Mathias Wieman

Biography

Mathias was born on June 23, 1902. During his long career Mathias starred in more than 50 films and was a veteran of countless stage roles specializing in portrayals of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Dr. Faust. Of his films, one of the more famous he starred in was the Leni Riefenstahl directed The Blue Light (1932), made in 1932. Frau Riefenstahl acted in this film as well as directed it. In "Das Blaue Licht", Mathias plays the lead opposite Frau Riefenstahl as a painter who befriends her with unhappy consequences. Frau Riefenstahl and Mathias had worked together previously in another film Storm Over Mont Blanc (1930) in 1930. Frau Riefenstahl, who is 99 years young and whose 100th birthday is coming up in August, 2002, remembers Mathias very well as "ein wunderbarer Mensch". Another famous film is the 1936 feature _Ewige Maske, Die (1936)_ a film about a doctor dealing with and overcoming his mental illness. This movie won the 1937 American National Board of Review award for best foreign film and Mathias won the award for best actor. The film was also nominated for an award at the Venice Film Festival. During the time of the National Socialist regime Mathias was "persona non grata" with Joseph Goebbels, the Minister of Propaganda who was responsible for film production in Germany. Other notable films were the 1952 entry at the Cannes Film Festival _Herz der Welt (1951)_ in which Mathias portrayed Dr. Alfred Nobel, and 1954's Fear (1954) co-starring Ingrid Bergman and directed by her husband Roberto Rossellini. In this movie, Mathias plays Ingrid Bergman's husband and it's about an affair Bergman's character has while married to Mathias' character. As a stage actor, Mathias was in many, many different productions including German versions of plays by Shakespeare, G.B. Shaw, and Henrik Ibsen, as well as plays by Germans like Bertholt Brecht. In fact, Mathias was a mainstay of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin for a number of years in the 1920s. It was while working as an actor in Berlin that Mathias met his wife Erika (Friedericke Anna Hedwig Meingast), who was a stage actress. They married on January 11, 1926. Erika gave up her promising acting career after marrying Mathias in order that she could help him in his career. Mathias also worked in radio and recorded narratives of famous works accompanied by symphonic music. Examples of CDs that are currently available are Deutsche Grammophon's 2000 release of "Mathias Wieman spricht Homer. Aus Der Odyssee" and Deutsche Grammophon's 2002 release of "Herman Hesse. Tractat vom Steppenwolf," and "Mozart auf der Reise nach Prag" (Deutsche Grammophon, 1968). After World War 2, Mathias and Erika moved to Zurich, Switzerland, and it was there that Mathias died from cancer in 1969, followed by Erika, also cancer-related, in 1972. They had no children.