Maria Fein

Maria Arloisia Fein (7 April 1892 – 5 September 1965) was an Austrian actress who became a star of German theatre and film before the rise of the Nazis forced her departure. During her time in Germany she was largely associated with the theatrical producer/director Max Reinhardt and acted in plays by such writers as Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Aeschylus, and Ferdinand Bruckner.

Between 1916 and 1932 Fein appeared in at least twenty-three German films working with pioneer movie directors Robert Wiene, Uwe Jens Krafft, Hanna Henning, Rochus Gliese, Walter Schmidthässler, Frederic Zelnik, Albert Lastmann, Paul Leni, Rudolf Walther-Fein, Michael Curtiz, Rudolf Meinert, and Fritz Friedmann-Frederich.

Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Fein fled to the Netherlands and in 1941 found refuge for the duration of the war in Switzerland. Fein remained active on stage over the balance of her life in her adopted Switzerland and abroad until shortly before her death.

Early life and family Fein was born in Vienna to a Jewish family that reportedly at some point converted to Catholicism. She was the daughter of Fanny Süssermann and Otto Fein, editor of the Neue Freie Presse, and the older sister of Franz Fein, an author and translator of American novels.

Maria Fein married the German actor Theodor Becker with whom she had two daughters, Thea and actress Maria Becker (1920-2012). Fein’s marriage to Becker ended in divorce in the mid-1930s after a long separation.

Fein studied at the Academy for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna from 1909 to 1911 and made her professional debut at the National Theatre Mannheim, where she rose to play the title role in Hebbel's tragedy, Judith.

Fein joined the Vereinigte Bühnen, Breslau for the 1921–1922 season and, between 1924 and 1926, performed at the Theater in der Josefstadt, Vienna, where in 1924 she played Lady Milford in Schiller's Kabale und Liebe. At the Deutsches she was Kudelka in the world premiere of Bruckner's Die Straf, staged by Heinz Hilpert. After her expulsion from the Ministry of Arts in 1935, Fein left for Vienna, where she performed at various theatres including the Burgtheater and Urania. At the latter venue appeared as Jocasta in Jean Cocteau's The Infernal Machine.

Later career After Nazi annexation of Austria, Fein appeared on stage in the Netherlands, France and Switzerland. Under the direction of Leopold Lindtberg, Fein appeared at the Schauspielhaus Zürich as Anisja in Leon Tolstoy's The Power of Darkness. Fein later returned to France, where she was detained until Maria Becker, by then a resident of Zurich, was able to secure her safe passage to Switzerland. Over the remainder of the war years Fein was active in Zurich giving evening recitations. The following year she was engaged to play Miriam in Christopher Fry's The First Born, but was replaced by Mildred Natwick a month before its 30 April debut on Broadway. Fein remained in the United States for several years giving one-woman shows called An Evening of European Theatre in which she performed scenes taken from plays by noted European playwrights.

Final years By 1961 Fein had returned to Switzerland, where at Basel she played the title role in Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. In 1964 Fein told of her experiences in Berlin theaters prior to 1933 in a twelve episode documentary presented by the German network Norddeutscher Rundfunk.

Selected filmography The Man in the Mirror (1917) Life Is a Dream (1917) Maria Pavlowna (1919) The Conspiracy in Genoa (1921) The Little Duke (1924) Das Spielzeug von Paris (1925) The Convicted (1927) Frederica (1932)

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