Tilla Durieux (née Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971) [FIG. 1, 2] was the muse to many prominent artists of the early 20th century and the grande dame of the German stage. Known for her portrayals of femme fatales in Expressionist plays, her life was as colourful as the characters she played.
Critics raved about her powerful and original portrayals of the female protagonists in Heinrich von Kleist's Kätchen von Heilbronn (Katie of Heilbronn or The Trial by Fire) and Friedrich Hebbel's Judith [FIG. 3] , as well as Prinzessin von Eboli in Friedrich Schiller’s Don Carlos, Infant von Spanien [FIG. 4]. Writing in Die Schaubühne— a theatre and culture magazine established in 1905 and which, in 1918, became the legendary Die Weltbühne—the influential critic Siegfried Jacobsohn (1881–1926) lauded Durieux as ‘a mixture of serpentine spirit, of coqueterie, of erotic heat and passion, of authentic mendacity and jealousy, all without forgetting to reproduce the true tonalities and teeming emotions of the original verse.’
Durieux sat for many of Europe's great artists, including Auguste Renoir [FIG. 5, 6], Max Slevogt [FIG. 7], Ernst Barlach [FIG. 8], Oskar Kokoschka [FIG. 9] and Franz von Stuck [FIG. 10].
Durieux’s first marriage to the painter Eugen Spiro (1874–1972) [FIG. 11, 12] lasted just short of two years. Soon after their divorce, Durieux fell in love with the visionary art dealer and publisher Paul Cassirer (1871–1926) [FIG. 13] , who she married in 1910. They enjoyed a luxurious life in a prestigious part of Berlin, with masterpieces such as Barlach's wooden sculpture Der Spaziergänger or Vincent van Gogh’s Arlesienne on the wall of their apartment at Margaretenstrasse 1 [FIGS. 14-17]. As renowned salon hosts, Durieux and Cassirer drew together artists, radicals and luminaries from across Europe.
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Tilla Durieux about her apartment at Margaretenstrasse 1, where she was living together with Paul Cassirer:
‘Karl Walser covered the large corner room with the round window wall with deep blue wallpaper, on the top of which he painted garlands of flowers holding musical instruments, for it was to be used as a music room. Old, high, dark mahogany chairs from Holland, a large round table on which stood Barlach’s sculpture The Singing Women, formed the furnishings with the Steinway grand piano. The dining room with light green walls was decorated with the most magnificent paintings of the Impressionists: The Horseman and the Horsewoman by Manet, The Red Woman and the Man with the Crooked Hat by Cézanne, the large painting Pier with Lighthouse by Manet, Two Children at the Piano by Renoir stood out magnificently against the light green. My room, with its large library that clothed the walls to half their height, contained, among other things, all the art books that P.C. [Paul Cassirer] needed for reference, and was covered above the bookshelves with a fiery blue wallpaper.’
In the mid-1920s, Durieux began a relationship with the industrialist and brewery-owner Ludwig Katzenellenbogen (1877–1944). When Durieux filed for divorce from Cassirer he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in January 1926. Durieux moved from Margaretenstrasse into a new apartment on Kaiserin-Augusta-Strasse. [FIG. 18].
In 1930 Katzenellenbogen became her third husband. [FIG. 19] Katzenellenbogen’s businesses were hit by the economic depression and later, as he was Jewish, the pair fled Germany soon after Hitler’s assumption of power in early 1933. Settling in Switzerland, Durieux supported their modest life there and accepted acting roles across Europe; she would live in exile from Germany for nearly the next two decades.
Katzenellenbogen, however, was unable to settle in Switzerland and his financial troubles led to an arrest warrant, so the couple left again for Yugoslavia in 1937. They lived in Zagreb, where Durieux joined the Yugoslav resistance, until the Nazi invasion in 1941. Not long afterward, Katzenellenbogen was arrested and taken to Germany where he was imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp before dying at Berlin's Jewish Hospital in 1944.
At the end of the war, Durieux’s theatrical career was in tatters. She stayed in Yugoslavia for a number of years, working as a seamstress for a puppet theatre in Zagreb. Later, she enjoyed a revival in her profile and profession, which saw her return to Germany and acting in 1951. Tilla Durieux died in Berlin in 1971.
