Gert,Valeska b.January II, 1892; Berlin, Prussia d. March I6 (?), 1978; Kampen, Schleswig-Holstein
German dancer and actress best known for her socially critical pantomime dances who emigrated to the United States in 1939.
Born Gertrude Valesca Samosch, Valeska Gert was a dancer whose Weimar- era subjects included prostitutes, mummies, and death.
She manipulated her body into grotesque, clownlike, obscene, desperate, and lusty shapes and poses. Notable dances include Canaille, Tod (Death), Gruβ aus dem Mummenkeller (Greetings from the Mummy’s Cellar), Tanz in orange (Dance in Orange), Negertanz (Negro Dance), and Kupplerin (Procuress). Her performances were also marked by innovative costume choices, which alternately made her body appear disfigured, alluring, or a grotesque combination of sexual and repulsive. She appeared in a number of notable cabaret venues in the 1920s, including Max Reinhardt’s Schall und Rauch (Sound and Smoke) and Bertolt Brecht’s Die Rote Zibebe (The Red Raisin). In 1932 she briefly ran her own cabaret, the Kohlkopp (Cabbage Head).Gert had moderate successes on film as well as stage. She played Puck in the 1924 version of Ein Sommernachtstraum (A Midsummer Night’s Dream) directed by Hans Neumann. In 1925, she appeared in Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s Die Freudlose Gasse (Joyless Street) as Mrs Greifer. Pabst also directed the 1931 film version of Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera), in which Gert played Mrs. Peachum. She wrote for a number of publications, including Die Weltbuhne (The World Stage) and the Berliner Tagezeitung (Berlin Daily Paper), and contributed passages, interviews, and a general sensibility to Fred Hildenbrandt’s 1928 biography, Die Tanz- erin Valeska Gert (The Dancer Valeska Gert).
Targeted for both her Jewish background and her objectionable dance subjects, Gert was featured in a number of pamphlets about the Jewish presence on the German stage. She left Germany in 1933, dancing in Budapest, Paris, and London.
Her 1936 marriage to second husband Robin Anderson was by her own admission largely to gain British citizenship. While in London she continued working, playing the maid in the 1934 film Pett and Pott, and appearing in the unsuccessful 1937 musical It's in the Bag! Gert came to the United States in 1939, where she performed in Hollywood, at the Assistance Playhouse League Theater, but failed to find onscreen success. She spent the summer of 1940 in Provincetown, Massachusetts, working as an artist’s model and dishwasher. In October, she moved to New York City and performed at the Cherry Lane Theater. She opened her cabaret, the Beggar Bar, in 1941. Her performances were met with wartime criticism from both the American Jewish Weekly Aufbau (Construction) and the local authorities, yet the cabaret remained open until 1945, when she returned to Provincetown and opened her second American cabaret, Valeska’s, which offered “Different food, different entertainment.”In 1947 Gert returned to Europe. She settled briefly in Zurich, where she opened a performance cafe, Cafe Valeska und ihr Kuchenpersonal (Cafe Valeska and her Kitchen Staff) in 1948. She then returned to Berlin, where she opened the Hex- enkuche (Witches’ Kitchen), which operated from 1950 to 1956. Gert’s autobiographical works include Mein Weg (My Way, 1930), Die Bettlerbar von New York (The Beggar’s Bar of New York, 1950), Ich bin eine Hexe (I Am a Witch, 1968), and Katze von Kampen (Cat of Campen, 1973), as well as the 1977 film Nur zum Spass, Nur zum Spiel—Kaleidoskop Valeska Gert (Only for Fun, Only for Play—Kaleidoscope Valeska Gert). Gert was also active onscreen later in life. Films include Federico Fellini’s Giulietta degli spiriti (Juliet of the Spirits, 1965), Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s television miniseries “Acht Stun- den sind kein Tag” (Eight Hours Are Not a Day, 1972), and Volker Schlondorf’s Der Fangschufl (Coup de grace, 1976). Gert died between March 15 and 18 (most likely on the sixteenth), 1978, in Kampen, Germany.
Erika Elizabeth Hughes
See also Aufbau; Brecht, Bertolt; Reinhardt, Max
References and Further Reading
Gert, Valeska. Ich bin eine Hexe. Munchen: Franz Schneekluth Verlag, 1968.
Peter, Frank-Manuel. Valeska Gert: Tanzerin, Schauspielerin, Kabarettistin. Berlin: Edition Hentrich, 1987.