Horwitz, Kurt

(1897-1974)

   Actor. Horwitz was one of the most important actors in Munich's theater history, though some of his most important work took place in Zurich. His work with Otto Falckenberg in Munich at the Kammerspiele during the 1920s found him cast in leading roles that many critics said were on a professional par with the best acting talent on offer in Berlin. Among Horwitz's most notable characters in Munich were Mack the Knife in Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill's Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera) in 1929 and the title roles in Jules Romains's Dr. Knock (1925) and Hans-José Reh-fisch's Affäre Dreyfus (The Dreyfus Affair, 1929). The National Socialist regime forced Horwitz into Swiss exile; through 1946, he worked mostly in Zurich at the Schauspielhaus, but also in Basel at the City Theater. In that year he staged and acted in the premieres of Max Frisch plays there, along with the German-language premieres of Paul Claudel, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. From 1953 to 1958 Horwitz was intendant of the Bavarian State Theaters in Munich; he returned to Switzerland as a freelance actor in 1958, and in 1961 he staged the world premiere of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Die Physiker (The Physicists).