Theodora Anna Mathilde Julie Rosenquist (8 May 1896 – 26 July 1959), known as Thea Rosenquist, was a German

stage Stage, stages, or staging may refer to: Arts and media Acting * Stage (theatre), a space for the performance of theatrical productions * Theatre, a branch of the performing arts, often referred to as "the stage" * ''The Stage'', a weekly Brit ...

and

film actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

. She acted in several Austrian

silent films A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, wh ...

, and was considered a replacement for

Liane Haid Juliane "Liane" Haid (16 August 1895 – 28 November 2000) was an Austrian actress and singer. She has often been referred to as Austria's first movie star. Biography Juliane Haid was born in Vienna on 16 August 1895, the first child to Georg ...

. She married

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

Leon Joseph Koerner (or Körner) in 1923, and settled down in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

and

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

. Rosenquist was of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

origin and had to escape following the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

takeovers of

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

and

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. She went to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, on to

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

before finally settling down in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. Several of her family members were killed in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Rosenquist and her husband established a charitable foundation, the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation, in 1955. The Thea Koerner House Graduate Student Centre of the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

was named in her honour. The Koerner House, Leon and Thea Koerner's residence in Palm Springs, California, was designed by master architect E. Stewart Williams in 1955.

Notable films

Rosenquist played Rahel in 1919's ''

The Jewess of Toledo ''The Jewess of Toledo'' () is a play by Franz Grillparzer. Written in 1851, it was first performed in Prague in 1872, after Grillparzer's death. The play is based on the love affair between King Alfonso VIII of Castile and Rahel la Fermosa, a J ...

'' and starred as Baronesse Tirnau in the 1922 biopic, ''

Ludwig II Ludwig II (Ludwig Otto Friedrich Wilhelm; 25 August 1845 – 13 June 1886), also called the Swan King or the Fairy Tale King (), was King of Bavaria from 1864 until his death in 1886. He also held the titles of Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duk ...

''.

References

Bibliography

* Dassanowsky, Robert. ''Austrian Cinema: A History''. McFarland & Company Incorporated Pub, 2005.

External links

* 1896 births 1959 deaths Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to Canada German stage actresses German film actresses German silent film actresses Actors from Lübeck Jewish emigrants from Austria after the Anschluss Jewish Canadian actresses Canadian philanthropists 20th-century German actresses 20th-century Canadian philanthropists Jewish German actresses Actresses from Schleswig-Holstein {{Germany-film-actor-1890s-stub