Therese Giehse

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Therese Giehse giving the character of Mother Courage. Portrait by Günter Rittner, 1966

German stamp issued 1988 in the Women in German history series

Therese Giehse (born as Therese Gift 6 March 1898 in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, died 3 March 1975 in Munich) was a German actress. She appeared on the stage, where she was a major star, in films, and in political cabaret. In the late 1920's through 1933, she became a leading actress at the famous Munich Kammerspiele.

Frau Giehse was Jewish, and left Germany for Switzerland in 1933, where she contined to act in exile, playing leading roles in Zürich, including in Erika Mann's acclaimed political cabaret the Pfeffermühle (which had been transported from Munich to Zürich with the rise of Adolf Hitler in 1933. She returned to Germany after the war, performing in theatres on both sides of the Iron Curtain, but mostly in her native Bavaria in southern Germany, until her death in 1975.

[edit] The first actress to play Brecht's Mother Courage

Mother Courage and Her Children, with Therese Giehse in the title role, at the Munich Kammerspiele, directed by Bertolt Brecht, Munich, 1950.^[1]

In exile, Frau Giehse played the first Mother Courage in the world premiere of Bertolt Brecht's play Mother Courage and Her Children, in 1941 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich.^[2]^[3] After the war, Frau Giehse returned to Munich and to the Munich Kammerspiele, where, in 1950, she again played the role of Mother Courage, this time directed by Brecht himself. This production became documented as the second "Model production" of Brecht's play (the first "Model production" had been performed by Brecht's wife, Helene Weigel in 1949 in Berlin). Frau Giehse and Brecht would often converse in their strong Bavarian (southern German) dialect during rehearsals, making Brecht's wife jealous of their kindred spirit.^[4]

In the 1950's, Frau Giehse played several roles as a member of Brecht's theatre, the Berliner Ensemble. Throughout the 1950's and 1960's, Frau Giehse continued to perform many lead roles in various theatres in Germany, often using her considerable comic skills to play character roles, as well as great dramatic roles, such as the leads in several landmark productions by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, the world premiere of The Visit in 1956, and The Physicists in 1962. Later, she also worked with Peter Stein's renowned Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer in Berlin.^[5]

In the mid 1970's, Therese Giehse returned to the Berliner Ensemble to perform several Brecht Evenings of the poems, plays, and writings of her lifelong friend and colleague, the late Bertolt Brecht.

[edit] References

^ Therese Giehse had performed the first Mother Courage in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1941; this photo is from her second appearance in that role in 1950.
^ Silberman, Marc (29 March 2006). Brecht Chronology. University of Wisconsin-Madison, Department of German. Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
^ Therese Giehse - Tscharlies jüdische Oma (German). Bayerischer Rundfunk (27 January 2005). Retrieved on 2007-12-07.
^ Therese Giehse: Ich hab nichts zum Sagen. Monika Sperr, (C. Berteslmann Verlag, 1972), p.112.
^ Therese Giehse: Ich hab nichts zum Sagen. Monika Sperr, (C. Berteslmann Verlag, 1972), pp. 146-149.