Interview with an Austrian Cinematic Pioneer and Cultural Activist

Introduction

Elfi von Dassanowsky
in her Vienna days (1950)

Austrian-born Elfi (Elfriede Maria) von Dassanowsky came to the U.S. via Canada in 1955. By then she had already had such a multifaceted career that it is almost impossible to give her a label. In an article about von Dassanowsky, Robert Hoffmann listed these fields: “Opera singer. Pianist. Actress. Film studio founder. Producer... Teacher. Theater founder. Cultural diplomat. Humanitarian.” He could have added radio announcer, voice coach, and a few more occupations. In the course of her varied career, von Dassanowsky worked with film stars such as Curd Jürgens and Oskar Werner. In 1996 the state of California honored her with an “Elfi von Dassanowsky Day” on February 2 (her birthday), adding to a long list of honors bestowed upon this versatile lady from Vienna, who resided in southern California until her death in October 2007 due to complications from a leg amputation.

Elfi von Dassanowsky was interviewed by Hyde Flippo for the German-Hollywood Connection.
Also see the von Dassanowsky links in Part 2

Interview with Elfi von Dassanowsky

G-HC: You have had an extraordinary range of career accomplishments. Looking back, which one achievement are you proudest of and why?

von Dassanowsky: Looking back at my work there are two things I am most proud of—one I intended, one I only later understood. Firstly, the founding of the film studio, the theater stages, the work with the Allied Command, the opera, the radio, were all meant to help support a strong Austrian cultural identity after the war. Certainly, I had a great creative desire, but it was also clear to me that artistic expression was at the root of rebuilding the nation. The second aspect is that of being successful as a woman in traditional male roles. I followed my dreams and ambitions because I had to and because there was a need for the things I was doing. Much later, actually in Hollywood, I realized I had also forged some new possibilities for women in the arts.

G-HC: What do you remember most about your years at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst [Academy for Music and Performing Arts]? Was it hard for you as one of the few women at the time?

Elfi von Dassanowsky in
her southern California home.
Photo by David Sprague, Los Angeles Daily News

von Dassanowsky: There were women, but few girls. At age 15, I was so involved with my studies and my music that I thought of nothing else. Certainly it was a first and a privilege to be such a young female student on a full scholarship, but that is the true nature of the classical music world—I was regarded as a talent, not for my gender or age. Such training is always hard, but I loved it. What I remember most about that time was the opera stars and musicians I came in contact with every day. Through the Hochschule I became the protégé of the famous concert pianist, Emil von Sauer. He had been one of Franz Liszt's favorite students, and I believe I was the only young woman he ever taught. An absolute master of the piano, he was a very dignified and quiet man, Naturally, I was in awe of him, but I was not the only one! I also remember my shyness in volunteering to perform.

G-HC: What do you recall about the time of the Anschluss?

von Dassanowsky: Well, I was only a child, but I already understood the injustice of the act and the regime. I had also been raised in a Catholic and monarchist environment. My family had been in the service of the imperial court since the 18th century. The Archduchess Adelheid, the oldest daughter of the last Emperor, had just been my confirmation sponsor in a ceremony with Cardinal Innitzer, so my view of Germany and Austria was from that particular world. Nevertheless, I already believed that what the Nazis were doing inside and outside of their country must not and could not last.

G-HC: I find it hard to imagine what it must have been like to say no to the Nazis during the 1940s. What gave you the courage, some might say the madness, to do that when they were pushing your potential film career?

von Dassanowsky: I had no other choice. I refused to join any of the organizations on the basis that I was a student and an artist, but it was of course, much more than that. I would not lend my name and art to that regime. As a result, and unlike many colleagues who could get out of doing their mandatory labor service because they were Party members, I was given not one, but two years of labor. This interrupted my studies and any chance to be taken seriously as an opera singer or pianist. originally they were going to put me into the hardest work they could find—farm work or such. The director of the Hochschule, Professor Franz Schütz convinced the authorities that my hands, and thus my piano abilities, would be damaged if I had to do this, so I was sent to work in a cigarette factory and later at a hospital. From then on, I was always very nervous with each step I took. The offer for a film career came suddenly and after all this. Apparently someone at [the German film studio] UFA in Berlin had seen me perform. They were casting a new romantic musical and wanted me to play a typical Viennese baroness. They were ready to give me a star build up, since Zarah Leander had fallen out of official approval, and I even received “encouragement” from the Propaganda Ministry, but I wouldn't do it. I was lucky that it was already late 1944 and they had their mind on other things.

G-HC: What were the war years like for you in Vienna?

von Dassanowsky: The end was brutal. I was in the cellars with my mother and everyone else. I had the measles! I remember the day the opera house and the St. Stephans Cathedral were bombed, and the Prater Ferris wheel spinning with the compartments set on fire by the flame-throwers. Twice I wandered out to obtain food, and both times I nearly lost my life. My father was out in the battle, which raged from street to street. And the Soviet occupation was hardly an end to the horror. In addition to the abuse of the population, especially the women, the Red Army emptied every palace and home of its furnishings and art, piled it all into open cattle cars bound for the East and watched as these priceless objects were ruined by rain and snow as the trains sat on the tracks in Vienna for months.

G-HC: You have said that The Third Man, one of my favorites, is also one of your favorite movies. What is it that you like about the film? Is it an accurate picture of Vienna right after the war?

von Dassanowsky: I was unprepared for this film about postwar Vienna with the occupation forces, the bombed out houses, the black-market, the actress (Valli) who portrays the Austria of Mozart on the stage, and then finds herself in the rubble of the reality. I walked out of the theater into the same world, It was a brilliant and different type of film. We had historical epics, musicals and propaganda drama since 1938, so this was a breathtaking new style. It was very real. The Valli character tells of how, because of the food shortage, a fan gave her a bag of tea instead of flowers after a performance. After an opera premiere I once received a very large fish!

N E X T > Part 2

NEXT > Elfi von Dassanowsky talks about about her cultural work with the Allies after the war...

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