Viertel, Berthold

(1885-1953)

   Director. Viertel was a native Viennese whose career began at the Vienna Volkstheater but later blossomed in Dresden and Berlin. His most significant productions in Dresden were the premieres of Walter Hasenclever's Jenseits (Beyond This Life) and Georg Kaiser's Gas II. In Berlin, Viertel's 1922 productions of Friedrich Hebbel's Judith and Arnolt Bron-nen's Vatermord (Patricide) created sensations. In the wake of the German monetary collapse in 1923, Viertel founded his own company called Die Truppe ("the troupe"), which premiered Robert Musil's Vincenz (Vincent) and Kaiser's comedy Nebeneinander (Next Door) at Berlin's Lustspielhaus. Those productions marked a career turning point, as Viertel began working steadily as a freelance director, ultimately emigrating to Hollywood in 1927. He returned to Europe in 1949 and restarted his career, both in Berlin and in Vienna. At Vienna's Burgtheater, he staged the Austrian premiere of Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire.