Karin Lesch

Karin Lesch

Karin Lesch in 1973
Born (1935-05-18) 18 May 1935
Zürich, Switzerland
Nationality Swiss-German
Occupation Actress
Years active 1953–1974
Spouse(s) Hans-Dieter Mäde

Karin Lesch (born 18 May 1935) is a Swiss-German stage, cinema, and television actress, of Swiss-Austrian extraction; who hails from a multi-generational family of accomplished German-speaking performers, of theatre and cinema.

Lesch was born in Zürich, the daughter of Swiss director, dramatist, and author Walter Lesch (1892–1958), and the Austrian actress Mathilde Danegger (1903–1988). In addition to both of her parents having professional careers in the German-speaking dramatic arts, Lesch comes from a family of Austrian entertainers of music, stage, and cinema. On her maternal side, her grandfather was the Austrian character-actor and director Josef Danegger, Snr, and her maternal grandmother, Bertha Müller,[1] was an Austrian actress of both stage and silent-film.[2] Her uncle Josef Danneger, Jnr, (1889–1948) was an Austrian actor of stage and cinema, whilst her uncle Theodor Danegger (1891–1959) was both an opera singer and recording artist, in addition to being an actor of stage and cinema, having performed in both musicals and operettas, as well as purely dramatic rôles.

Early life

Due to Swiss neutrality, Lesh grew up unscathed by the effects of World War II, and the havoc wreaked on her mother's native Austria after its annexation by the Third Reich. After the War, however, Lesch's life changed radically with the breakdown of her parents marriage. Her mother took Lesch from her father and her native Switzerland, when she was only twelve years old, to live first in West Germany in 1947, and then, because of her mother's political convictions,[3] to the newly formed (1949) communist East Germany in 1951, when Lesch was just sixteen.

Education and Career

A formally trained actress of both stage and cinema, as well as television, Lesch studied at the Staatlichen Schauspielschule, (i.e. the former State Drama School, East Berlin); after which she received a contract with the Potsdam Theatre. She often played in different fairy-tale films, such as her rôle as the miller's daughter ‘Marie’ in the fairy-tale adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin in the 1960 television production Das Zaubermännchen. [4]

To English speaking audiences, Lesch is perhaps best known for her cinema rôle as the Queen in the 1973 East-German – Czechoslovakian co-production :– Three Gifts for Cinderella (the title used for its UK début), or Three Nuts for Cinderella (the title used for its US début); but also known as :– Three Wishes for Cinderella [5] in various subsequent releases in the English-speaking world. (The original German title is :– Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel, and the original Czech title is :– Tři oříšky pro Popelku). The film is based on a Bohemian version of the fairy-tale Cinderella as written by the Czech National Revivalist writer Božena Němcová, with the storyline more closely related to the German version publish by the Brothers Grimm in 1812, versus the somewhat different version more widely known in English that is based on the earlier French version published by Charles Perrault in 1697; (hence the reason for the rôle of the Queen, a character not found in the Anglo-French version of the fairy-tale). The rôle having proved difficult to cast, once East German actor Rolf Hoppe had been given the part as the King, he suggested Karin Lesch, with whom he had enjoyed a professional relationship, having worked on stage with Lesch several times before. Although initially expected to screen-test, as all the other actresses who had vied for the part, the film's Producer Václav Vorlíček was so impressed, he gave Lesch the rôle after only a read-through.

Much like Dinner for One, the film has become a holiday classic being shown on television at Christmas-time every year in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, parts of Scandinavia — especially Norway — as well as elsewhere in Europe during the holiday season. The movie was shot in both German and Czech, with the cast members each speaking their lines in their own language, and with extensive post-filming work carried out so that two versions of the original were released, one with the Czech lines dubbed into German, and the other with the German lines dubbed into Czech, and employed what, at the time, was the newly developed technique of synchronisation to create a more visually realistic effect of speech emanating from the lips whenever the dialogue was being dubbed.

Both a gifted linguist, as well as a professional voice artist — in addition to her work as a dramatic actress — after shooting Three Gifts for Cinderella in German, her mother tongue, Lesch dubbed the same rôle she played for the production's Czech release. This made her one of only three of the fourteen cast members with speaking-parts, asked to provide their own voices for their respective rôles in both the German and Czechoslovakian versions; (although Czech actress Vlasta Fialová is credited as having provided the voice used in what became the official release of Tři oříšky pro Popelku).

At least two versions exist in English, viz :– One dubbed without lip-synchronisation, whilst another uses an omniscient narrator in voice-over, as the actors can still be faintly heard to give their original lines in their own languages.

Private Life

Lesch married East-German producer-director Hans-Dieter Mäde [6] (1930–2009), who later became the Director General of DEFA, i.e. Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft, the state-owned film studio in the former German Democratic Republic).

Lesch remained in the east through the turbulence leading up to the 1990 Reunification of Germany, and the period of adjustment in its aftermath; where she still continues to live in the Berlin / Brandenburg Metropolitan Region of eastern Germany.

Post-theatrical Career

Today Lesch leads a private life,[7] living quietly in a small town near Berlin, avoiding both public and media attention. On the 23rd of December 2013, however, she granted a very rare interview to the Tagblatt der Stadt Zürich [8] — a local paper from her hometown of Zürich — in commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of Drei Haselnüsse für Aschenbrödel, where she spoke about both the film, as well as memories of her childhood in Switzerland. Lesch also spoke of her only visit to Zürich, in 1991 — after the fall of the East Bloc, when she was free to travel — and the enjoyment she felt in revisiting old haunts from her childhood after an absence of some forty-four years.

Filmography

Film and television

Reference List

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