Steffie Spira(Steffie Spira-Ruschin, Steffanie Spira-Ruschin, Stefanie Spira)
Steffie Spira(Steffie Spira-Ruschin, Steffanie Spira-Ruschin, Stefanie Spira)
Im März 1933 in Zürich ankommen, die Bahnhofstraße bis zum Zürich-See hinuntergehen, eine Telefonzelle betreten und bei Carl und Grete anrufen, sagen: „Ich bin hier“, und als Antwort hören: „Komm, wie erwarten dich!“ – nur wer in der tiefsten Ungewißheit gelebt hat, wer das Leben nicht mehr allein, sondern bloß mit Hilfe anderer Menschen bestehen konnte, weiß, was Freundschaft bedeutet. Für immer seien Hubachers bedankt.
[Arrival in Zurich in March 1933, walking down Bahnhofstrasse to Lake Zurich, entering a phone box and calling Carl and Grete to say: "I'm here," and to hear in response: "Come, we're waiting for you!" - only those who have lived in the deepest uncertainty, who could no longer survive alone, only with the help of other people, know the meaning of friendship. Eternal thanks to the Hubachers. (ed. trans.)]
Steffie Spira, Trab der Schaukelpferde. Aufzeichnungen im nachhinein (1984)
| Born | on 2 June 1908, in Vienna, Austria-Hungary |
|---|---|
| Died | on 10 May 1995 in Berlin, Germany |
| Exile | Switzerland, France, Mexico |
| Remigration | German Democratic Republic |
| Profession | Actress, Theater director |
Steffie Spira came from a German-Austrian theatre family. Her father was the actor Fritz Jacob Spira, her mother Lotte Spira-Andresen, stage and film actor. She spent her childhood from 1911 in Berlin. Like her sister Camilla, she trained as an actor. After engagements at the Volksbühne, the Hebbel and the Thália theatres, she joined the Communist theatre company Truppe 1931. In March 1933, she fled to Zürich. In the summer of 1933, she crossed the Swiss border to France on foot with her husband, the actor Günter Ruschin. In Paris, she performed from 1934 to 1938 with the Die Laterne ensemble which she co-founded.
From October 1939 to 1941 she was interned in a detention camp for women in Rieucros. In February 1941 she was allowed to travel to Marseille to prepare her departure from France. With her husband and child, she went into exile in Mexico in August 1941 via Spain and Portugal. In Mexico she first took up a job as a nanny to support the family financially. From 1943 she worked as an actor and director in the theatre of the Heinrich-Heine-Klub.
In the summer of 1947 she returned to Germany. She taught drama in the GDR, performed e.g. at Fritz Wistens Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, later at the Volksbühne, in film and on television. Steffie Spira's courageous speech at the Berlin demonstration of 4 November 1989, in which she urged the East German Government to resign, became famous.
Further reading:
Spira, Steffie: Trab der Schaukelpferde. Autobiographie. Freiburg: Kore 1991
So wie es ist, bleibt es nicht. Die Geschichte von Camilla und Steffie Spira, Dokumentarfilm (1991)
Styn, Gabi: Auf dem weißen Rößl zum Alexanderplatz. Camilla Spira und ihre Schwester Steffie. In: Flucht durch Europa. Schauspielerinnen im Exil 1933-1945. Augenblick. Marburger Hefte zur Medienwissenschaft. Heft 33, Marburg 2002. S. 108 – 130.
Major theatre roles in:
Mann ist Mann (Comedy by Bertolt Brecht, Berlin 1928)
Des Haares und der Liebe Wellen (Film by Walter Ruttmann, Berlin 1929)
Die Mausefalle (Play by Gustav von Wangenheim, Berlin 1931/32)
Die Gewehre der Frau Carrar (Play by Brecht, Paris 1937)
Furcht und Elend des III. Reiches (Play by Brecht, Berlin 1938)
Wozzek (Play by Georg Büchner, Mexico 1944)
Turandot (Carlo Gozzi/Friedrich Schiller, Berlin 1955)
Jeanne oder Die Lerche (Jean Anouilh, Berlin 1966)
Frauen (one-woman show, Volksbühne Berlin, 1979)
Gallery
