Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
In the last weeks of World War II when the battle front swayed to and fro around Vienna, Ida Orloff died practically forgotten, in the nearby hamlet of Tullnerbach, in the fifty-seventh year of her life. Few among the villagers knew her as a once-famous star of the foremost theaters in Berlin and Vienna. In the confusion of those climactic days of the war when all newspapers had suspended publication, no notice was taken of her death and her biography has remained unwritten. Inasmuch as Gerhart Hauptmann patterned the heroines of a number of his works after the youthful actress, a brief documented account of her most unconventional life and of her relations with the great Silesian poet may be of some interest to students of the German theater of the first half of the twentieth century.
1 Practically no reliable printed material exists on the life of Ida Orloff. The data brought together here, unless otherwise documented, are based on information kindly furnished by her friends and acquaintances, and by Dr. Walter Ritzer, to whom I am indebted for data gleaned from Vienna police and census records.
2 From files in Heimatrolle des Wiener Rathauses—hereafter cited as Heimairolle.
3 Frankfurter lllustrierle, 29 Aug. 1953.
4 From files in Zentralmeldeamt der Wiener Polizei.
5 Ida Orloff, “Lebenslauf” (Berlin, 1941). MS. in official records of the NSDAP.
6 See Willi Reich, Frank Wedekind: Selbstdarstellung (Miinchen, 1954) for letter of 3 June 1905 in which Wedekind thanks Kraus for staging Die Biichse der Pandora.
7 Glossen (Berlin, 1907), p. 467.
8 In Wedekind's letter to Kraus, Iduschka Orloff is specifically mentioned.
9 See Fürst Nikolai Orloff, Bismarck und Katharina Orlojf: Ein Idyll aus der hohen Politik (Miinchen, 1936). Her father became Russian ambassador in Berlin in 1884 but died the following year.
10 The use of the w is simply an orthographic distinction depending on the system of transliteration used.
11 The original contract is in the Speck Collection, Yale Univ. Lib.
12 Frankfurter Illuslrierte, 5 Sept. 1953.
13 The information available in print about Satter derives mostly from books on Anton Wildgans, distinguished Austrian lyric poet and dramatist, and from Wildgans' letters and autobiographical writings. The acquaintance of the men went back to their 8th year, when both were in the elementary school conducted by the Piarist Brethren. In the intimate friendship which developed they shared all their free time together, read the same books and visited the same picture galleries. After graduating from the Gymnasium they began the study of law, largely because their fathers wished them to enter government service. But Wildgans early set his heart on a literary career. See Anton Wildgans, Musik der Kindheit (Leipzig, 1928), pp. 185–195.
14 Picture in Lilly Wildgans, Anton Wildgans: Ein Leben in Briefen (Wien, 1947), I, 144.
15 Ibid., I, 137 (letter, 5 Sept. 1905).
16 These and the following facts appear in a long letter of Wildgans, 22 June 1907, listed simply “an einen Freund,” but clearly addressed to Satter in answ'er to a frankly confessional letter from him.
17 Wildgans in Briefen, I, 167–174.
18 Original in Speck Collection, undated but obviously written in 1910.
19 Wildgans in Briefen, I, 148.
20 Anton Wildgans: Ein Buck der Freundschaft und Erinneritng (Zurich, 1949), p. 80.
21 Personenverzeichnis der Wiener Universitöt.
22 Anton Wildgans, pp. 100–105.
23 Information from unidentified Russian periodical in Speck Collection, corroborated by Frau Ehn.
24 The Bundestheaterverwaltung in Vienna wrote me on 25 May 1955 that “a lawsuit was brought by Ida Orloff before a civil court against the Rojaerar [Court fiscus]” but refused to give further information.
