Viktor Schwannecke

Viktor Schwannecke was born on February 8, 1880 in Hedwigsburg, Duchy of Brunswick, Germany.

He made his stage debut in 1904 and it followed engagements at smaller theaters like Rudolfstadt. Finally he became established as a stage actor and he acted in Frankfurt, Stettin and Munich.

In Stetten he appeared in a 1907-1908 stage production with Emil Jannings titled Seine Hoheit (English: His Highness), billed as Viktor Schwanneke-Willberg.

In 1908 he went to Munich where he held a position at the Bavarian State Theatre. There, he honed his skills as a comedian, best known for his roles as the theater director Striese in The Rape of the Sabine Women and in a popular production of William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.

In 1913 he coauthored a book with Paul L. Fuhrmann titled Dr. Fix: Bluff in 3 Aufz and from 1916 until 1918 he wrote a number of booklets celebrating the histories of various German theaters.

In 1916 he was asked by director Maximilian Sladek for to be a guest performer onstage in Berlin. Here he succeeded in the Robert Forster-Larrinaga penned comedy Der Floh im Panzerhaus: Schicksals-Groteske.

When national unrest broke out in during the German Revolution of 1918-1919 and the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic was created, Schwanneke was the interim director of the Bavaraian State Theatre and State Opera.

In 1920 he went back to Berlin where he remained in the next years. He not only appeared as a stage actor but also realised several plays as a director.

He was an actor, known for Marie Antoinette - Das Leben einer Königin (1922),. . .

One of his more noteworthy achievements was as a director of the Anton Dietzenschmidt penned play Vom Lieben Augustin in 1926 at the Volksbühne Theatre am Bülowplatz. The cast included actor Alexander Granach.

und das ist die Hauptsache!? (1931) and Im Laden nebenan (1918).