Fritz Delius

Fritz Delius (1890-1966) was a German stage actor who played many leading roles in productions by Max Reinhardt. He was also one of the pioneers of German silent cinema. Delius acted with such stars as Henny Porten, Fern Andra, and Hedda Vernon, and also wrote film scripts. After the advent of sound film, he shifted his focus to theater. As a Jew, he had to leave Germany when the Nazis rose to power and in 1938 he emigrated to Switzerland where he was able to continue his theatre and film career.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1607. Photo: Nicola Perscheid. Fritz Delius, possibly as the title character in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1608. Photo: Nicola Perscheid.

A youthful hero and character actor with Max Reinhardt

Fritz Delius was born Friedrich Wilhelm Diamant in 1890 in Berlin, Germany. Delius debuted as a stage actor in 1909 at the Hoftheater (Meiningen Court Theatre) in Meiningen, then had engagements at the Goethe Festival in Düsseldorf and, among others, at the Meinhard-Bernauer-Bühnen in Berlin.

From 1913, he was a youthful hero and character actor with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater at the Kammerspiele and the Volksbühne Berlin. His roles included Ferdinand in Friedrich Schiller's 'Kabale und Liebe' and Mortimer in 'Maria Stuart', Alwa Schön in Frank Wedekind's 'Erdgeist' and 'Pandora's Box', and Lysander/Demetrius in William Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. Delius also played the title roles in 'Hamlet' and 'Romeo and Juliet' and in Heinrich von Kleist's 'Prince Frederick of Homburg', and Riccaut in Friedrich Lessing's 'Minna von Barnhelm'.

From 1926 to 1938 he acted at the Theater in der Josefstadt, Vienna, as a guest at the Salzburg Festival, and in 1926/1927 and 1928/1929 at the Schauspielhaus Zürich. In 1938 Delius emigrated to Switzerland via Budapest and Italy. In the years 1938-1950 he played under the direction of Oskar Wälterlin at the Schauspielhaus Zurich where he did some 150 roles, including Attinghausen in Friedrich Schiller's 'Wilhelm Tell', Philemon in Goethe's 'Faust II', and Zeno in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 'Romulus der Grosse'.

He played Werber in the world premiere of Bertolt Brecht's 'Mother Courage and Her Children', Doctor in the world premiere of Max Frisch's 'Santa Cruz', and Landgrave of Hesse in the world premiere of Friedrich Dürrenmatt's 'Es steht geschrieben'. He also made several guest appearances from 1941 onward at the Sommertheater Winterthur, including the title role in Lessing's 'Nathan der Weise' and Mephisto in Goethe's 'Faust'.

In the years 1950-1966, Fritz Delius acted under the direction of Egon Karter at the newly founded Komödie Basel. He appeared as Jasmin Boisette in Verneuil's 'Es bleibt in der Familie', Sultan Saladin in Lessing's 'Nathan der Weise', and as Pastor Manders in Henrik Ibsen's 'Ghosts' with Johanna Terwin-Moissi as Frau Alving. For his stage work, he won several awards such as the Grosses Goldenes Ehrenzeichen der Genossenschaft Deutscher Bühnen-Angehöriger in 1965.


German postcard by Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 8756. Photo: Becker & Maass. Fritz Delius as Romeo in 'Romeo and Juliet' by William Shakespeare, probably under the direction of Max Reinhardt, ca. 1913.


German postcard by Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 8760. Photo: Becker & Maass. Fritz Delius as Ferdinand in a 1917 stage production of Friedrich Schiller's 'Kabale und Liebe' (Intrigue and Love), under the direction of Max Reinhardt.

Writing for Henny Porten

When the production of silent films seriously started during the First World War, Fritz Delius made his screen debut with a rather small part alongside Henny Porten in Rudolf Biebrach's drama Die Wellen schweigen/The Waves Are Silent (1915). In his second film, also directed by Biebrach, he was already entrusted with a leading role and played the doctor Professor Volkmann, who sacrifices his own blood to save the young Margarete Lasson (Henny Porten) in the marriage tragedy Das große Schweigen/The Great Silence (1916). When Margarete falls in love with Volkmann's colleague Dr. Falk (Fritz Weidemann) after marrying him, disaster strikes ...

Fritz Delius also wrote the screenplay for two films with Porten, Der Ruf der Liebe (1916) and Abseits vom Glück (1916), in which he also was her co-star. Further silent melodramas and adventures followed, in which Fritz Delius played incisive roles alongside silent film stars such as Fern Andra in Ernst ist das Leben/Life is Serious (Fern Andra, 1916), or Hedda Vernon in Die Erbin/The heiress (Hubert Moest, 1919), Der Peitschenhieb/The Whip Lash (Hubert Moest, 1919), and Das Frauenhaus von Brescia/The Women House of Brescia (Hubert Moest, 1920).

Reinhold Schünzel cast Fritz Delius in Katharina die Große/Catherine the Great (1920), his opulent monumental portrait of the famous Russian empress Catherine II, embodied by Lucie Höflich, which was shot with around 4,000 actors and extras. Fritz Delius, as Gregor Count Orlov, played one of Catherine's lovers. After Léo Lasko's two-part Auri sacra fames/Der verfluchte Hunger nach Gold (1920), with Rosa Porten and Werner Funck, Delius embodied Louis XIV in Louise de Lavallière - Am Liebeshof des Sonnenkönigs/Louise de Lavallière (Georg Burghardt, 1922) alongside Emmy Schaeff as his mistress, the French courtesan Louise de La Vallière.

In the fourth part of Arzén von Cserépy's monumental Fridericus Rex series entitled Schicksalswende (1923), with Otto Gebühr as Prussian King Frederick II, Delius portrayed the Austrian army commander Prince Karl Alexander von Lothringen. With Johannes Guter's Der Turm des Schweigens (1925), based on Shakespeare's play 'The Tempest', Fritz Delius ended his rather short but nevertheless intensive film career for the time being.

He played the aviator or celebrated scientist Wilfred Durian, who once crashed with Arved Holl (Nigel Barrie) during an exploratory flight over the Australian Victoria Desert and then abandoned his friend. When Holl, who was thought lost, reappears, Durian is confronted with his guilt, family secrets come to light, and young Eva (Xenia Desni) learns who she really is from her supposed father, tower keeper Eldor Vartalun (Avrom Morewski). After that, Fritz Delius only appeared on screen once more in Felix Basch's Seine Freundin Annette (1931) and in smaller roles in the Swiss productions Landammann Stauffacher (1941) and Matto regiert/Madness Rules (1947), directed by Leopold Lindtberg and starring Heinrich Gretler. Fritz Delius passed away in 1966 in Basel, Switzerland, a few days before his 76th birthday.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin, no. 1976. Photo: Becker & Maass.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 513/4. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier. Fern Andra in Ernst ist das Leben/Life is Serious (Fern Andra, 1916). The actor is probably Fritz Delius. This card was sent to us by Gill4kleuren (Many thanks, Gill!).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 513/5. Photo: Fern Andra Atelier. Fern Andra in Ernst ist das Leben/Life is Serious (Fern Andra, 1916). The man on the left of Fern Andra could be Fritz Delius. The dying woman in the bed could be Frida Richard, who plays Andra's mother in the film.

Sources: Stephanie d'Heil (Steffi-line.de - German), Thomas Blubacher (Theaterlexikon der Schweiz - German), Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia and IMDb.

This post was last updated on 13 December 2023.