Helmuth Kionka(1906-1936)
- Actor
Helmuth Kionka was a German actor, writer and political activist,
executed by the Nazi Regime in 1936. Born on November 10, 1906, in
Breslau, Schlesien, he initially worked as a writer and journalist,
before training as an actor in Berlin in the mid-1920s. His stage
career began in 1926, and took off when he played the lead role in 'The
Legacy of Quirlitz' and he went on to work at the Staatstheater, das
Deutsche Künstlertheater, das Theater am Kurfürstendamm and die
Saltenburg-Bühnen. He worked with such top directors as Max Reinhardt
and Gustaf Grundgens. He also began to work in films in 1932/33 but,
with the seizure of power by the Nazis in 1933, Kionka's acting career
was effectively ended. He made only three films. He became involved in
the Resistance and worked as a courier between Germany and
foreign-based opposition groups. In April 1934 he went to Vienna, and
then Zurich, finally settling in Paris, where he continued to work with
anti-fascist groups. In the spring of 1936 he was lured back to Berlin
with a fake offer of a role at the newly founded Dietrich-Eckart
Buehne. Upon his arrival in Germany he was immediately arrested and
accused of treason. He was sentenced to death in May 1936. About seven
weeks before his 30th Birthday, on September 28 1936, Kionka was
executed in Berlin.
