Ferdinand August Dessoir, born Anton August Ferdinand Dessauer (January 29, 1836, Breslau – April 15, 1892,

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

) was a German

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. He was the son of Leopold Dessauer (1810-1874) and Leopold's first wife Therese Dessoir (née Reimann) (1810-1866). Leopold and Therese were married in 1835, but they separated only a year later in 1836. Ferdinand was trained for the stage by Werner Mannheim, and made his début in 1852 as the Prince in ''Dorf und Stadt.'' In the following year he went to

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

, where he remained until 1855, when he appeared at

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

was his next engagement, in 1856; followed in 1857 by

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin language, Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital city, capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the Po ...

; 1857–61,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

; 1861–63,

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...

; 1863–64,

Weimar Weimar is a city in the state of Thuringia, Germany. It is located in Central Germany between Erfurt in the west and Jena in the east, approximately southwest of Leipzig, north of Nuremberg and west of Dresden. Together with the neighbouri ...

. From 1864 to 1867 he played at the Hoftheater in Berlin; after which he returned to Weimar, in 1868. He next went to the Lobetheater in Breslau, in 1868–69. The following seven years were spent at the Hoftheater, Dresden; from 1877 to 1878 at the Thalia Theater in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

; from 1878 to 1879 at the Residenz Theater in Dresden; and in 1880 he played at

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. Dessauer became insane during a performance, and never acted again. His principal roles were Kaufmann Bloom,

Mephisto Mephisto or Mephistopheles is one of the chief demons of German literary tradition. Mephisto or Mephistopheles may also refer to: Film and television * ''Méphisto'', a 1931 French film * Mephisto (1981 film), ''Mephisto'' (1981 film), a German- ...

, Falstaff, Muley Hassan, Riccaut, Chalisac, and Hans Lange.

References

* 1836 births 1892 deaths German male stage actors Actors from Wrocław People from the Province of Silesia 19th-century German male actors {{Germany-stage-actor-stub