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Grethe Weiser
Grethe Weiser
Grethe Weiser
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Weise on stage at the Berlin Wintergarten theatre, 1932
Signature Grethe Weiser
Signature Grethe Weiser

Grethe Weiser (German: [ˈɡʁeːtə ˈvaɪzɐ] ⓘ; 27 February 1903 – 2 October 1970) was a German actress.

Biography

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Grave of Grethe Weiser and her husband Dr Hermann Schwerin in Berlin in 2006

Born in Hanover, she spent her childhood in Dresden. She escaped from her dominant and sometimes violent father by marrying a Jewish confectionery manufacturer in 1920. Her only child, a son, was born in 1922. Quite quickly she established herself in the cabaret scene in Berlin, especially after her husband became a leaseholder of a nightclub on the Kurfürstendamm. Her film debut came soon after in 1927.

Weiser had a lifelong relationship with Hermann Schwerin, a UFA film producer, which began in 1934, but the couple were not married until 1958. Her previous marriage had been dissolved in 1934. Weiser avoided becoming a member of the Nazi Party. She managed to finance and arrange for her previous husband and her son to survive the Nazi years in Switzerland, as well as at the same time continue her career in Germany.

She died after a road traffic accident, aged 67, in Untersteinbach near Bad Tölz in Bavaria and is buried in an honorary grave at the Heerstraße Cemetery in Berlin.

Selected filmography

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Further reading

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Grethe Weiser

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''Grethe Weiser'' is a German actress and comedian known for her sharp-witted, quick-tongued performances in supporting roles across more than 140 films, often portraying maids, cooks, and other household staff with her distinctive sassy Berliner persona and verbal eloquence. Born Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe Nowka on 27 February 1903 in Hanover, Germany, she grew up in Dresden and began her career in cabaret and stage after moving to Berlin in the 1920s following personal and financial challenges. She made her film debut in the late 1920s and rose to prominence in the 1930s with successes in comedies such as ''Die Göttliche Jette'' and ''Mädchen für Alles'', establishing herself as a popular character actress who excelled in humorous, outspoken parts. Despite the challenges of the Nazi era, Weiser refused to join the NSDAP and managed to protect her Jewish former husband and son while continuing her work in over thirty films during the war years. After World War II, she became a leading representative of the archetypal big-hearted, no-nonsense Berlin woman in the films of the ''Wirtschaftswunder'' period, earning acclaim for her stage work as well, including major successes in plays such as ''Das Kuckucksei'' and ''Der Biberpelz''. Weiser received the Medal of Honour of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1968 and was honored posthumously with an Inter-City Express train named after her and a commemorative postage stamp in the "Women in German History" series. She died on 2 October 1970 in Bad Tölz, Germany, in a car accident alongside her second husband Hermann Schwerin, and is buried in an honorary grave in Berlin's Heerstraße Cemetery.

Early life

Family background and childhood

Grethe Weiser was born Mathilde Ella Dorothea Margarethe Nowka on 27 February 1903 in Hanover, Germany, into a well-to-do entrepreneurial family. Her parents were successful business owners, providing a comfortable upbringing initially centered in Hanover. The family later relocated to Dresden, where she spent much of her childhood and youth in areas including Klotzsche. She attended the Höhere Töchterschule, a private secondary school for girls in Dresden, receiving an education typical for young women of her social class at the time. Her father was a dominant figure in the household, exerting strong control that shaped her early experiences and decisions. This family dynamic fostered a deep desire to escape parental authority during her teenage years.

First marriage and move to Berlin

Grethe Weiser married Josef Weiser, a Jewish-Austrian confectionery and sugar producer, in 1921 at the age of 18 after engaging in a hunger strike to secure her parents' consent to the union. The couple's son, Günther, was born in 1922, and they initially resided in Dresden where Josef's wealth allowed for a comfortable life. During the economic depression, Josef lost his fortune, prompting the family's relocation to Berlin in search of new opportunities. There, he assumed management of the Cabaret Charlott, which afforded Grethe her initial chances to perform on stage. The marriage deteriorated and was officially dissolved in 1934.

