He is made of iron – but with diamonds. The piece of jewelry is considered to be an award for the most important theatre actors of the German language. And in the meantime also as a political issue: As it is only awarded to men.
New-winner of the prestigious Iffland-ring, German actor Jens Harzer. The Austrian culture Minister Gernot Blümel announced. In February that died on a Swiss actor Bruno had bequeathed to the 47-Year-old last will and Testament of the Ring.
The Iffland-Ring, named after the famous theatre Director and stage actor of the Schiller-time, belongs to the respective carrier until the latter’s death. After that, he goes by the “most important and most worthy” living stage artists of the German-language theatre, again for life.
“Suffers, lives and dies”
Harzer was an actor, the most remarkable due to its multi-faceted Create said Blümel. The native of Wiesbaden is since 2009 a permanent member of the ensemble at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. In Austria, he was, among other things, at the Salzburg festival in 2018 on the stage.
Jens Harzer (here with Sandra Hüller) as Achilles in Kleist’s “Penthesilea” at the Salzburg festival
Even before the conclusion of the drama school Harzer was brought in by longtime artistic Director Dieter Dorn at the Munich kammerspiele. Since then, “suffers, he lives and dies on the stage with an intensity that can only bring true artistry,” according to the Portal “spielfilm.de” was. After a brief interlude at the Berliner schaubühne, he returned in 2001 to his former promoter after Munich: the Bavarian state theatre, whose artistic Director had taken over the mandrel, meanwhile.
“How a world arises from the thought”
Despite Successes in the movie business, the Harz, the stage remained faithful. From the journal “theatre today” he was elected in 2008 and 2011 actor of the year. The weekly newspaper “die Zeit” wrote full of respect, he was watching something, “what you see on stage: how a world arises from the thought, and how thought arises from flesh and blood.”
Harzer reads from Thomas Bernhard’s “cheap eater” on the Salzkammergut-Festwochen 2016
Bruno Ganz, who is also regarded as the Harzers role model, had died in February of cancer. He received the Iffland-Ring, once by the Austrian actor, Josef Meinrad. To have his nearly of the same age stage colleagues, Gert Voss as a successor, had already been in Meinrads death as a candidate to be traded. Voss died in 2014.
jj/hk (dpa, munzinger)