Liane Haid

Prima ballerina, dancer, singer and actress Liane Haid (1895-2000) was the first film star of Austria. She was the epitome of the Süßes Wiener Mädel (Sweet Viennese Girl), and from the mid 1910’s on she made close to a hundred films.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, nr. 5034/1. Photo: Manassé, Wien (Vienna).

Propaganda Film
As a child, Liane Haid studied voice and dancing and played at the Viennese Opern Ballet. Later she worked in Budapest and Vienna as a dancer and in Berlin and Vienna as a stage actress. She had already become a popular opera and operetta singer and dancer before she made her first film appearance. Her debut was a propaganda film made during the First World War, Mit Herz und Hand fürs Vaterland/With Heart and Hand for the Fatherland (1915, Jacob Fleck, Luise Fleck). After the war Haid's first husband, Baron Fritz von Haymerle, built her her own studio in Vienna and gave her her own film company. Most of her films were directed by the husband and wife team Jacob and Luise Fleck.


Dutch postcard by City-Film. Printed by Fotodruk Smeets & Schippers, Amsterdam.

Popular Pin-up
In the early 1920’s Liane Haid moved to Berlin and had her breakthrough opposite Conrad Veidt in Lady Hamilton (1921, Richard Oswald). She became a popular pin-up and appeared again opposite Conrad Veidt in Lucrezia Borgia/Lucretia Borgia (1922, Richard Oswald) and Die Brüder Schellenberg/The Brothers Schellenberg (1926, Karl Grune). Also popular were the operettas Im weißen Rößl/The White Horse Inn (1926, Richard Oswald) and Die Csardasfürstin/The Csardas Princess (1927, Hanns Schwarz).


Dutch postcard by Filma, nr. 448. Photo from Eine Frau wie Du/A Woman Like You (1933, Carl Boese).

Smooth Switch
Liane Haid's switch to sound film went smoothly, because of her previous singing career. Her song Adieu, mein kleiner Gardenoffizier, sung in Géza von Bolváry's Das Lied ist aus/The Song Is Over (1930), was a huge success at the time. She became one of Ufa's main actresses and appeared in comedies opposite stars like Willi Forst, Georg Alexander, Theo Lingen, and Heinz Rühmann. In those films she was often typecasted as the Süßes Wiener Mädel.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, nr. 5689/1, 1930-1931. Photo: Super-Film.

Switzerland
From the mid-1930’s her roles were less frequent. She played a part in the British production Whom the Gods Love: The Original Story of Mozart and His Wife (1936, Basil Dean). She refused offers from Hollywood and instead focused on her stage career. In 1942 she emigrated with her son to Switzerland, where she married Swiss Dr. Carl Spycher. It was her third marriage. Their son is the jazz musician Pierre Spycher.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, nr. 8856/1, 1933-1934. Photo: Atelier Schneider, Berlin.

Last Film Appearance
Liane Haid made her last film appearance in the Austrian comedy Die Fünf Karnickel (1953, Kurt Steinwendner, Paul Löwinger). She died in 2000 in Wabern near Bern, at the age of 105. Liane Haid's sister Grit Haid was less fortunate; though an equally well-known film actress. In particular active in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s, she sadly died in a plane accident in 1938.


Liane Haid sings Adieu mein kleiner Gardeoffizier in Das Lied ist aus .

Sources: Thomas Staedeli, Wikipedia, Rudi Polt (IMDb) and IMDb.