Cabaret and stage career

Berlin cabaret beginnings

Grethe Weiser established herself in the Berlin cabaret scene during the 1920s after moving to the city with her husband Josef Weiser, who had lost his fortune in the economic crisis and subsequently became the leaseholder of Cabaret Charlott, a nightclub on the Kurfürstendamm. She rehearsed at Cabaret Charlott and soon began performing, making her first appearances at the renowned Wintergarten variety theater and the Cabaret der Komiker. As a couplet and chanson singer, Weiser built a reputation with successful numbers including "Der Vamp" and "Emils Hände," which highlighted her ability to deliver pointed, humorous lyrics. Her performances cultivated the persona of the sharp-tongued, quick-witted Berlinerin—sassy and outspoken, with a big heart and even bigger mouth, always ready with direct commentary that earned strong audience approval. In 1927, she made her film debut in a small role as a maid in Männer vor der Ehe. This marked her initial transition from cabaret to screen work, though her primary focus remained on stage and singing during this period.

Post-war stage performances

After World War II, Grethe Weiser resumed her stage career in 1948 through a notable collaboration with Ida Ehre, the proprietor of Hamburg's Studio Theatre Kammerspiele, who cast her in the leading role in the play Das Kuckucksei (The Cuckoo’s Egg). The premiere earned Weiser tremendous ovations, and the production achieved considerable success on tour. Her ongoing work with Ehre included a performance as Mother Wolffen in Gerhart Hauptmann’s Der Biberpelz (The Beaver Coat), a role that further strengthened their professional relationship and developed into a close personal friendship. Weiser reflected on the production, noting it as the first time she had acted in a play without improvising any lines. In 1960, Weiser appeared on stage in Hamburg and in Berlin at the Komödie am Hebbel and the Renaissance Theater. These theater engagements formed part of her post-war resurgence on stage, which continued parallel to her active film work during the Wirtschaftswunder period.

Film career

Early films and breakthrough (1927–1939)

Grethe Weiser made her film debut in 1927 with a role in the silent film Männer vor der Ehe. She quickly became typecast in supporting roles, most often portraying maids, cooks, or other household staff characterized by their sharp-tongued Berliner wit and quick repartee. These comedic character parts in the early sound film era of the late 1920s and early 1930s helped establish her as a reliable presence in light entertainment and comedy productions within the German film industry. Throughout the 1930s, Weiser appeared regularly in supporting roles in a growing number of features, often bringing humor and liveliness to domestic or service-oriented characters. Her breakthrough arrived in 1937 when she took on the title role in Die göttliche Jette, portraying a self-confident Berlin singer with a distinctive "Kodderschnauze" who rises to fame in the cabaret world. The film marked a significant step up, showcasing her singing ability and comic timing in a leading capacity. That same year, she starred in another lead role in Mädchen für Alles, further cementing her versatility in comedic leads. Weiser also had notable parts in films such as Hilde und die vier PS (1936), where she appeared in a prominent supporting role, and Frau am Steuer (1939), in which she played a determined woman navigating professional challenges. By the end of the 1930s, she had built a substantial body of work in German cinema, contributing to dozens of films during this pre-war period and laying the foundation for her long career as a beloved character actress.

Wartime and Nazi-era films (1940–1945)

During World War II and under the Nazi regime, Grethe Weiser continued her active film career, appearing in numerous productions between 1940 and 1945, often in supporting roles as mothers, aunts, or maids. Her work reflected the typecasting common for character actresses of the era, contributing to a range of comedies, musicals, and dramas produced during the wartime years. Among her notable roles were appearances in Helmut Käutner's musical comedy Wir machen Musik (1942), where she performed alongside Ilse Werner and Viktor de Kowa. She also featured in Rolf Hansen's Die große Liebe (1942), a prominent wartime drama starring Zarah Leander, in which Weiser played a supporting character. In 1944, she appeared in Carl Froelich's family chronicle Familie Buchholz, portraying the cook Jette. Beyond her screen roles, Weiser participated in wartime troop entertainment, being dispatched in 1942 for Truppenbetreuung (troop care) on a Wehrmacht tour.

Post-war and Wirtschaftswunder-era films (1946–1970)

Following the end of World War II and the lifting of a temporary performance ban after her denazification proceedings, Grethe Weiser resumed her film career. She rapidly became one of the most prolific supporting actresses in West German cinema during the Wirtschaftswunder era of the 1950s, appearing in a large number of light entertainment films, operetta adaptations, revue films, comedies, and Heimat- or Schlagerfilme. Her sharp-tongued, quick-witted, and warm-hearted portrayals, delivered in an unmistakable Berlin manner of speaking, made her a popular audience favorite and led to frequent typecasting in such roles. Weiser often embodied the archetypal big-hearted yet sharp-mouthed Berlin woman, typically playing mothers, aunts, landladies, widows, or cheeky neighbors whose blunt humor and streetwise charm provided comic relief and grounding in otherwise escapist productions. Representative titles from this prolific period include Fanfaren der Liebe (1951), where she appeared as Lydia in Kurt Hoffmann's comedy about two unemployed musicians disguising themselves as women to join an all-female band—a film that served as the direct inspiration for Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot (1959) and proved a major popular success amid post-war desires for light-hearted distraction. Other key works were Der Onkel aus Amerika (1953), Die Sieben Kleider der Katrin (1954), Casino de Paris (1957), and Lemke's Widow (Witwe Lemke, 1957). By the 1960s, offers for feature films diminished, and Weiser increasingly turned to television. One later credit included the TV production Keine Leiche ohne Lily (1967). Across her entire career, she accumulated 169 acting credits, with a significant concentration in the post-war and Wirtschaftswunder-era films.

