Manasse Herbst

Manasse Herbst (1 November 1913 in Galicia, Austria-Hungary – 3 January 1997 in Hallandale, Florida, US) was a German-speaking silent movie actor, child-actor, theater actor and singer. He participated in 416 sold-out performances of the operetta White Horse Inn between 1930 and 1932 in Berlin. During the first half of the 1930s Herbst had a relationship with the German Baron Gottfried von Cramm, one of the most popular tennis players of the time. Because of this, von Cramm was sentenced in a Nazi propaganda trial which was recognized all over the world.[1] Due to his Jewish background and the Nazi prohibition to perform his job Herbst had to flee from Germany in 1936. Later he became a US citizen.

Life

In 1920 Manasse Herbst participated in the silent movie "Papa Haydn", where he performed as the young son of the composer Joseph Haydn.[2] In 1926 he acted a part in the silent movie "The Son of Hannibal".[3] Between 1930 and 1932 he performed 416 times within eighteen months in the always sold-out operetta "Im weissen Rössl" ("White Horse Inn") in the so-called "Theater of the 5,000", the Großes Schauspielhaus of Berlin, near Schiffbauerdamm.[4] It was described as a cultural highlight in the Weimar Republic which antagonised the Nazis who prohibited it as degenerate art (in German: Entartete Kunst) as soon as they came to power in 1933.[5]

In 1931 seventeen-year-old Manasse Herbst met the already married twenty-one-year-old Gottfried von Cramm in the Berlin nightclub "Eldorado" when he was at the beginning of his world career as a tennis champion. They were close friends until Herbst's forced emigration.[6] It was sponsored by von Cramm which was highly illegal at that time. Furthermore, Herbst and von Cramm tried to stay in contact which was hard due to Gestapo and World War II.

Manasse Herbst went to Lisbon, Portugal, where he could not find work since he had no knowledge of Portuguese. In 1937 he managed to travel to Paris, France, where he was able to live with his brother. From there he contacted von Cramm who received the letter in Australia where he was participating in a tennis competition. Gottfried von Cramm hoped to meet Herbst in 1938 when he himself was scheduled to travel to Paris to take part in the French Open; this did not happen.

In April 1937 von Cramm was interrogated by Gestapo about his intimate relationship with Herbst. A rent boy had denounced him and others from hearsay of Berlin's gay scene, some falsely. For the Nazis the denunciation of von Cramm was just a minor offshoot of the big Blomberg-Fritsch Affair. In an effort to minimise his sentence von Cramm tried to reduce the duration of his liaison with Herbst to the time before the aggravation of the anti-gay laws which took place in 1935. In an exculpatory statement he also claimed to be blackmailed by Herbst in order to avoid a harsh sentence for a breach of exchange control regulations.[7][8] Gottfried von Cramm was sentenced to one year in jail but came out on probation after seven months. His mother had intervened and met Hermann Göring who was a member of the Rot-Weiss Tennis Club where von Cramm originated.[9][10][11]

After WWII Herbst, meanwhile married, visited Germany to thank von Cramm personally for saving his life. Manasse Herbst later lived in Hallandale, Broward County, Florida. There he died in the age of 83.[12]

Silent movies

Theater

Literature
  • Marshall Jon Fisher: Ich spiele um mein Leben. Gottfried von Cramm und das beste Tennis-Match aller Zeiten. Osburg 1990, ISBN 978-3-940731-31-9.
  • Andreas Pretzel: NS-Opfer unter Vorbehalt: Homosexuelle Männer in Berlin nach 1945. LIT, Münster 2002, ISBN 3-8258-6390-5.
  • Marshall Jon Fisher: A Terrible Splendor – Three Extraordinary Men, a World Poised for War, and the Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played. Crown/Archetype 2009.
  • Clinton Elliott: The Intimate Lives of Gay Men Past and Present. Author House 2014. ISBN 9781481765091
  • Elizabeth Wilson: Love Game – A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon. Serpent’s Tail 2014.
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References
  1. Über alles geliebt. Der Spiegel of 13 August 1990 (in German)
  2. Papa Haydn (in German)
  3. Der Sohn des Hannibal (1926) (in German)
  4. Clinton Elliott: The Intimate Lives of Gay Men Past and Present, see chapter about Gottfried von Cramm
  5. Im weissen Rössl 1930 (in German)
  6. Schicksal zwischen Sport, Sexualität und Politik. Deutschlandfunk of 27 July 2009 (in German)
  7. Tennis-Baron unterm Hakenkreuz. spox.com of 9 November 2015 (in German)
  8. Tennisbaron von Cramm: Triumph des Charakters Norddeutscher Rundfunk of 1 July 2015 (in German)
  9. Elizabeth Wilson: Love Game – A History of Tennis, from Victorian Pastime to Global Phenomenon. Serpent’s Tail 2014, S. ?
  10. Intakt unter Nazi-Zombies. Die Tageszeitung of 8 September 2009 (in German)
  11. Spiel, Knast – und kein Sieg. Der Spiegel of 3 July 2009 (in German)
  12. Manasse Herbst, Social Security Death Index
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