Maria Fein

Who was Maria Fein?

Maria Fein, was a Jewish-Catholic actress from Vienna who became a star of German theatre and film before the rise of Adolf Hitler forced her departure. During her time in Germany she was largely associated with the theatrical producer/director Max Reinhardt and had acted in plays by such writers as Christian Friedrich Hebbel, Friedrich Schiller, William Shakespeare, Aeschylus and Ferdinand Bruckner.

Between 1916 and 1932 Fein appeared in at least twenty-three German films working with pioneer movie directors Robert Wiene, Uwe Jens Krafft, Hanna Henning, Rochus Gliese, Walter Schmidthässle, Frederic Zelnik, Albert Lastmann, Paul Leni, Rudolf Walther-Fein, Michael Curtiz, Rudolf Meinert and Fritz Friedmann-Frederich.

Following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938, Fein fled to the Netherlands and in 1941 found refuge for the duration of the war in Switzerland. Fein remained active on stage over the balance of her life in her adopted Switzerland and abroad until shortly before her death.