Gertrude Welcker

Gertrude Welcker
Born 16 July 1896
Dresden, Germany
Died 1 August 1988 (aged 92)
Danderyd, Stockholm, Sweden
Nationality German
Occupation Film actress
Years active 1917-1925

Gertrude Welcker (16 July 1896 – 1 August 1988) was a German silent film actress who appeared in films between 1917 and 1925.

Biography

Welcker was the native of Dresden. Her father who was editor in chief and general manager of the "Posener Tageblatt" died in 1909.[1] She visited Max Reinhardt's acting school in Berlin during the First World War. During 1915-16 she starred in Albert theater in Dresden. 1916-1919 she was engaged for directino in the Reinhardt theaters (Deutsches Theater, Chamber games, folk stage). There she was seen as a prostitute in August Strindberg's Meister Olaf in a production of Ferdinand Gregori , as Lesbia in Felix Hollaender 's staging of Friedrich Hebbel's Gyges und sein Ring, as Recha in Ephraim Lessing 's Nathan the Wise and as sister Martha in Gerhart Hauptmann's Hanneles Himmelfahrt. In addition to these, she played under Marion Reinhardt's direction of Georg Büchner's Danton's Death , a maid Sophie in Friedrich Schiller's Kabale und Liebe and Desdemona in William Shakespeare's Othello and Jessica in The Merchant of Venice.[2]

1917 Gertrude Welcker began her film acting career.[3] Her first role was of an angel in the film Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland directed by her stage partner Paul Wegener. Her most famous roles include Gesine von Orlamünde in Zur Chronik von Grieshuus , Countess Dusy Told, wife of a millionaire in Fritz Lang-directed Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922)[4][5] in which the title character sexually harasses and abuses her.[1] Other major productions in which Welcker participated, were Richard Oswald's Lady Hamilton and Carl Froelich's Luise Miller (after Schiller's Kabale und Liebe). In low budget productions like Die Geisha und der Samurai and Eine Frau mit Vergangenheit she played the lead actress.[2] In four films, she starred opposite Albert Bassermann. She played the character of Queen Margaret in the controversial film The Women House of Brescia. The film was rejected by the British Board of Film Classification on grounds of prostitution depicted in the film.[6]

During her mid-20s Welcker ended her career as an actress from both the film and slightly later from the stage in 1930 and married Swedish painter Otto Gustaf Carlsund (1897 - 1948) in July of the same year, whom she had met during a visit to Paris. They divorced in August 1937.[1] Before the outbreak of World War II she had a brief career as an editor at the Universum Film AG. Since 1941 she has been active for the Red Cross. Shortly before the war, Gertrude Welcker managed to escape to Sweden, where she spent the rest of her life as Gertrud Carlsund.[2] She died in Danderyd, Stockholm on 1 August 1988. Her estate was rediscovered in 2005.[3]

Filmography

  • Hans Trutz im Schlaraffenland (1917)
  • Panzerschrank Nr. 13 (1917)
  • Mr.Wu (1918)
  • Nocturno der Liebe (1918)
  • Er soll Dein Herr sein (1918)
  • Es werde Licht (3) (1918)
  • Der Fluch des Nuri (1918)
  • Der Tänzer (1918)
  • Das Abenteuer einer Ballnacht (1918)
  • Sein letzter Seitensprung (1918)
  • The Mirror of the World (1918)
  • Der Fluch der Vergangenheit (1919)
  • Kurz ist der Frühling (1919)
  • Die Geisha und der Samurai (1919)
  • Die geliebte Tote (1919)
  • Der Teufel und die Madonna (1919)
  • Die Verführten (1919)
  • Die Maske (1919)
  • Die Diamanten des Zaren (1919)
  • Die Duplitzität der Ereignisse (1919)
  • Erpresst (1919)
  • Das Werk seines Lebens (1919)
  • Algol: Tragedy of Power Algol. Tragödie der Macht (1920)
  • Die Dame in Schwarz (1920)
  • Evening – Night – Morning Abend - Nacht - Morgen (1920)
  • Puppen des Todes (1920)
  • Planetenschieber (1920)
  • Die schöne Miß Lilian (1920)
  • Fata Morgana (1920)
  • Eine Frau mit Vergangenheit (1920)
  • The Women House of Brescia (1920)
  • Lady Godiva (1920)
  • Die Söhne des Grafen Dossy (1920)
  • Seine drei Frauen (1920)
  • A Debt of Honour (1921)
  • The Flight into Death (1921)
  • The Golden Bullet (1921)
  • Lady Hamilton (1921)
  • Die Minderjährige (1921)
  • Das Recht der freien Liebe (1921)
  • Schatten der Vergangenheit (1921)
  • Sturmflut des Lebens (1921)
  • Jim Cowrey is Dead (1921)
  • Dr. Mabuse the Gambler Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1921)
  • Dämon Zirkus (1922)
  • Die Perlen der Lady Harrison (1922)
  • Das hohe Lied der Liebe (1922)
  • Between Evening and Morning (1923)
  • Luise Millerin (1923)
  • Zaida – Die Tragödie eines Modells (1923)
  • Im Rausche der Leidenschaft (1923)
  • Dieter – Der Mann unter den Steinen (1923)
  • Die Marionetten der Fürstin (1923)
  • Das Geschöpf (1924)
  • Wege der Liebe (1924)
  • Götz von Berlichingen,zubenannt mit der eisernen Hand (1925)
  • Zur Chronik von Grieshuus – Um das Erbe von Grießhuus (1925)

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Gertrude Welcker" (in German). Steffi Line. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kay Weniger (2011). „Es wird im Leben dir mehr genommen als gegeben …“. Lexikon der aus Deutschland und Österreich emigrierten Filmschaffenden 1933 bis 1945. Eine Gesamtübersicht ["It is in life you taken more for granted ...". Encyclopedia of emigrated filmmakers from Germany and Austria from 1933 to 1945 a complete overview] (in German). Hamburg: Acabus-Verlag. p. 655. ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Porträt der Schauspielerin Gertrud Welcker by Thomas Staedeli" [Portrait of the actress Gertrude Welcker by Thomas Staedeli] (in German). Cyranos. Retrieved 17 August 2014.
  4. ↑ Georges Sadoul (1972). Dictionary of Films. University of California Press. p. 89. ISBN 978-0-520-02152-5.
  5. ↑ Sander L. Gilman; Xun Zhou (2004). Smoke: A Global History of Smoking. Reaktion Books. p. 248. ISBN 978-1-86189-200-3.
  6. ↑ Dr James C Robertson (2005). The Hidden Cinema: British Film Censorship in Action 1913-1972. Routledge. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-1-134-87672-3.

External links