born on December 29, 1890 in Neumarkt, the German Empire
died on December 25, 1957 in Vienna, Austria
German stage and film actress
135th birthday on December 29, 2025
Biography
She began her career at the age of 15 as a little elf in Hauptmann's Versunkene Glocke (The Sunken Bell) at the Nuremberg City Theater; she appeared on stage for the last time about ten weeks before her death in Berlin, playing Elisabeth alongside Paula Wessely as Maria.
She is considered one of the last great tragediennes of German-language theater even though she experienced her first stage successes as an operetta soubrette at the State Theater in Mainz. Motivated but inadequately trained after having attended a music school, she had decided that she needed to sing first in a small restaurant for practice before the audition. Then, due to nervousness and short-sightedness, she had gone to Christ Church instead by mistake. After she finally arrived at the theater for her audition, she impressed the director more with a little song about kissing than with arias from Die Fledermaus.
Her meager wages did not allow her to buy the clothes she needed for performing, and after only a year she was thus to be dismissed: “She has nothing to wear.” However, the wife of the head of the cultural department rebuked the theater director, pointing to other qualities: “How can you let the little girl go! She's like champagne!” For these and, of course, more professional reasons, Dorsch became a favorite with audiences in Mainz. A relationship with a colleague from the nearby Darmstadt Theater ended because he found his fiancée's charming onstage flirtations altogether too convincing; a photograph of one romantic scene displayed in the theater’s glass showcase adversely affected his love for her.
Dorsch's next career step also almost failed due to the clothing issue. She was so ashamed to appear at a negotiation luncheon for a contract with the New Operetta Theater in Berlin in the only dress she owned that she canceled by telephone. However, she was sent the contract by telegram.
Her salary was once again low, so she tried to earn extra money in Berlin by appearing in films. On her way to an interview, after the overcrowded tram had passed her, a car suddenly stopped beside her and the great silent film star Harry Liedtke offered her a ride to Tempelhof. He ensured that she received particularly careful attention from the assistant directors, watched “the natural born actress” perform on stage a few evenings later, and decided that she was too good for the world of operetta. He encouraged her, worked with her, and married her. She thus switched to character roles; as a former soubrette, she initially struggled to gain her colleagues’ respect.
Dorsch said that her true reward came when she was addressed as “colleague” by Adele Sandrock, who had avoided her for a long time, not least because she also liked her handsome film partner Harry so very much. His amorous affairs led to divorce after eight years of marriage – but not to an emotional separation. Dorsch continued to work with Harry; at the request of Harry’s new wife, she later even lived next door to the couple.
She played almost all the major roles in her field in Berlin and also captivated Vienna with her performances at the Burgtheater. Hermann Göring had fallen in love with her during the First World War and would have liked to “have a fist fight” with Harry for her. Although she graciously and firmly rejected his advances, he continued to admire her – this benefited many who were persecuted after Hitler came to power as she was able to intervene on their behalf. “In exile, people spoke admiringly of Käthe Dorsch, who stood up for those in danger in Berlin and tried to help those who had been arrested.” She continued her efforts even after the war ended, helping Dutch refugees who were making their way home from Hungarian prison camps via Austria. Dorsch lived on Lake Attersee at the time, and she housed and took care of them. “She gave everything, everything,” they later reported when they arrived back home. In 1946, Dorsch received the Louise Dumont Topas – a lifetime achievement award equivalent to the Iffland Ring – for outstanding acting.
(Text from 2006; translated with DeepL.com; edited by Ramona Fararo, 2025.
Please consult the German version for additional information, pictures, sources, videos, and bibliography.)
If you hold the rights to one or more of the images on this page and object to its/their appearance here, please contact Fembio.
