Bassermann, Albert

(1867-1952)

   Actor. Bassermann became one of the most acclaimed actors of his generation by 1911, having by that time worked and starred in numerous outstanding productions with the Meininger troupe, then with Otto Brahm and Ludwig Bar-nay, and later with Max Reinhardt. His career began in his native Mannheim; he worked thereafter in a succession of provincial theaters that included Heidelberg, Nauheim, Lüneburg, and Bern in dozens of roles and a wide variety of character types. Bassermann was one of the few German actors who, when he reached his maturity, remained unrestrained by type casting, for he continued to play a variety of heroic and character parts, classical roles, robust comic turns, and preposterous farce characters.

   Bassermann's career with the Meininger began with impetuous heroes like the Marquis Posa in Friedrich Schiller's Don Carlos, Franz von Moor in Die Räuber (The Robbers), Iago, and Prince Hal. When he came to Berlin to work with Barnay, he played Oswald in Ghosts, Nikita in Leo Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness, Hjalmar in The Wild Duck, and several others in the "pre-modernist, pre-Alexander Moissi" style. His acting was perhaps the last remnant of the Adalbert Matkowsky mold, though his work for Brahm in Gerhart Hauptmann and Henrik Ibsen plays at the Lessing Theater broke new ground for realistic portrayals. Brahm, however, cast Bassermann in farce roles as well, realizing that Bassermann in such roles helped increase his box office sales. One year before Brahm's death, Friedrich Haase awarded Bassermann the Iffland Ring, designating him the finest of German actors. When he began working with Reinhardt, Bassermann created several roles for Carl Sternheim premieres, most significantly Die Kassette (The Strongbox, 1911) and Der Snob (The Snob, 1914). In the 1920s Bassermann continued with Reinhardt, playing Mephisto, Shylock, Wallenstein, Lear, and other roles of historical proportions. He also went on tour frequently and made more than 30 silent films.

   Bassermann left Germany with his wife Else Schiff when the Nazis came to power and then worked in Switzerland and Austria before emigrating to the United States. In Hollywood he subsequently made several successful films, and he is perhaps the only former Berlin star to have appeared in one with Ronald Reagan, namely, Knute Rockne, All-American (1940). That year also saw Basser-mann's Oscar nomination for his work in Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent. In 1945 Bassermann appeared in the Hollywood adaptation of Carl Zuckmayer's Der Hauptmann von Köpenick (The Captain of Köpenick), titled I Was a Criminal. When he returned to Germany in 1946, he concentrated on older character parts in several theater productions to the acclaim of thousands.