Alexander Granach

Alexander Granach (born Jessaja Szajko Gronach) was born on April 18, 1890, in Werbowitz (Eastern Galicia) and came to Berlin in 1906 as a journeyman baker. Here he became increasingly interested in Berlin’s literary and Yiddish theater scene.

After his first appearances in small Yiddish theaters in the Scheunenviertel, he was later accepted by Max Reinhardt into his acting school at the Deutsches Theater and became part of the ensemble. However, his acting career, in which he made a name for himself with his expressionistic style, was interrupted when he was drafted into the military during World War I.

After the war, he initially performed in Munich and, from 1921, also returned to Berlin to perform at the Lessing Theater and Schauspielhaus. He became popular in political theater and as the “King of the Eastern Jews” in Yiddish theater, and from 1919 onwards he also became known to a wider audience as a film actor in silent films such as Nosferatu and later in sound films.

Because his Jewish heritage and political activism meant he was at risk of being arrested by the Gestapo, Alexander Granach was forced to flee in 1933. He first went to Vienna, then Poland, and finally the Soviet Union. He remained active as an actor and politician everywhere he went, which led to his temporary arrest in 1937 on suspicion of espionage. Fortunately, he obtained a visa for Switzerland and ultimately emigrated to the United States in 1938.

Here he worked primarily as a film actor. From 1944 onwards, he finally found his way into the Broadway scene, where he worked until his death in 1945.

Sources/Literature:

בית הכנסת החדש ברלין – צנטרום יודאיקום

Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum