Gertrud Eysoldt

Gertrud Franziska Gabriele Eysoldt (30 November 1870 – 6 January 1955) was a German film and stage actress of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. She was regarded as one of the leading German actresses of her era. The Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring, awarded annually for outstanding theatrical performances, is named in her honour.

Life and career

Eysoldt was born in Pirna as the daughter of the Reichstag deputy Arthur Eysoldt and his wife Bertha Wilhelmine Richter.

In 1903, Eysoldt garnered widespread praise for her mesmerising physical performances and her groundbreaking portrayal of some of the most controversial female characters in modern German theatre. One critic declared that as the title role in Hugo von Hofmannsthal's play , she "created a new type of acting art and also a new image of women on stage." Eysoldt caused a sensation in her role as Salome in Oscar Wilde's play of the same name. A critic stated she perfectly captured “the pathological persistence of a spoiled child . . . as well as the perverse, erotic, and vengeful lust of a scornful woman.” She also starred in Strindberg's Rausch, Ibsen’s A Doll’s House, and Gorky's The Lower Depths. In reviewing these roles, theater critic Marie Luise Becker wrote:

Film career Eysoldt appeared in more than fifteen films from 1923 to 1949, including:

The Lost Shoe (1923) I Had a Comrade (1924) The Transformation of Dr. Bessel (1927) The Lady with the Mask (1928) Hotel of Secrets (1929) Riding for Germany (1949)