Katharina Schratt

Katharina Schratt ( born September 11, 1853 in Baden bei Wien, Austria Empire, † April 17, 1940 in Vienna, German Empire ) was an Austrian actress.

Life

Career

Katharina Schratt was the daughter of stationery and office products dealer Anton Schratt ( 1804-1883 ). She had two brothers. At the age of six, she discovered her love for the theater. The parents tried everything to keep her daughter from acting. So they sent the daughter to Cologne in a boarding school. They again worked tenaciously to the realization of their plans. At 15, she entered the first time in Leobersdorf. The piece was called random obstinacy. Then she was allowed but legally visit the Kierschnersche drama school in Vienna.

Their debut was the seventeen-year as a guest of the Vienna Theatre Academy in her hometown of Baden. Their first engagement was fixed in 1872 at the Court Theatre in Berlin, where she was able to record significant success within a short time. Katharina Schratt but remained only a few months in Berlin, then to follow the call to the Viennese theater. After an engagement at the German court theater in St. Petersburg was followed by a self-imposed break.

In the spring of 1879, she married the Hungarian consular officer Nicholas Kiss de Ittebe (also: Miklos Baron Kiß of Ittebe; 1852-1909 ). From her husband, who was regarded as a bon vivant, she separated in 1880 again, but to get a divorce without. In the same year her son Anton was born ( 1880-1970 ).

After a stint in New York in 1883, she returned again to a theater in Vienna back to the Hofburg Theater. Again celebrated " Schratt " one success after another and became one of the most popular actresses of her time in Austria. 1887 he was appointed to the Court actress. After disagreements with the new Burgtheater director Paul Schlenther Katharina Schratt announced in October 1900 their contract and went, only 47 years old, retired.

Relations

As a prominent member of the Burgtheater actress was invited to all the major festivals of Vienna. So also the " ball of Industrialists " of 1885, where it was first - apart from an audience in 1883 - a long conversation with the Emperor Franz Joseph I led. After a theatrical performance in the Moravian castle Kremsier for the Russian Tsar Alexander III. the artists present were invited to supper with the monarch. There Katharina Schratt first met the Empress Elizabeth, who promoted from now on the contact between the actress and the Emperor. The friendship between Catherine Schratt Emperor Franz Joseph and lasted with an interruption in 1900/ 01 (after disagreements with the Emperor ) until his death in November 1916, although it had cooled down a bit after the death of the Empress Elisabeth in 1898.

From the emperor received the actress who maintained a generous lifestyle and also was a passionate player, always financial assistance to pay off their huge debts. In addition, the Kaiser loaded them with valuable jewelry and gave her a villa in Gloriettegasse in Vienna, close to Schonbrunn Palace. He put her in Bad Ischl Villa Felicitas on the road to Pfandl available, which soon became commonly known as just more " Schratt villa ". However, the emperor defied all attempts Katharina Schratt to win over his person influence on the management of the court theater. 1909 her husband died and left her by him in 1907 acquired Palais Königswarter on the Kärntner Ring 4, vis -à-vis the Vienna State Opera.

Georg Mark, who Schratt a biography published in 1982, came in his 2013 published book, it was very different to her back and proved from historical letters that Katharina Schratt was a close friend next to Franz Joseph with other men: with Hans Graf Wilczek, the her devoted love letters, her actor counterpart Viktor Kutschera, with whom she as Maria Theresia and Franz Stephan occurred in the former German National Theatre in Vienna of Lorraine, and with Ferdinand of Saxe- Coburg- Koháry, who later became King of Bulgaria.

Retirement

After the death of Emperor Franz Joseph, the former actress lived almost entirely withdrawn into their 500 square meter apartment on the third floor of her palace. Only now and again entered the dedicated animal lover ( she even had time, a monkey, three parrots and seven dogs ) to the public, such as readings for the benefit of charitable organizations. Otherwise, the laying of the puzzle to one of their chief occupations was.

In her later years was Katharina Schratt to a deeply religious woman who attended church every day and several times a week pilgrimage to the tomb of the late Emperor. Through its relationship with the Emperor preserved the utmost discretion. On April 17, 1940 Katharina Schratt died at the age of 86 years of old age. She was buried in the cemetery Hietzing (Group 19, Number 108) in Vienna.

Family

The grandfather was Chrysostom Schratt (1773-1851) was born in Konstanz, studied medicine in Vienna and came as a surgeon to Baden, where he first treated in a military hospital French and later Russia returnees. He particularly distinguished himself from the gratuitous treatment of inmates at the charity house. Even through his veterinary knowledge he fought animal diseases.

The older brother was Anton Schratt ( 1851-1940 ). He was engaged in farming, was several years in the United States, from where he returned in 1876 when the father became seriously ill. He operated in Schratthaus in Baden a milk serving the Pinzgauer dairy and a small farm with cattle. But in 1890 he and his wife left Baden and went to Carinthia to the aL.

The youngest among the three siblings was Schratt Rudolf ( 1860-1952 ). He had his sister as interest in theater, where in recent years he tried, but eventually studied in Mittweida Saxony in mechanical engineering and then worked again in Austria. With age, he went back to public life in Baden and thus also the theater. So come from him the designs and ideas of the summer arena in the park of Baden with its retractable glass roof.

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