Early life Born to journalist and theater director Julius Hirsch and his wife Camilla, David Hirsch was the half-brother of
Heinrich Theodor Hirsch. He left the Archduke Rainer Gymnasium in Vienna at the age of 17 to pursue an acting career. Heinz was exempted from military service due to a lung illness. He moved to Germany, working in theaters in
Friedrichroda and
Eisenach during 1917. Although he never attended an acting studio, he was also given roles in theaters in Berlin, Hamburg and other cities. In November 1918, he joined the cast of the
Deutsches Theater. He had his debut on screen in the 1919 film
Die Geächteten; another of his early roles in cinema was that of the first mate on the Empusa in
Nosferatu. He married during 1921, but his wife suffered from
Pleurisy and died after six months. Heinz later acted in the Schauspielhaus Berlin, which he left at 1923, when voice problems forced him to abandon his career for three years. In 1926,
Max Reinhardt accepted him to the cast of the Deutsches Theater again, where he also started to direct plays. Heinz was a close friend of actor
Hans Otto, and under his influence became a member of the
Communist Party of Germany at 1930.
Exile Along with all the Jewish and leftist actors, Heinz was dismissed from his work on
27 February 1933. He left for the Netherlands, from where he moved to Great Britain, and on to Vienna. He finally settled in Switzerland, in which - with many other exiles from Germany - he acted in the
Schauspielhaus Zürich. At 1938, he began to direct plays in the theater. During his time in Switzerland, Heinz was one of the founders and the president of the Swiss Free Austrian Movement. He rescinded his membership in the KPD at 1943. After the end of World War II, Heinz emigrated to the Soviet-occupied part of Vienna; at 1946, he joined the
Communist Party of Austria. At first, he was part of the ensemble of the
People's Theater. In 1948, with
Karl Paryla and
Emil Stöhr, he was a founding member, from 1948 to 1956, of the "Neue Theater in der Scala", a "workers' theater". The theater held a communist and a pro-Soviet line, and openly defied the ban on
Bertolt Brecht's works imposed in Vienna. Heinz met his second wife, Austrian actress
Erika Pelikowsky, while working in the Scala. He was also active as a director in the Deutsches Theater since 1951. In 1956, after the Soviet withdrawal from Austria, the theater was closed. Heinz, Pelikowsky and their daughter Gabriele (born 1948) moved to East Berlin.
East Germany In East Germany, Heinz permanently joined the cast of the Deutsches Theater under
Wolfgang Langhoff. He appeared in more than 300 roles, and was best known for his portrayal of the title characters in
King Lear,
Life of Galileo,
Wallenstein,
Nathan the Wise and
Professor Mamlock. Beside this, he also directed 80 plays through the years and appeared in several
DEFA films. From 1959 to 1962, he headed the
National Theatre School in Berlin. In 1960, he became a professor and a member of the
Academy of the Arts. In 1963, he left the
KPÖ and joined the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany. At the same year, he replaced Langhoff as the theater's director and manager, holding this position until 1969. At 1966, Heinz was appointed head of the
East German Theater Artists' Association, an office he held until his death. Between 1968 and 1974, he was the president of the
Academy of the Arts. Heinz is buried in
Adlershof Cemetery in Berlin. After his death, a Wolfgang Heinz Ring was bestowed annually to new and promising young actors by the Theater Artists' Association. Following the reunification, the right to award the ring was passed to the manager of the Deutsches Theater. ==Filmography==