Hermann Thimig

Thimig came from a famous family of actors. His father, Hugo Thimig, was an actor, director and director of the Vienna Burgtheater. His siblings Helene Thimig and Hans Thimig, with whom he trained at the theater and worked together several times in films, were accomplished actors.

During his early days in elementary school and high school in Vienna, and in various land reform schools, Thimig performed with amateur theater groups and private performances. After military service as a one-year volunteer in Vienna he made his debut in December 1910 at the Meiningen Court Theatre and remained there until his contract was disrupted in 1914 by the outbreak of the First World War.

Hermann Thimig and Mady Christians appear in the stage operetta Eifersucht.

In 1915 due to severe Furunculosis, (boils), was declared unfit for front.

While on duty he used his home leave to the Royal Theater in Berlin to make guest appearances and played first at the Volksbühne. A change to the Max Reinhardt's ensemble at the Deutsches Theater was the breakthrough for Thimig 1916. In the same year he made his debut in the film The Countess Heyers and was co-star of Ossi Oswalda and Henny Porten. In 1918 he directed for the first time at the Theatre of the West in Berlin. He starred in three films of Ernst Lubitsch, including the 1921 The Wild Cat.

With the advent of sound film, Thimig turned away from the stage and worked mainly in film operettas and comedies. In the mid-1930s he primarily held roles of older. After the Anschluss of Austria, he was a 1938 State Actors nominee.

In the final stages of World War II, Adolf Hitler himself declared in the Gottbegnadeten list of the most important artists, that Thimig was a national treasure making him, even on the home front, freed from the war effort.

In 1965 he was made an honorary member of the Burgtheater and 1969 he received the Film Award for many years of excellent work in the German film. In 1981 he was awarded the Honorary Ring of the City of Vienna.

Thimig had three children. His first, a daughter, from his marriage to actress Hanna (Guy) Thimig. From his second marriage to actress Vilma Degischer (1911-1992) he also had two daughters.

Hermann Thimig rests in an honorary dedicated grave in the cemetery Sieveringer (Dept. 2, Group 13, Number 76) in Vienna. His second wife, Vilma Degischer, was buried with him ten years later.

• Hermann Thimig at IMDb
• Literature by and about Hermann Thimig in the German National Library catalogue
• Hermann Thimig in Austria-Forum (in German)  (at AEIOU)