German postcard by Film-Foto-Verlag, no. A 3597/1, 1941-1944. Photo: Bavaria Filmkunst. Siegfried Breuer in Anuschka (Helmut Käutner, 1942).
Austrian stage actor Siegfried Breuer (1906-1954) made his film debut at 33. In the next 15 years, he starred as a charming bon vivant in 50 films, including many Viennese comedies, some Nazi propaganda, and the classic The Third Man (1949). Breuer was also an occasional film director and screenwriter.
Siegfried Breuer was born in Vienna, Austria in 1906 – 1 February 1954, Weende, Göttingen). He was the son of the German actor and opera singer Hans Breuer. His godfather was Siegfried Wagner. So performing was in young Siegfried’s blood and in the early 1920s, he studied at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he studied alongside Paula Wessely and Käthe Gold. In 1924, he made his stage debut at the Volkstheater in Vienna. He performed his first leading role in The Prince of Homburg under the direction of Max Reinhardt in Berlin. In 1935 he became a member of the ensemble cast of the prestigious Deutsches Theater. After some 15 years of stage acting the then 33 years old Siegfried Breuer made his screen debut in the short Eins zu Eins/One to One (Carl Prucker, 1939). He was immediately much in demand , and that same year, he added his Viennese charm to Unsterblicher Walzer/Immortal Waltz (E.W. Emo, 1939) with Paul Hörbiger as Johann Strauss, Mutterliebe/Mother Love (Gustav Ucicky, 1939), the comedy Anton, der Letzte/Anthony the Last (E.W. Emo, 1939) with Hans Moser, and the Anti-Semitic Nazi propaganda film Leinen aus Irland/Linen for Ireland (Heinz Helbig, 1939). During the war years, Breuer played an elegant but sinister seducer in the Alexander Pushkin adaptation Der Postmeister/The postmaster (Gustav Ucicky, 1940) with Heinrich George and Hilde Krahl, and in the classic Romanze in Moll/Romance in Moll (Helmut Käutner, 1943) with Marianne Hoppe. But he also served the stereotype of the evil Jew in such anti-Semitic productions as Der Weg ins Freie/The way out (Rolf Hansen, 1941) starring Zarah Leander, and Venus vor Gericht/Venus in court (Hans H. Zerlett, 1941) with Hannes Stelzer.
Between 1939 and 1954, Siegfried Breuer would star in 50 films. After the war, he was seen in a supporting part in the film adaptation in colour of the operetta Die Fledermaus/The Bat (Géza von Bolváry, 1946) with Marte Harell and Johannes Heesters. The film was already shot in 1944, but the film material seemed lost after the bombings. In 1946, the material was found and finally edited. One of the most famous films in which Breuer appeared is the British Film Noir The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949), situated in allied-occupied Vienna. Breuer played Popescu, one of the Austrian black marketers and friends of the mysteriously killed Harry Lime (Orson Welles). Popescu was a small part but one which is integral to the development of the story. Another success was the come-back film of Zarah Leander, the musical drama Gabriela (Géza von Cziffra, 1950). Leander West German musical drama film directed by and co-starring Carl Raddatz, Vera Molnar, and Breuer. In 1943 when the Nazi leadership had demanded she take German citizenship, she had broken her contract with Ufa and returned to her native Sweden. In the immediate post-war era, she was banned from appearing in German films because of her previous association with the Nazi hierarchy. From 1949 she was able to make films once more. Gabriela was the third highest-grossing film at the West German box office in 1950. Breuer directed, wrote and starred in the film Der Schuß durchs Fenster/The shot through the window (Siegfried Breuer, 1950) in which he worked with Curd Jurgens. He also directed the comedies Seitensprünge im Schnee/Escapades in the Snow (Siegfried Breuer, 1950) with Doris Kirchner, and In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus/ In Munich stands a Hofbräuhaus (Siegfried Breuer, 1951) with Fita Benkhoff and Paul Kemp. Siegfried Breuer was a heavy smoker. He died in 1954 in Weende near Göttingen in the South of Germany. He was only 47. Breuer was married six times, among others with the actresses Maria Andergast, Eva-Maria Meineke and Lia Condrus. His sons Siegfried Breuer Jr and Pascal Breuer and his grandchildren Jacques Breuer and Pascal Breuer are also in the entertainment industry.
Sources: I.S. Mowis (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and German), and IMDb.