A plaque commemorates her at Bleibtreustrasse 15, her last address in Berlin. [FIG. 20]
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Tilla Durieux about her apartment at Margaretenstrasse 1, where she was living together with Paul Cassirer:
‘Karl Walser covered the large corner room with the round window wall with deep blue wallpaper, on the top of which he painted garlands of flowers holding musical instruments, for it was to be used as a music room. Old, high, dark mahogany chairs from Holland, a large round table on which stood Barlach’s sculpture The Singing Women, formed the furnishings with the Steinway grand piano. The dining room with light green walls was decorated with the most magnificent paintings of the Impressionists: The Horseman and the Horsewoman by Manet, The Red Woman and the Man with the Crooked Hat by Cézanne, the large painting Pier with Lighthouse by Manet, Two Children at the Piano by Renoir stood out magnificently against the light green. My room, with its large library that clothed the walls to half their height, contained, among other things, all the art books that P.C. [Paul Cassirer] needed for reference, and was covered above the bookshelves with a fiery blue wallpaper.’
In the mid-1920s, Durieux began a relationship with the industrialist and brewery-owner Ludwig Katzenellenbogen (1877–1944). When Durieux filed for divorce from Cassirer he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in January 1926. Durieux moved from Margaretenstrasse into a new apartment on Kaiserin-Augusta-Strasse. [FIG. 18].
In 1930 Katzenellenbogen became her third husband. [FIG. 19] Katzenellenbogen’s businesses were hit by the economic depression and later, as he was Jewish, the pair fled Germany soon after Hitler’s assumption of power in early 1933. Settling in Switzerland, Durieux supported their modest life there and accepted acting roles across Europe; she would live in exile from Germany for nearly the next two decades.
Katzenellenbogen, however, was unable to settle in Switzerland and his financial troubles led to an arrest warrant, so the couple left again for Yugoslavia in 1937. They lived in Zagreb, where Durieux joined the Yugoslav resistance, until the Nazi invasion in 1941. Not long afterward, Katzenellenbogen was arrested and taken to Germany where he was imprisoned at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp before dying at Berlin's Jewish Hospital in 1944.
At the end of the war, Durieux’s theatrical career was in tatters. She stayed in Yugoslavia for a number of years, working as a seamstress for a puppet theatre in Zagreb. Later, she enjoyed a revival in her profile and profession, which saw her return to Germany and acting in 1951. Tilla Durieux died in Berlin in 1971.
A plaque commemorates her at Bleibtreustrasse 15, her last address in Berlin. [FIG. 20]
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Related addresses: Schöneberger Ufer 38 until May 1935 (Architect: Heinrich Schweitzer); Schöneberger Ufer 71
Budapester Strasse (1932) not identical with today’s Budapester Strasse; Lützowstrasse 32 I (October 1925–1930); Königin-Augusta-Strasse 22 (October 1930–1932) - in 1933 this street becomes Tirpitzufer 84 and in 1947 it was renamed to Reichpietschufer. Lützowufer 19a (November 1932–1937), since 1933: Galerie Nierendorf; Großadmiral-von-Koester-Ufer 65 (1935–1947), Schöneberger Ufer.
Potsdamer Strasse 134c (Mid-Oct 1918-Sept 1924); Schöneberger Ufer 38 (July 1927-1931); Großadmiral-von-Koester-Ufer 39 respectively (since 1936) Großadmiral-von-Koester-Ufer 73 (1935-1939);Kluckstrasse 12 (May 1939 –Dec 1949)
Employee and partner at the Galerie / Kunstsalon Paul Cassirer
Related addresses: Street partially still exists as Hitzigallee.
Related addresses: Koenigin-Augusta-Strasse 46, in 1933 becomes Tirpitzufer 84, in 1947 becomes Reichpietschufer. Her last address in Berlin before deportation to Theresienstadt Bleibtreustrasse 17.
ALL BUILDINGS ARE DESTROYED
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Henry van de Velde (1894-1943), designer of the interior of the reading room at the gallery Paul Cassirer, Victoria Strasse 35.
(Street and building are destroyed)
Related addresses: Reichskammer der Bildenden Künste, Government agency 1933-1945; Blumes Hof 4-6 (since June 1934; street and building are destroyed; today's postcode 10785), Derfflingerstrasse 7 (from October 1935 until March 1937), Ahornstrasse 2 (1938). Today's postcode 10785
