Rudolf Bernauer (20 January 1880, in Vienna – 27 November 1953, in London) was an Austrian lyricist, librettist, screenwriter, film director, producer, and actor. His autobiography is "Theater meines Lebens. Erinnerungen" ("Theater of my life: Memories"), published in Berlin in 1955.

Life

He made his 1900 debut as an actor at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 1907, he took over the Berlin Theater with Carl Meinhardt, then in 1911 to the Hebbel Theater and 1913, the comedy house. Finally, he was the owner of the theater at Nollendorfplatz. Rudolf Bernauer wrote lyrics for the Berlin operettas: Der liebe Augustin (1912), Wie einst im Mai (operetta) (1913), The mysterious history of the conductor Kreisler (1922), for which his own simultaneous stage ("Kreislerbühne") was developed, and Kreislers Eckfenster (1923). His songs include: "Die Männer sind alle Verbrecher" ("All men are criminals..."), "Untern Linden, untern Linden" ("Unter den Linden") and "Es war in Schöneberg im Monat Mai" ("It was in Schöneberg in the month of May"). In 1924, he gave up all of his stages. In 1935, he emigrated (fled) to London. He had a large apartment at Viktoria-Luise-Platz 1, in Berlin-Schöneberg (Germany), but the whole building was destroyed during the war. On a new building at this address in 1998 a memorial plaque was dedicated to him. The unveiling of the plaque was attended by his daughter, the actress Agnes Bernelle. He staged a total of two movies, but wrote screenplays and texts for some other films. Bernauer was Jewish Hungarian but he converted to Roman Catholicism in the mid-1930s along with Bernelle. His wife, Bernelle's mother Emmy (née Erb), was a German Protestant.

List of works

Plays by Rudolf Bernauer

Filmography

Works as lyricist

The earliest known work is as a lyricist: