Weimar Babe: Hertha Von Walter (1903-1987)
“The actress Hertha von Walther was born as Hertha Stern und Walther von Monbary in Hildesheim. At the age of 17 she ran away from boarding school and went to an acting school in Leipzig. There she made first experiences as an extra at the theater and at the opera. She went to Max Reinhardt in Berlin one year later and began acting on the stage. Because she couldn’t earn a living in the theater she also took on small well paid parts for movies. He earliest performances include “Destinée”, “Herzog Ferrantes Ende, “Am Rande der Grossstadt” and “Tragödie der Liebe”, where she played alongside Marlene Dietrich as an extra.
Her first great movie success came in 1924 with “Der Berg des Schicksals”, at Luis Trenker’s side. She played for the first time for director Georg Wilhelm Pabst in the international successful production “Die freudlose Gasse”.
As an actress who she often called on for femme fatale and villainess roles including in”Faust”, “Die Weber”, “Svengali”, “Dr. Bessels Verwandlung”, “Spione” and “Die Ehe”.
During WW2 she perfromed on stage for German troops. When the Gestapo tried to recruit as an agent she fled to Portugal in 1943, later moving to Brazil. There she lived together with her second husband.
She returned to Germany in 1960 returning to both theater and films. Her last movies were “Jonathan” , “Das Schlangenei” and “Satan ist auf Gottes Seite”
