With dedication to disarm: Julia Geschnitzer turns 90

From 2013 to 2016, Julia Gschnitzer played the mother of all at the Salzburg Festival.

© APA / Gindl

Innsbruck – Julia Gschnitzer refuses to request a birthday interview with Thanksgiving. “She lived life and everything that was said about her – no offense,” she says. That was to be expected. Gschnitzer makes a little fuss about her person. She would rather “hide” if too much attention was paid. The actress said she did well five years ago in the lead-up to her 85th birthday. This is how it maintains it to this day. Julia Geschnitzer will turn 90 on Tuesday.

This year marks the 70th anniversary of her debut in Tyler Landstetter. Born in Innsbruck, she was part of the band from 1951 to 1954. In 1959 she returned as a guest after her engagements in Switzerland. The role of Andreas Hofer’s wife in Kranewitter’s “Andre Hofer” enabled her to move to Vienna. The Volkstheater became aware of her during a guest performance for the production. Gschnitzer was hired right away, and she developed into a character actress—and she’s been one of the house’s art staples for three good decades. She became known to a wide audience through Axel Corte’s “The Jägerstätter Case”, which – on another anniversary – premiered in 50 years this year. Kurt Weinzirl played resistance fighter Karl Jägerstätter, and Gschnitzer played his wife Franziska. A chapter in the history of Austrian television. And it wouldn’t sink real in Vienna anyway. Gschnitzer portrayed Frau Vegvoda in the Mondel series by Ernst Hinterberger.

Julia Gschnitzer is a chamber actress since 1988. Even before that, she was considered the “big lady” of the local theater. In Vienna and later at the Salzburg State Theatre, the main roles in the repertoire (from Marth in “The Croken Krug” to Brecht’s “Mother’s Courage”) were played with devotion to disarm and free from artificial situations. In the summer months, it caused great moments on Tyrolean theaters: Gschnitzer was part of the illustrious group “The Seven Deadly Sins” in the first Tyrolean folk plays, and later Felix Mitterer wrote “Mein Ungeheuer” (2000) and “Die Frau im” Auto (2007) Her Ritten Summer Games on the body. This was followed by Echternbosch’s “Ella” (2006) or “The Beauty Queen” (2010). The “pension” announced in 2011 did not work out at first: at the Landestheater she celebrated her birthday in 2011 with the song “Paradiso”. After her later retirement, for example, she polished the current theater production “Sarah Bernhardt’s Memoirs” in 2012 as a “must see” from the independent theater scene in Innsbruck. And in the summer of 2013 she signed the title Mother of All at the heart of the Salzburg Festival. Until 2016, the game accompanied the dying rich man – and said goodbye with the phrase “now enough.”

A little later, I relapsed. At least a little. She still stands in front of the camera for film and television productions. Recently, for example, the thriller “The Last Summit”. And it doesn’t function entirely without theatre: for “Faust” at the Tyroller Landstetter, in 2017 she spoke of “appropriation” as a video message. (joules)