Katharina Schratt

Katharina Schratt was born on September 11, 1853 in Baden, Lower Austria, Austrian Empire as Maria Katharina Schratt.

After acting lessons she made her professional stage debut in 1872 at the Viennese Theater-Akademie in Baden. In the same year she was engaged at the Hoftheater in Berlin. In the next years followed appearances at the Stadttheater in Vienna and in 1883 followed guest performances in New York.

She married Hungarian aristocratic Nikolaus Kiss de Ittebe in 1879, and gave birth to a son, Anton, in 1880. Schratt and her husband separated due to incompatibility.

Schratt's appearances and performances in the early 1880s at Hofburgtheater captivated Franz Joseph, and she was invited to perform for visiting Czar Alexander III of Russia. She soon became Franz Joseph's companion.

She was one of Vienna's big stars at the Burgtheater, from 1883 to 1900. And the best best friend of Austria's King: Kaiser Franz Joseph I.

It is said that Franz Joseph's wife Empress Elisabeth ( Sisi)actually promoted the relationship between the actress and the Emperor. After Elisabeth's murder in 1898, their relationship continued, with one interruption (1900/01, due to a difference in opinions), until his death in November 1916.

She retired from stage already in 1900. Thank to her friendship with the Emperor Franz Josef I who supported her financially as well she was able to deal with her cost-intensive lifestyle.

She was an actress, known for The Great Cattle War (1920). She was married to Nikolaus Kiss de Ittebe.

In the 1930s, journalists bothered her to talk about her relationship with the late Emperor. Book companies asked her to write her memoirs, however Schratt would always say, "I am an actress not a writer and I have nothing to say, for I was never a Pompadour, still less a Maintenon.".

In her later years, Schratt became deeply religious. She died in 1940 at the age of 86. She was buried at Hietzinger Cemetery in Vienna.