Hans Thimig

Hans Thimig, born Hans Emil Thimig on 23 July 1900 in Vienna, was an Austrian actor, stage director, and film director who also appeared on Broadway. He died on 17 February 1991 in Vienna at the age of 90.

Thimig came from a prominent theatrical family. His father, Hugo Thimig, was an actor at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and his siblings Helene Thimig and Hermann Thimig were also actors. He made his stage debut at age 16 at the Wiener Volkstheater, performing under the pseudonym Hans Werner rather than his family name. From 1918 to 1924 he was engaged at the Burgtheater under his real name, after which he moved to the Theater in der Josefstadt, a Vienna institution then managed by Max Reinhardt, who would later become his brother-in-law. His father, his sister Helene, and his brother Hermann all performed there as well, leading Viennese audiences to refer to the theater informally as the Thimig-Theater.

During his time at the Theater in der Josefstadt, Thimig expanded his work to include directing, both on stage and in film. His Broadway appearances came during the years 1927 to 1928, when he performed in three productions: Peripherie, Jederman, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Thimig remained associated with the Theater in der Josefstadt until 1942. During the National Socialist period, he worked to keep the theater relatively free of Nazi influence, arranging for Heinz Hilpert, director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, to take over its management. When Max Reinhardt died in 1943 in the United States, where he had fled as a refugee, Thimig and his brother Hermann joined Hilpert in organizing a memorial event for Reinhardt at the Josefstadt, despite the Nazi regime.

Late in 1944, Thimig was ordered by his superiors to travel to Berlin to shoot a politically tendentious film. On the advice of Karl Hartl, the director of production at Wien-Film, he instead withdrew to Wildalpen, a small town where his family owned a holiday home. Hartl covered for him by reporting him as ill. Following the end of the war, Thimig briefly served as mayor of Wildalpen, as he was the only man in the town without a National Socialist record.

From 1949 onward, Thimig resumed performing in Vienna, dividing his time among the Burgtheater, the Theater an der Josefstadt, and the Wiener Volkstheater. He was made an honorary member of the Burgtheater. In 1959 he succeeded his sister Helene, who retired due to age, as director of the Vienna Max Reinhardt Seminar, the name given to the School of Drama of the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst in honor of the Austrian director. He also continued working as a film director during this period.

Thimig appeared in a number of silent films beginning in 1921, with credits including Clothes Make the Man, Sodom und Gomorrha, Tales of Old Vienna, The Moon of Israel, and The White Paradise, among others. He was married twice and had a daughter, Henriette Thimig, who also became an actress. He left his body to science upon his death, though a memorial to him stands in the Vienna Zentralfriedhof. He published an autobiography in 1983 titled Neugierig wie ich bin. Erinnerungen.