Christa Winsloe
Christa Winsloe was a German playwright born in 1888 in Darmstadt, who is best known for her play "Ritter Nérestan," which explores themes of sexual identity and societal constraints. Despite having only one play produced during her lifetime, Winsloe's work gained notable attention and longevity, undergoing multiple revisions and adaptations, including a motion picture and a novel. Her early experiences at a rigid finishing school in Switzerland informed the rich detail of her writing. Winsloe had a tumultuous personal life, marked by her marriage to Hungarian sugar baron Baron Ludwig Harvany and a subsequent relationship with journalist Dorothy Thompson, which lasted several years.
"Winsloe's play premiered in 1930 in Leipzig and later adapted for film as "Mädchen in Uniform," which sparked controversy over its endings concerning the protagonist's love for her teacher. The play achieved international success, being performed in England and the United States under different titles. During World War II, Winsloe became involved in the French resistance, helping Jews escape to Switzerland. Tragically, her life was cut short in 1944 when she and her partner, Simone Gentet, were abducted and executed, falsely accused of being associated with the Gestapo. Winsloe's legacy remains significant in discussions of LGBTQ+ representation in early 20th-century theater.
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Christa Winsloe
Fiction Writer
- Born: December 23, 1888
- Birthplace: Darmstadt, Germany
- Died: June 10, 1944
Biography
Although Christa Winsloe had only one play produced in her lifetime, she got more mileage out of that play, originally titled Ritter Nérestan, than many dramatists do out of decades of writing. She revised the play endlessly for presentation in various venues. She based a novel on it and helped adapt it as a German motion picture.
Born in 1888 in Darmstadt, Germany, to an army officer, Winsloe studied at the Empress Augusta Academy, then at a finishing school in Switzerland. In this school, rigidly rule- oriented, students and administers were often at odds, leaving teachers and other staff in the middle between two opposing factions. Much of the detail with which Winsloe filled her play evolved from the situation at her school.
Studying sculpture in Munich, Germany, Winsloe met and married a Hungarian sugar baron and patron of the arts, Baron Ludwig Harvany. The couple lived in Budapest, Hungary, where Winsloe wrote an unpublished autobiographical novel, “Das schwarze Schaf,” and an unpublished novella, “Männer kehren Heim,” that addressed questions of sexual identity within structured societies, a subject she would return to in Ritter Nérestan.
In 1918, disenchanted by her husband’s womanizing, Winsloe felt bereft and isolated. She left her husband and returned to Munich to continue her artistic career. As a baroness, she had access to the best social circles in Munich. She exploited this advantage to the fullest. In 1932, in her ventures among the beautiful people, Winsloe met journalistDorothy Thompson, wife of author Sinclair Lewis; Lewis had recently become the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Winsloe entered into a lesbian relationship with Thompson that lasted for several years.
After Ritter Nérestan premiered in Leipzig, Germany, in 1930, Winsloe reworked it as Gestern und heute for its Berlin opening. Its successful film adaptation, Mädchen in Uniform (1931), displeased Winsloe, who had worked on the film. The film was released with two endings. In one, Manuela, the protagonist, faces expulsion from school after confessing her love for her teacher, Fraulein von Bernburg. Manuela throws herself from a window and dies. In the alternate ending, her classmates rescue her before she can jump. American censors banned the first version but approved the alternate version for showing in the United States.
In October, 1932, an English translation of the play, Children in Uniform, opened in London with Jessica Tandy playing Manuela. A few weeks later it opened on Broadway with the title Girls in Uniform. Following its success in England and the United States, the play was staged throughout Europe.
During World War II, Winsloe, having lived briefly in California, moved to France, where she worked with the French resistance and helped many Jews escape to Switzerland, the home of her lover, Simone Gentet. On June 10, 1944, a band of men abducted the two, drove them to a forest, and executed them, accusing them of having Gestapo connections, a charge that was later disproved.