Viertel, Berthold#
b. Vienna, June 28, 1885, d. Vienna, Sept. 24, 1953, writer, dramaturge, director, essayist and translator. Personally knew K. Kraus and P. Altenberg, 1910/1911 was on the permanent staff of the "Fackel" magazine, 1912-1914 director and dramaturge at the Vienna "Freie Volksbuehne" theatre, 1914-1917 military service, then theatre critic and feuilletonist at the "Prager Tagblatt" newspaper (contact with F. Kafka and M. Brod). 1918 married the actress Salomea Steuermann, known as Salka Viertel (1889-1978). 1918-1923 director in Dresden and Berlin, 1923 founded the expressionist theatre "Die Truppe" in Berlin, 1925-1928 worked in theatre and film in Germany and 1928-1947 in the USA and Great Britain. 1947 returned to Europe, 1948 worked as director in Zurich and 1949-1953 in Vienna, Berlin, Zurich and at the Salzburg Festival: famous productions of plays by T. Williams' ("The Glass Menagerie", "A Streetcar named Desire ") in his own German translation at the Vienna Akademietheater.
Edition: Annotated edition in 4 vols., ed. by K. Kaiser, 1989ff.
Literature#
B. V. Zur 80. Wiederkehr seines Geburtstags, 1965; S. Viertel, Das unbelehrbare Herz, 1970; J. Mayerhoefer (ed.), B. V. Regisseur und Dichter (1885-1953), 1975; S. Bolbecher (ed.), Traum von der Realitaet - B. V., 1998.