Valeska Gert

[3] World War I had a negative effect on her father's finances, forcing her to rely on herself far more than other bourgeois daughters typically might.

[4] Following engagements at the Deutsches Theater and the Tribüne in Berlin, Gert was invited to perform in expressionist plays in Dadaist mixed media art nights.

[1] Her performances in Oskar Kokoschka's Hiob (1918), Ernst Toller's Transformation (1919), and Frank Wedekind's Franziska earned her popularity.

[2] By 1923, Gert focused her work partially on film acting, performing with Andrews Engelmann, Arnold Korff, and others.

From 1926 at the latest, on the stage she introduced new solo pieces she called Tontänze (Sound Dances), adding her voice - noises and words - to her movements, gestures and facial expressions.

[1] In London, she worked on the experimental short film Pett and Pott, which long stood as her last movie.

This same year, she hired the 17-year-old Georg Kreisler as a rehearsal pianist to continue focus on cabaret work.

[12] In February 1945, Gert had to close her Beggar's Bar despite its success, due to a lack of official permits.

She told him stories of hiring a 70-year-old midget named Mademoiselle Pumpernickel for the Beggar's Bar who became jealous whenever Gert went onstage.

During the summer 1946, while she ran Valeska's, she was called to Provincetown court for throwing garbage out of her window and failing to pay a dance partner.

[2] During the same period, she opened her cabaret Ziegenstall (Goat Shed) in the village of Kampen on the island of Sylt in summer 1951.

During this period, she played in Rainer Werner Fassbinder's TV series Eight Hours Don't Make a Day and in Volker Schlöndorff's 1976 movie Coup de Grâce.

[2] In 1978, Werner Herzog invited her to play the real estate broker Knock in his remake of Murnau's classic film Nosferatu.