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| Margarete
Schlegel
1899 - 1987 |
.
. The actress Margarete Schlegel was born as Margarete Winiewski in Bromberg Prussia and was one of the last children of the 19th century with her birthday on December 31, 1899 near to midnight. When the family moved to Berlin in 1904 they changed their name to Schlegel. Margarete Schlegel was trained as a singer and actress in Vienna by the famous director Max Reinhardt. When she decided to enter the film business instead following a theater career, one of her first movies was under the direction of the legendary director F. W. Murnau in the movie "Sehnsucht" (20) and she took part in the box-office hit "Der Januskopf" (20) at Bela Lugosi's side, who became world-famous in later years as Dracula. She became a popular actress in the following years who appeared in successful movies like "Kean" (21), "Hanneles Himmelfahrt" (22), "Sodoms Ende" (22), "Das alte Gesetz" (23), "Der Abenteurer" (25) and "Die Vorbestraften" (27) unterhielt. She also appeared in the 30's in successful productions, among them "Berlin - Alexanderplatz" (31) with the magnificent actor Heinrich George. Margarete Schlegel got married Prof. Hermann Joachim Levy, an economist at Berlin and Heidelberg Universities, in 1924. She already met her future husband in 1917 when she asked him at a news stand for directions to the Wintergarten. She left Germany together with her family in 1935 and went to London where her husband was appointed Professor of Economic Research at London University. Margarete Schlegel was offered the chance to go to Hollywood but preferred to stay in Europe. During the war, she made anti-Nazi radio broadcasts in German, and afterwards made many broadcasts for the BBC in radio operettas. Her English accent was never good enough for her to be able to appear in television dramas when broadcasts began in the 1950's. When her husband died in 1949 she subsequently remarried, and moved
to the English south coast, where she spent the rest of her life. A Roman
Catholic, she always took an interest in local church charities.
Other movies with Margarete Schlegel:
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A special thanks goes to Margarete Schlegel's grandson
Austin Prichard-Levy for his support.
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