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Käthe Dorsch
Käthe Dorsch
Born	29 December 1890; Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Kingdom of Bavaria, German Empire
Died	25 December 1957 (aged 66); Vienna, Austria
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1905–1957
Spouse	Harry Liedtke (m. 1920; div. 1928)

Katharina "Käthe" Dorsch (pronounced [ˈkɛː.tə ˈdɔʁʃ] ^ⓘ, 29 December 1890 – 25 December 1957) was a German stage and film actor.

Biography

Katharina Dorsch was born on 29 December 1890 at 5:30 P.M. in the Bavarian town of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, the daughter of Christoph Dorsch (died 1901), a bakery helper, and Magdalena Dorsch (née Lindl).^[1]^[2] Her family moved to Nuremberg when she was three years old. Dorsch attended a trade school, took piano lessons, and had her first engagement aged 15 as a choir singer at the Staatstheater, performing Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. Later, she also performed in Hanau and Mannheim, mainly participating in operettas.

Dorsch's first major role was as Ännchen in the Max Halbe drama Youth, being the substitute for a sick colleague. Despite Dorsch's negative attitude towards the operetta, for financial reasons she decided to commit herself as a soubrette soprano in Mainz in 1908, going to Berlin in 1911 to perform at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. Dorsch also worked at the Residenz Theatre, Deutsches Theater, and Konzerthaus Berlin. In 1927 she traveled to Vienna, where she performed at the Volkstheater. She appeared in Carl Zuckmayer's 1927 play Schinderhannes. Her greatest success was in the title role of Franz Lehár's operetta Friederike, which premiered on 4 October 1928 at the Neues Schauspielhaus.

In 1936, Dorsch appeared at the Staatstheater in Berlin, and was a member of the Burgtheater from 1939 until her death. She returned to the Berlin stage in 1946.

In addition to her lengthy stage career, Dorsch also appeared on the screen. She made her film debut in the 1916 short Allzuviel ist ungesund. She appeared in numerous films before taking a hiatus in 1924. She returned to the film industry in 1930, starring in Die Lindenwirtin, followed by Three Days of Love (1931). Her final screen appearance was in Regine (1956).

Dorsch and her childhood friend Hermann Göring took advantage of interventions for racially threatened or politically persecuted colleagues,^[3] such as the Kabarett artist Werner Finck, who was released from the Esterwegen concentration camp on 1 July 1935.^[4]

In 1946, Dorsch slapped the then 24 year old critic Wolfgang Harich for writing a bad review about one of her plays. In 1951, she slapped Alexander Trojan for making fun of people who were born under the Zodiac sign Capricorn.^[5] In 1956, she caused a media sensation when she also slapped the Austrian theater critic Hans Weigel in front of a Vienna café.^[6]

In 1920, Dorsch married fellow actor Harry Liedtke. The two divorced in 1928. The tie to Liedtke went beyond divorce; Dorsch never overcame Liedtke's 1945 murder by the Soviet Red Army.^[7]

Dorsch died on 25 December 1957 of liver disease. She is buried at the cemetery of Bad Saarow-Pieskow alongside ex-husband Harry Liedtke and his wife Christa Tordy.^[8]^[9] A memorial stands at Waldfriedhof Dahlem in Berlin.

In 1962, the Käthe-Dorsch-Gasse was named after her in Vienna. In 1966 in Gropiusstadt, a high rise building was named Käthe-Dorsch-Ring.

Partial filmography

The Queen's Secretary (1916, Short)
Ein tolles Mädchen (1916)
Ein Narr der Liebe (1916)
Ein Jagdausflug nach Berlin (1917)
Die Memoiren des Satans, 1. Teil – Doktor Mors (1917–1918, part 1, 3)
Das fidele Gefängnis (1917) – Mizi
Dornröschen (1917) – The queen
John Riew – Ein Mädchenschicksal (917) – Annas Mutter
Frau Lenes Scheidung (1917) – Lene Semmelhak
Die Memoiren des Satans, 3.Teil - Der Fluchbeladene (1918)
Gezwungene Liebe (1918)
Ehemann a. D. (1918)
Sein letzter Seitensprung (1918) – Frau des Gefängnisdirektors
Der Glücksjunge (1918) – Fürstin Stachow
Amor in der Klemme (1918)
Keimendes Leben (1918–1919, part 1, 2) – (uncredited)
Die blaue Mauritius (1918)
Die Kunst zum Heiraten (1918)
Erborgtes Glück (1919)
Der junge Goethe (1919)
Moral und Sinnlichkeit (1919) – Lisbeth
Vendetta (1919) – Miss Ruth Alcott
The Blue Mauritius (1919) – Stenotypsitin Else
Können Gedanken töten? (1920) – Ragna
Der Schauspieler der Herzogin (1920)
The Prisoner (1920) – Crusius, Hertha, Tochter, Braut
The Sins of the Mother (1921) – Louisa
Miss Julie (1922) – Christine – Kitchen Maid
Does a Woman Have to Become a Mother? (1924) - Else Hardt, geb Wolf
Die Lindenwirtin (1930) - Annemarie Babinger, Landwirtin
Three Days of Love (1931) - Lena
Savoy Hotel 217 (1936) - Anna Fedorowna Orlowa
A Woman of No Importance (1936) - Sylvia Kelvil
Yvette (1938) - Oktavia Obardi
Morgen werde ich verhaftet (1939) - Maria Burger
Mistake of the Heart (1939) - Oberin
A Mother's Love (1939) - Marthe Pirlinger
Trenck, der Pandur (1940) – Kaiserin Maria Theresia
The Comedians (1941) - Karoline Neuber
Singende Engel (1947) – Kaiserin
Journey to Happiness (1948) – Celia Loevengaard
Das Kuckucksei (1949) – Marie Müller
The Prisoner (1949) - Eugenie - Marquise de Troissaules
Regine (1956) – Therese Lund (final film role)

References

^ Geburtsurkunde Nr. 229, eingesehen im Stadtarchiv der Stadt Neumarkt 15 February 2010.
^ Lutz Weltmann: Käthe Dorsch. Ein Frauen- und Rampenprofil. Horen Verlag, Berlin-Grunewald, 1929, S. 23.
^ Ludwig Berger: Käthe Dorsch. Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1957.
^ Werner Finck: Der brave Soldat Finck. München, Berlin 1975, S. 27.
^ "Käthe Dorsch", Der Spiegel, 8 April, no. 10, 1951
^ Franz Krahberger: Käthe Dorsch ohrfeigt Hans Weigel. In: ejournal.at, retrieved 8 December 2012.
^ Hubert von Meyerinck: Käthe Dorsch. In: Meine berühmten Freundinnen. Erinnerungen. Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1969, S. 110.
^ "Waldfriedhof Saarow-Pieskow, Bad Saarow, Brandenburg, Germany | BillionGraves Cemetery and Images".
^ "Schauspieler 50".