Salka Viertel

Salka Viertel, Salomea Sara ( Mea ) coxswain ( born June 15, 1889 in Sambor, Austria - Hungary, now Sambir, Ukraine, † October 20, 1978 in Klosters, Switzerland ) was an Austrian- American actress and screenwriter.

Life

Salkas father Joseph helmsman was a Jewish lawyer and long -time mayor of Sambor before the burgeoning anti-Semitism forced him to give up his office. Her mother Auguste helmsman died in 1952 at Salka in Santa Monica. Her siblings were the composer and pianist Eduard helmsman, Pink ( Ruzia, married to Josef Gielen since 1922, † 1973) and the Polish national football team Zygmunt helmsman.

Salka Viertel made ​​his debut as Salome helmsman at the Bratislava City Theatre. This was followed by some exposure to typical resorts of the Austro -Hungarian monarchy. In 1911 she played briefly with Max Reinhardt in Berlin, whereupon it to Vienna in 1913 was followed by an offer to the New Viennese stage. In Vienna, she also met her future husband, the writer and director Berthold know district. The two married in 1918; 1947, the marriage ended in divorce, which originate from the three sons, Hans, Peter and Thomas (* 1925). 1920 Salka went to Hamburg to the Great theater, later to Dusseldorf. Berthold worked from 1920 in Berlin, where he " The Force ", the collective founded theater and worked for the UFA. 1928 the family moved to Hollywood, where Berthold Viertel at the Fox Film Corporation to operate FW Murnau's a contract was awarded as a director and writer. Originally only a three-year stay in the USA was planned. Because of the uncertain situation in Germany, where they had worked before, but she decided in 1932 to remain in exile.

Salka Viertel starred in several films with little success. She herself said she was " neither beautiful nor young enough " been around for a career in film. One of her most successful films was the German version of Anna Christie in which they, at the request of her friend Greta Garbo took over the role of Marty, which was played in the original by Marie Dressler. In the following years she was a kind of unofficial mentor for Greta Garbo and participated in some scenarios the actress, including Queen Christina, Anna Karenina and The Woman with the two faces. The plan, together with the also in American exile living Bertolt Brecht to post a "commercial script" for Hollywood, but failed.

In Los Angeles, the district initially lived in Fairfax Avenue, then they rented a house in the Mabery Road in Santa Monica, which she eventually acquired. After her divorce and before her return to Europe Salka quarter lived in Brentwood in Southern California. In Hollywood neighborhood had a salon in which over the years wrong, many exiles and celebrities. Her guests included over the years alongside Sergei Eisenstein and Charlie Chaplin Arnold Schoenberg, Christopher Isherwood, Hanns Eisler, Bertolt Brecht, Max Reinhardt and Thomas Mann. In the 1930s and 40s she became involved in the fight against Nazism. She was involved in the establishment of the "European Film Fund ", the contracts negotiated with the major Hollywood studios. This given, for example, Leonhard Frank, Heinrich Mann, Alfred Polgar, Walter Mehring and Torberg lifesaving "Emergency Visa " and were able to escape the Nazis. With the beginning of the Cold War came fourth in the McCarthy era under suspicion of being a communist and therefore could not work in Hollywood.

In 1953 she left the United States and settled in Klosters in Switzerland, where later her son Peter and his wife Deborah Kerr lived. 1969 published her autobiography The unteachable heart.

Filmography

Actress ( selection)

Screenplay ( choice )

Writings

• The Kindness of Strangers. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York 1969.
• The unteachable heart. Claassen, Hamburg / Dusseldorf in 1970, Rowohlt, Reinbek 1987 ( German edition). ISBN 3-499-12102-6 New edition, 2011: The unteachable heart. Memories of a life with artists of the 20th century, the other library, Eichborn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, ISBN 978-3-8218-6235-4