Ernst Josef Aufricht(1898-1971)
- Actor
Ernst Josef Aufricht was the son of a wealthy merchant and against his father's will he chose an acting career. At 20 years old he moved to Dresden from Gleiwitz, where his family were then living. He joined an acting ensemble at the Dresdener Stadtstheater (Municipal theatre). While there he acted in "Baccarat", his one and only movie. At 25 years he moved to Berlin and after a stint with "Die Truppe" in which he acted in a string of plays, he left the acting profession and became a theatre producer. Aufricht borrowed 100,000 Marks from his father and rented the Theater am Schiffbauerdam (now the Berliner Ensamble). He met Bertolt Brecht in a Berlin cafe and acquired a play based on Gay's "Beggars Opera". Brecht took much credit for the adaptation, but it was Elisabeth Hauptmann, who was the primary translator and adaptor. Kurt Weil added music (including the popular hit "Mack the Knife". The newly named "Dreigroschenoper" (Threepenny Opera) premiered on 31 August 1928. This was a major success, and Aufricht went on to produce a number of other plays/musicals until his escape from Nazi Germany in 1933 to France (Aufricht was Jewish and also considered too left wing for the authorities). Aufricht sat the war out in the USA but returned later to Cannes where he passed away in 1971.