Knuth, Gustav

(1901-1987)

   Actor. Knuth is closely associated with the theaters of Hamburg and Zurich, though he worked for Gustaf Gründgens at the Berlin State Theater from 1937 to 1944. Knuth began his career as a teenager (with very little training) in Heidelberg, and from there worked primarily in Hamburg-area theaters until he departed for Berlin. He established himself as a "natural" actor in leading roles of the German repertoire, bringing an earthy humor even to such roles as Iago, Woyzeck, and the Grand Inquisitor in Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos. For Gründgens, Knuth continued in such roles, though his work after the war at the Zurich Schauspielhaus was perhaps his most important. He was the first General Harras in Carl Zuckmayer's Des Teufels General (The Devil's General, under Heinz Hilpert in 1946), and later the first Matti in Bertolt Brecht's Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti (Mr. Puntila and His Servant Matti) under Brecht's direction in 1948. Knuth subsequently played leading roles in most of the Friedrich Dürrenmatt world premieres in Zurich, most notably as Ill in Der Besuch der alten Dame (The Visit, 1956) and Sir Isaac Newton in Die Physiker (The Physicists, 1962). Knuth earned fulsome praise among many observers in the postwar period for bringing a homely, unaffected dimension to his acting, perhaps as an antidote to some of the völkisch acting that had taken place during the Third Reich. Knuth was perceived as something "down-to-earth," but completely without the bitter aftertaste of nationalistic philistinism. Knuth also had leading roles in dozens of films, including the enormously popular Grosse Freiheit Nr. 7 (Port of Freedom) with Hans Albers in 1944 and Sissi, the Young Empress (with Romy Schneider in the title role) in 1956.