hanau]]