Karl Beckersachs
actor, director
- Birth name:
- Karl Nikolaus Beckersachs
- Born:
- 1886-09-26, Neuenhain, Bad Soden, Hesse, Germany
- Died:
- 1951-03-31, Bad Kreuznach, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
- Professions:
- actor, director
Biography
A late-September baby of 1886, Karl Beckersachs drew his first breath in the spa-town air of Neuenhain, Bad Soden, Hesse. Behind the camera and in front of it, he shaped the fever-dream images of early German cinema—stealing souls in 1919’s *Die gestohlene Seele*, conning high society in 1920’s *Gentlemen-Gauner*, and dragging women into the abyss in 1918’s *Frauen, die der Abgrund verschlingt*. Off-screen, he shared his life with Maria Katharina Freiin von Schenk zu Schweinsberg, the woman who became his wife. Fifty-five springs after his Hesse arrival, he closed his eyes for good on 31 March 1951 in the Rhineland-Palatinate resort town of Bad Kreuznach.
