Therese Giehse

Therese Giehse was born in Munich on March 6, 1898, the daughter of the Conservative Jewish merchant couple Gertrude and Salomon Gift. With her family she lived in a large apartment opposite the Orthodox synagogue Ohel Jakob (Jacob's tent).

In the shadow of her four siblings, Therese grew up very independent and free. She described herself as a "solitary" child, alone among adults, because her siblings, with the exception of the youngest, were all already adults. But thanks to this fact, Therese enjoyed an undisturbed development. A certain stubbornness, as well as reason, thoughtfulness and seriousness Therese later named as her, in the childhood pronounced characteristics.

Therese expressed early the desire to pursue acting. This, however, met her family very skeptical, as they considered her appearance insufficient and interjected that she did not correspond to the ideal of beauty at the time. But this did not stop Therese. From 1918 she trained as an actress in Munich.

In 1904 Therese Giehse was enrolled in the elementary school at St. Anna Platz in Munich's Lehel district, which was only a short walk from her parents' home. She was soon ostracized by her classmates, with whom she had initially gotten along well, because of her Jewish origins. Not only the children teased and insulted her, but also the Catholic religion teacher contributed with the statement that the Jews were to blame for Jesus' death, to a justification and legitimization for the behavior of her classmates.

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So Therese Giehse summed up, "I was fat and red-haired and had killed the Lord Jesus." and felt helpless, helpless and defenseless. Moreover, she didn't know who to talk to about it and developed a wariness and skepticism about people - she was even uncomfortable being observed. Nevertheless, Therese Giehse developed the desire to become an actress at an early age, which was natural for her.

In 1908, she transferred to the prestigious higher educational institute for girls, the Kerschensteiner School in Schwabing on Franz-Joseph-Strasse. She felt that her school years, which lasted until 1914, were important, because she knew about the necessity of a good education for her further life, but also boring, time-consuming and burdened by being an outsider. So she wanted to finish school as quickly as possible and in 1914, with her school-leaving certificate in her pocket, she finally felt free.

After Therese Giehse was recommended to the Munich Kammerspiele, she played mainly older, harsh and unsympathetic roles there from 1925 to 1933. Under director and theater director Otto Falckenberg, she received a permanent engagement at the Munich Kammerspiele at the age of 27. She could be seen in political plays, but also in carnival skits. With her performances she earned respect, much praise and success. During this time she got to know the Mann family. She developed a close friendship especially with Klaus Mann and Erika Mann. Together they founded the cabaret "the Peppermill" in 1933.
After her time in exile, she quickly returned to her homeland and also played there again at the Kammerspiele from 1949. Since 2020/21, the former "Kammer 2" in the Neues Haus is called Therese-Giehse-Halle in her honor. This expresses how important the actress was and still is for the Munich Kammerspiele.

In March 1927, Therese Giehse first met Erika Mann in Munich, however it was not until a year later, after Erika's return from America, that the two entered into an actual relationship. Although Therese acted as an acting role model for Erika, the two women admired each other equally. 

Through Erika, Therese met her younger brother Klaus Mann, who also showed great admiration for Therese's acting skills and, like Erika, befriended her.

In January 1933, the Mann siblings, together with Therese and Magnus Henning, founded the cabaret "Die Pfeffermühle." The reason for Therese's participation was, on the one hand, the combination of politics and theater in the performances and, on the other hand, her love affair with Erika, whom she wanted to support by joining.

Klaus Mann referred to Erika and Therese as "the double soul of the Pfeffermühle," and, although he supported the relationship, he nevertheless regarded it with concern, feeling excluded at times by their close intimacy.

Just three months later, Therese and Erika were forced by the growing danger of the Nazis to flee to Switzerland, where they lodged together with Erika's parents, Thomas and Katia Mann. Thomas and Katia had already met Therese by this time, and Thomas Mann in particular, who was otherwise very reserved with his praise, was enthusiastic about Therese and her performances.

In Switzerland, the Mann siblings and Therese decided to revive the joint Pfeffermühle project and go on tour. Their tour also took the cabaret to the United States, where Therese and Erika became increasingly estranged. While Therese found no pleasure in the US language and culture, Erika developed a love for the country.

This conflict and Therese's growing jealousy eventually led to the breakup of the relationship in 1937. Therese returned to Europe alone in February 1937, choosing the theater over her relationship with Erika.
Despite everything, she kept a lifelong friendship with the entire Mann family.

