Fritz Muliar: Josefstadt as Artistic Home

Not only as the “good soldier Schweijk,” but also in his own biography, Fritz Muliar embodied Vienna, Austria, and Central Europe of his generation, while tirelessly processing it critically. His “long journey of an eventful, often difficult, but burning interesting and ultimately happy existence,” as Muliar began his autobiography a few years ago, has come to an end after almost 90 years.

Fritz Muliar was born on December 12, 1919, in Vienna-Neubau as an illegitimate child. His biological father was a Tyrolean k.u.k. officer who did not care for his son and later became a National Socialist. Muliar’s mother, Leopoldine Stand, an engaged Social Democrat, then married the Russian-Jewish jeweler Mischa Muliar. At the age of 17, the legendary grande dame of cabaret, Stella Kadmon, helped the aspiring humorist make his debut at the cabaret “Der liebe Augustin.” After a period as an operetta buffo at the Innsbruck State Theater, Muliar joined Karl Farkas at the “Simpl,” before the war painfully interrupted his career.

During military service, where an Austrian comrade denounced him for subversive speeches, Muliar was sentenced to death and then pardoned to five years. After the end of his imprisonment, an unparalleled career began: From 1951 to 1963, he was engaged at the Vienna Volkstheater and played in parallel for thirteen years at the cabaret “Simpl.” From 1964 to 1977, the Theater in der Josefstadt was his artistic home, and in 1974 he became a member of the Burgtheater, to which he belonged for 20 years until his retirement. In 1994, he returned to the Josefstadt. In addition, films such as “Vienna, City of My Dreams” under Willi Forst and “The Embezzled Heaven” under Ernst Marischka were made, as well as literary adaptations like “Schwejk” based on Jaroslav Hasek’s classic, or “The Bockerer.”

With Felix Mitterer’s one-man play “Siberia,” Muliar achieved one of his greatest artistic successes in 1992, and in November 2007, he celebrated his 70th stage anniversary at the Kammerspiele with the Mitterer play “The Panther,” written especially for him. He celebrated his 80th birthday with the play “Visiting Mr. Green” by Jeff Baron on stage, and for his 90th on December 12, the premiere of a specially written sequel was planned: “Mr. Green’s Second Chance.” Fritz Muliar lived his passion for the stage until just before his death: Yesterday afternoon, he was still seen in “The Landlady” in the Josefstadt.

In recent years, however, the popular master of ceremonies increasingly engaged with cabaret evenings, such as interpreting Jewish jokes and coffeehouse literature, from Alfred Polgar and Anton Kuh to Hans Weigel and Friedrich Torberg. His cheerful, partly autobiographical books were widely read: “The Best from My Collection of Jewish Jokes and Anecdotes,” “If You Ask Me,” or “Was It Really That Bad.” His biography “Reporting Obediently, Yes!” a record of his “life adventures,” was published in 2003 by Styria Verlag. Numerous anecdotes can be read there, also about Muliar’s numerous friendships in Austrian theater life – for example, with Elfriede Ott, Lore Krainer, Herbert Prikopa, Helmuth Lohner, and Otto Schenk.

However, the avowed Social Democrat and Freemason Muliar was also a contentious person, as he proved not only in his long-standing role as a public and foundation councilor at ORF but also in disputes within theater life. In 1990, in anger over another contract extension for director Claus Peymann, he threatened to retire and in 1997 created an “Anti-Peymann Article Series” in the “Kronen Zeitung” – the dispute with the now head of the Berliner Ensemble continued only last October in a lawsuit for defamation.

Muliar was honored many times, including with the title of professor, honorary memberships of the Burgtheater and Josefstadt, the Nestroy Ring, and the Grand Silver Decoration of Honor of the Republic. Muliar was also chosen as an honorary citizen in Groß-Enzersdorf, where he lived with his wife Franziska. With her, he had two sons, Alexander and Martin; his first son Hans died in 1990. “Despite my belief in God, I could not bring myself to believe in life after death,” Muliar wrote in his autobiography. “Only a person’s deeds live on. And as long as people talk about a person, he is probably dead, but not gone.”