25 See Victor Ludwig, Gerhart Rauplmann: Werke von ihm und aber iltn (Neustadt 1932), pp. 296–297.
26 See below Sec. n, “Ida Orloff in the Eyes of the Critics.”
27 See records of the Evangelical Church, Wien, vi. He fell near Wienemeustadt in the last battles of World War II.
28 Satter finally decided on a learned career. He became a docent in private international law at the Univ. of Vienna in 1923, but the wretched income of a docent compelled him also to act as an expert adviser to various banks. He published 3 scholarly works, and contributed often to professional journals—all his articles dealing with laws on marriage and divorce. Though considered an expert in his field he was not raised to professorial rank until 1941, when he was given only the grade of “nichtplanmö?iger au?erordentlicher Professor” (“associate professor on non-permanent tenure”). When this position was abolished in 1945 he was left without a pension and until his death on 13 Nov. 1949 he lived in great want, barely making a living by occasional work in banks and law offices. See Ileimatrolle, and for titles of his articles see Kürschner, Gelehrtenkalender (Berlin, 1926–41).
29 For newspapers which are mentioned more than once the following abbreviations will be used: VZ= Vossische Zeitung; BT=Berliner TagMatl; BLA = Berliner Lokal Anzeiger; BBZ=Berliner Borsen Ztg.; T=Der Tag; NWT=Neues Wiener Tagblatt; BBK=Berliner Borsen Kurier.
30 Information kindly given by Herr Paul Rose, Jr., Intendant at Karlsruhe.
31 See Kürschner, Literaturkalender (Berlin, 1922–41).
32 See picture in Die Funkslunde, Berlin, 6 Sept. 192S.
33 Information kindly given by Dr. Felix A. Voigt.
34 Sömlliche Werke, ed. Otto Buck and Kurt Wildenhagen (Berlin-Leipzig, 1910–29).
35 Information supplied by Frl. Liebscher of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich.
36 The date following each title is that of the premifere or of the 1st night of a revived production. Unless otherwise indicated, the reviews from which selections are quoted are taken from newspapers of the day following the performance. It seemed unnecessary to give in the text the names of the dailies in each instance, as the writers of the reviews remained attached to the same journal. They were: Arthur Eloesser, VZ-, Alfred Kerr, T; Isidor Landau, BBK; Victor Aubertin, BBZ; Julius Hart, T; Alfred Holzbock, BLA; Monty Jacobs, BT.
37 For titles see Ludwig, op. cit., pp. 266–270.
38 Yale authorities generously permitted me not only to copy the letters for my own use but also to publish them. Frau Gerhart Hauptmann graciously consented to citations being made at my discretion. This part of my study was practically completed when about 1/3 of the correspondence was printed in the Frankfurter lllustrierle (29 Aug., S and 11 Sept. 1953) without authorization from Frau Hauptmann or the present owners. The brief comments by Heinrich Satter have added only a few items to my findings. The numerous fictionalized conversations which are interspersed are of course worthless for purposes of record. I am indebted to Professor Hermann J. Weigand for a number of suggestions on the interpretation of the letters.
39 Gerhart Hauptmann, Das gesammelte Werk (Berlin, 1942), xv, 303. Hereafter only volume and page of this edition will be given in the text. When it has seemed desirable to retain the exact flavor of Hauptmann's style the quotations are given in the original.
40 The entire collection contains 1 post card and 37 letters, all in the poet's Latin script, as well as 2 telegrams. Of the written documents 22 are in ink, 16 in pencil. Hauptmann's handwriting looks almost like engraving, but the characters are often so small and so cursorily drawn, that to one who has not had a great deal of experience in deciphering his manuscripts some words will appear practically illegible, particularly those scribbled off with a hard pencil.
41 “Les femmes-enfants dans l'ceuvre de Gerhart Hauptmann,” Gerhart Hauptmann Jahrbuch (Breslau, 1937), II, 131 ff.
42 Gerhart Hauptmann (Leipzig, 1927), p. 116.
43 Berlin, 1942, p. 31.
44 An evident allusion to her plan to return to the stage.
45 Information kindly furnished by Intendant Rose. See also C. F. W. Behl, Zwiesprache mit Gerhart Hauptmann (Miinchen, 1948), p. 71.
46 See F. A. Voigt and W. A. Reichart, Hauptmann und Shakespeare (Goslar, 1947), pp. 94–102, and S. H. Muller, Gerhart Hauptmann and Goethe (New York, 1949), pp. 74–82.
47 From interview with Wilhelm BSlsche, summer 1930.
48 See my “Gerhart Hauptmann” in Columbia Dictionary of Modern Literature, ed. Horatio Smith (New York, 1947), p. 370.
49 Marriage and Morals (London, 1929), p. 331.