After the Pfeffermühle was disbanded in 1937, Therese was drawn back to Zurich, where she became a permanent ensemble member at the Schauspielhaus Zurich. She played the title role in the Brecht premiere of "Mother Courage and Her Children" in the spring of 1941. Several other Brecht roles followed, and she developed into the leading Brecht interpreter alongside Helene Weigel, setting a standard for future casts. At this time, she also starred in her first film, "Menschen, die vorüberziehen," directed by Max Haufler.

Therese followed Brecht to his Berlin ensemble in 1949. Thus, the permanent position at the Schauspielhaus Zurich ended that year.

As a guest, however, she repeatedly returned to Zurich and enjoyed great success in world premieres of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's comedies, for example as Claire Zachanassian in "Besuch der alten Dame" (1956) and as Mathilde von Zahnd in "Die Physiker" (1962). The latter, the role as a mad-doctor, belongs to Therese's brilliant performances. More roles followed until she finally left the Schauspielhaus Zurich in 1966.

The cabaret began in Zurich with the political cabaret "Die Pfeffermühle (1933 to 1936) by Erika and Klaus Mann and Therese. 

Soon after her return to Munich, Therese became acquainted with Thomas Mann, and a close friendship developed with his children Erika and Klaus. On January 1, 1933, the three founded the literary, political cabaret "Die Pfeffermühle", which premiered in Munich. The name came from Thomas Mann. They turned against the National Socialists with satire. Time and again it was Therese who played particularly explosive numbers, who did not mince words and who was not deterred even by massive verbal and physical attacks.

Therese left Germany in 1933 and fled to Switzerland via Austria. "Die Pferffermühle" subsequently gave the inn "Zum Hirschen" in Zurich, where Therese fled, a full house for months. The second exile program was launched at the beginning of 1934 with clearer references, but without explicit naming of names, to the Third Reich.

The Pfeffermühle circumvented the ban on performing in Switzerland by touring unoccupied, non-fascist Europe. It was their contribution to maintain and support the resistance against the National Socialists and against fascism by openly taking a stand against it. Acclaimed guest performances followed in Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Czechoslovakia. The program met with little response in the USA. Less successful was the attempt to gain a foothold in the U.S. as "The Peppermill," since most of the protagonists spoke only broken English and the U.S. had no tradition for cabaret of this kind.

After the Peppermill had its 1000th performance in Amsterdam in the spring of 1936, the troupe moved to England the following month. At the suggestion of W. H. Auden, an English-American poet, Therese married the gay writer John Hampson. Auden had previously also entered into a marriage of convenience with Erika Mann. Now Therese took this step to obtain a British passport, and to escape Nazi persecution. Hampson and Auden were part of the Birmingham Group, a group of left-leaning writers who lived in and around Birmingham.

After the Second World War Therese played on the major stages in the German-speaking world. From 1948 Therese played on the stage of the Munich Kammerspiele as well as on the stage of the Berlin Ensemble (1949-1952). Here she worked very closely with Bertolt Brecht, among others. The Berliner Ensemble represented one of the most famous stages in the German capital. It became famous for performances of the works of its founder Bertolt Brecht and is still considered one of the leading German-language stages.

As a temporary member of the Berlin Ensemble, Therese was a sought-after interpreter of Brecht's works after the war. Thus, her recitation evening "A Bertolt Brecht Evening with Therese Giehse" appeared on several records in both the FRG and the GDR. Ein Bertolt Brecht Abend mit Therese Giehse is a literary record series, the first episode of which was released in 1967 and continued with one more episode each of the following three years. On the records, the performer can be heard with a diverse selection of Bertolt Brecht's texts compiled by her, which she performs both spoken and sung.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Friedrich Dürrenmatt's great female roles in his plays ,,The Visit of the Old Lady" and ,,The Physicists"  made Therese famous. Until 1971 she gave three Brecht evenings, with which she went on tour through the Federal Republic three years later, reading and singing his texts. On the theater stage, however, Therese was seen less and less in her last years. In the 1970s, she managed to expand her fame. In the early evening series ,,Münchner Geschichten" (Munich Stories), which was broadcast for the first time in the fall of 1974 and was set in the then new Munich residential area of Perlach, Therese impersonated grandma Anna Häusler. Later, the street she had seen from her window as the series' grandma was named after her. She was active and committed to the end, always open to new ideas. Therese died in 1975 three days before her 77th birthday in Munich due to kidney failure after an eye operation. She was then buried at her own request in the Fluntern Cemetery in Zurich. After her death, Therese received the portrait on a stamp of the definitive stamp series "Women of German History" in 1988. Nowadays, many streets and schools are named after her.