Louise Dumont (née Louise Maria Hubertine Heynen; 22 February 1862, in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...

– 16 May 1932, in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian language, Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second- ...

) was a German actress and theater director.

Life

Louise Maria Hubertine Heynen, born on 22 February 1862 in

near Neumarkt, was the second of eleven or twelve siblings. Her parents were the merchant Christian Joseph Hubert Heynen (born in 1837) and Maria Elisabeth Elise Dumont (born 1836 or 1837). By 1879, Louise was working as a seamstress, following her father's second bankruptcy. Louise Dumont auditioned in 1882 at the Residenz Theater in Berlin, where she received her first role. As her artist's name she chose her mother's maiden name, Dumont. In 1888, she won an engagement at the

Royal Court Theatre The Royal Court Theatre, at different times known as the Court Theatre, the New Chelsea Theatre, and the Belgravia Theatre, is a non-commercial West End theatre in Sloane Square, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, England ...

in Stuttgart, where she became acquainted with and a friend of Queen Charlotte of Wurttemberg. In 1898 Dumont left Stuttgart in order to join the Deutsches Theatre in Berlin, where she achieved her greatest successes, especially as a performer of pieces by Henrik Ibsen. In 1903, she met Gustav Lindemann. As it was not possible for them to establish a theatre in Berlin because of local court intrigues, they then attempted to do so in Darmstadt, also without success. They finally succeeded in Düsseldorf, where Louise Dumont and Gustav Lindemann founded the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf on 16 June 1904, as a direct competitor to the municipal theatre. Louise Dumont and Gustav Lindemann both contributed financially to the project, as did ten members of prestigious families like the Poensgens and the Luegs. The theatre opened on October 28, 1905, to which a theatre academy was later added. The academy trained a number of actors who significantly influenced German theatre life, such as Gustaf Gründgens, Peter Esser, Adolf Dell,

Paul Henckels Paul Henckels (9 September 1885 – 27 May 1967) was a German film and stage actor. He appeared in more than 230 films between 1921 and 1965. Paul Henckels had started his acting career on the stage in the 1900s. He was well known for his e ...

, Paul Kemp,

Wolfgang Langhoff Wolfgang Langhoff (6 October 1901 in Berlin, German Empire – 26 August 1966 in Berlin, German Democratic Republic)The Internet Movie Database"Wolfgang Langhoff" Accessed 17 August 2007. was a German theatre, film and television actor and theat ...

, Maria Alex and Henry Orthmayer.auf duesseldorf.de/theatermuseum Eine Zeitreise mit Düsseldorfer Bühnenkünstlern
, auf Theatermuseum Landeshauptstadt Düsseldorf, Retrieved 21 February 2015. In 1907, Louise Dumont married Gustav Lindemann. They separated in the 1920s, after which Dumont was attached to a number of young actresses, including

Fita Benkhoff Fita Benkhoff (1 November 1901 – 26 October 1967) was a German actress. Life Benkhoff was born in 1901. In the 1920s the actress Louise Dumont separated from her husband. Dumont was attached to a number of young actresses including Benkh ...

, Hanni Hoessrich and

Luise Rainer Luise Rainer ( , ; 12 January 1910 – 30 December 2014) was a German-American-British film actress. She was the first thespian to win multiple Academy Awards and the first to win back-to-back; at the time of her death, thirteen days shy of her ...

. It has been presumed that she was bisexual.Bio of Dumont
lesbengeschichte.de, Retrieved 24 July 2016.

Assessment

Louise Dumont is considered the 20th century successor to Friederike Caroline Neuber. She exerted less of a mimic-erotic fascination than a strong, convincing and defining gravity, which she understood as performing faithful service to the words of the author. Dumont died in 1932 in Düsseldorf and was buried in the local cemetery. Her grave is decorated with a sculpture by

Ernst Barlach Ernst Heinrich Barlach (2 January 1870 – 24 October 1938) was a German expressionist sculptor, medallist, printmaker and writer. Although he was a supporter of the war in the years leading to World War I, his participation in the war made hi ...

. Her husband donated in her memory a necklace with a pearl-encircled topas that she had received as a present from Queen Charlotte of Württemberg, to be awarded to outstanding actresses during their lifetime. In 1976 she was featured on a postage stamp issued by the Deutsche Bundespost. The Louise-Dumont-Straße in Düsseldorf-Pempelfort was named after her.

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * Werner Schramm (Künstler): Mappenwerk Begegnungen (gewidmet Louise Dumont), 1922, Verlag der Galerie Alfred Flechtheim

External links

* Christof Dahlmann: Art.
Louise Dumont (1862-1932), Schauspielerin und Mitbegründerin des Düsseldorfer Schauspielhauses
' im Online-''Portal Rheinische Geschichte'', 6 December 2013
Louise Dumont und Gustav Lindemann.: Die Theatergründer
Retrieved 4 April 2015 {{DEFAULTSORT:Dumont, Louise 1862 births 1932 deaths Actors from Düsseldorf Drama teachers German stage actresses 19th-century German actresses