Adele Sandrock

Adele Sandrock (19 August 1863 – 30 August 1937) was a German-Dutch actress. After a successful theatrical career, she became one of the first German movie stars.

Sandrock was born as Adele Feldern-Förster in Rotterdam, Netherlands, the daughter of the German merchant Eduard Sandrock (1834–1897) and his Dutch wife Johanna Simonetta ten Hagen (1833–1917). After a rocky childhood, she went to Berlin at the age of fifteen to become an actress. She made her debut in 1878 with a major role in Mutter und Sohn by Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer. In Berlin she met the famous Meiningen Ensemble and achieved success at the theatre of Meiningen, where her first role was Luise in Schiller's Intrigue and Love, followed by further engagements in Moscow, Wiener Neustadt, and Budapest.

In 1889 she had her breakthrough at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna and afterwards became a member of the Volkstheater ensemble. She created a number of major roles for modern playwrights including Henrik Ibsen and Arthur Schnitzler, with whom she had a notoriously stormy affair, later perpetuated in his play La Ronde. She was temporarily engaged with the author Alexander Roda Roda, who also integrated the experience in his writing. From 1895 she performed at the Burgtheater, however, she provoked disagreement concerning both her contract and her private life, and she left for an extended European tour in 1898. Back at the Volkstheater in 1902, she was not able to continue her success on th stage. In 1905 he moved back to Berlin, to work at the Deutsches Theater led by Max Reinhardt.

Adele Sandrock about 1930

In 1911 Sandrock made her silent film debut in Marianne, ein Weib aus dem Volk, a short subject. She acted in more than 140 films, working with a number of directors including Reinhold Schünzel and Hans Hinrich, and even continued her career into the sound film era with her characteristic dark voice. Her autobiography, Mein Leben, was published in 1940.