Annie Dirkens (25 September 1869 (some sources give 1870) – 11 November 1942) was a German actress and singer based in Vienna; after her marriage in 1898 she was sometimes billed as Baroness von Hammerstein.
Early life
[edit]Annie Dirkens was born in Berlin as Marie Therese Drews. Her father Peter August Drews was an English railroad employee.[1] She trained as a singer in Berlin, and with Nina Falkenberg in Dresden.[2]
Career
[edit]Annie Dirkens debuted as a singer in 1893, in Berlin. She appeared in operettas, including the lead breeches role in The Little Genius at London's Shaftesbury Theatre in 1896.[3] "Miss Annie Dirkens sings and plays very nicely as the little genius," a reviewer commented, "and the whole play is got up in such splendid style that it will probably have a good run."[4] in 1897 she sang the role of the Comtesse Mathilde in the premiere of Johann Strauss II's last operetta, Die Göttin der Vernunft, in Vienna.[5]
After she acquired the title "Baroness" upon marriage, she continued to perform, appearing in Lehár's Der Rastelbinder at the Carltheater in Vienna,[6] and in Miss Hook of Holland in Berlin in 1907.[7] In 1906 she performed in a musical farce in German,[8] at the Irving Place Theatre[9] in New York.[10] She was engaged to star in The Love Cure in New York in 1909,[11] but she cancelled for health reasons.[12]
During World War I, she was a volunteer nurse at various war hospitals, and also sang at Red Cross events. She was badly injured by a horse in 1918, ending her war work and her stage career. She worked at a tobacco shop after the war.
Personal life
[edit]
Annie Dirkens married lawyer and military officer Wilhelm Freiherr von Hammerstein-Equord, in 1898, which made her a baroness. She was widowed in 1915, when her husband died from battle injuries during World War I. She was considered a "war invalid" (Kriegsinvalidin) after a serious injury in 1918. She died in Vienna in 1942, aged 72 years. Annie Dirkens-Hammerstein's grave is in the Feuerhalle Simmering in Vienna.
References
[edit]- ^ "Ambassador Reid Home for Christmas" New York Times (December 13, 1906): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "New Irving Place Star" New York Times (December 16, 1906): 37. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "'The Little Genius' at Home" The Sketch (July 15, 1896): 466.
- ^ "Violinists at Home" The Strad (September 1896): 132.
- ^ Operetten-Lexicon website, "Die Göttin der Vernunft", accessed 8 January 2019.
- ^ George Greville Moore, Society recollections in Paris and Vienna, 1879–1904 (John Long 1907): 288.
- ^ E. F. S., "'The Stage from the Stalls" The Sketch (September 4, 1907): 240.
- ^ "Musical Farce in German" New York Times (December 28, 1906): 9. via ProQuest
- ^ "German Actress to Cross Atlantic to Appear Five Times" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (September 23, 1906): 31. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "A Council Will Manage Irving Place Theatre" New York Times (September 14, 1906): 7. via ProQuest
- ^ "Annie Dirkens in The Love Cure" New York Dramatic Mirror (July 3, 1909): 9.
- ^ "Gossip about Actors, Managers, and Events" New York Dramatic Mirror (July 24, 1909): 7.
External links
[edit]- An 1899 carte de visite of Annie Dirkens, from Europeana Collections.
- Three 1904 photographs of Annie Dirkens in costume, from Getty Images.
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