Personal life

Marriages, family, and relationships

Grethe Weiser was first married to Josef Weiser, an entrepreneur from Vienna, in Dresden in 1921 at the age of 18. Their son, Rolf Günther Weiser, was born in Dresden in 1922. The marriage was dissolved by divorce in 1935. Following the end of her first marriage, Weiser began a lifelong relationship with the film producer and lawyer Hermann Schwerin in 1934. The couple married in Berlin in 1958. Schwerin had a son from a previous relationship, Frank Schwerin, who became Weiser's stepson. Weiser's only biological child remained her son Rolf Günther Weiser, who later resided in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Conduct during the Nazi period

Grethe Weiser's ex-husband Josef Weiser was Jewish, and her son was considered half-Jewish under Nazi racial laws. She continued her acting career throughout the Nazi period, appearing in over thirty films. Records indicate she was a member of the NSDAP from May 1933 (membership number 2,908,256), though this was later invalidated, likely due to her ex-husband's Jewish background. Post-war, she stated it had been temporary to protect her son from removal. She sent her son to boarding school in England, while her ex-husband fled to the Netherlands. She largely distanced herself from tendentious Nazi propaganda films.

Death

Circumstances and burial

Grethe Weiser died on 2 October 1970 at the age of 67 as a result of a road traffic accident near Bad Tölz in Bavaria. Her husband, Dr. Hermann Schwerin, who was driving the Citroën in which they were traveling, also died in the collision. The accident took place at the junction of Bundesstraße 11 and Bundesstraße 472 between Untersteinbach and Bad Heilbrunn, where a heavily loaded sand truck struck the Citroën broadside after the car entered the road without yielding right of way. Schwerin and two other passengers died instantly at the scene, while Weiser, seated in the rear, was extricated alive but succumbed to her injuries shortly afterward in the Tölzer Versorgungskrankenhaus in Bad Tölz. Weiser was buried in an honorary grave (Ehrengrab) at the Friedhof Heerstraße in Berlin-Westend, together with her husband Hermann Schwerin in grave field 18-L-228. The grave has been maintained as an Ehrengrab by the State of Berlin since 1978.

Legacy

Honors and posthumous recognition

In 1968, Grethe Weiser was awarded the Verdienstkreuz (Cross of Merit) by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany in recognition of her contributions to German film and theater. Posthumously, she was commemorated with a 100-Pfennig postage stamp issued by Deutsche Post in 2000 as part of the "Women in German History" series. An Inter-City Express train on the Frankfurt–Hanover route has also been named after her.

Cultural impact

Grethe Weiser remains an enduring symbol of the quintessential Berlinerin in German popular culture, embodying the archetype of a big-hearted yet sassy woman with a sharp tongue and unyielding spirit, who refuses to be fooled or victimized. Her performances were defined by exceptional verbal eloquence and "schnoddrig-freche Schlagfertigkeit"—a cheeky, quick-witted repartee that routinely drew thunderous applause and captured the essence of Berliner humor known as "Herz mit Schnauze." As a beloved supporting actress, she frequently elevated mediocre scripts through her mere presence, prompting critics to observe that "Das Stück ist nichts, doch die Weiser ist alles." Following her death, the prominent theater critic Friedrich Luft paid tribute to her lasting impact, writing: "Diese kleine, zähe Person hat kein Denkmal nötig – Das steht," suggesting that her vivid persona and popular affection already constituted a living monument within German cultural memory. Affectionately dubbed the "Quasselstrippe der Nation" and "zärtliche Kodderschnauze," she personified a warm, irreverent Berlin wit that continued to resonate in collective recollection, marking her as one of the most recognizable comic figures in post-war German cinema. Her legacy lies in this archetypal portrayal, which transcended individual roles to become a cultural touchstone for resilience, humor, and verbal dexterity.
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