The Double Accountant

Photographer Unknown

1916

Photograph of two figures looking at each other, one crouched on a stool and the other standing.
Tooltip info icon

Siegfried Berisch (1877–1933) and Josefina Kleine (b. late nineteenth century) are pictured here performing the burlesque Der doppelte Buchhalter (The Double Accountant) at Berlin’s Gebruder Herrnfeld Theater, a popular Yiddish theater for Jewish and general audiences in Imperial Germany. Berisch was a Jewish actor and comedian who started out performing in the cabaret and German Jewish theater scenes in Berlin and Vienna. Berisch’s first major role was in Schmidt will nicht heiraten (Schmidt Does Not Wish to Marry, 1910) and his film debut was in Aus eines Mannes Mädchenzeit (From a Man’s Girlhood, 1913). He starred in more than a dozen silent films through 1929 and a handful of talkies and musicals before he died in Vienna. Nothing is known about Kleine. 

Credits

In Peter Sprengel, Populäres jüdisches Theater in Berlin von 1877 bis 1933 (Berlin: Haude & Spenersche, 1997). Photo courtesy Harvard University Library.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 7.

Engage with this Source
Restricted
Some content is unavailable to non-members, please log in or sign up for free for full access.

Related Guide

The Expansion of Jewish Performance Art: Theater, Dance, and the Birth of Cinema

1880–1918

Jewish creativity in theater, dance, and early cinema expanded dramatically around the world, taking on nationalist significance for a Jewish cultural renaissance.

You may also like

Photograph of several women in dresses and headdresses with rug and cooking implements on the floor.
Tooltip info icon

Esther Play for Purim

Purim plays (Purim shpiln, in Yiddish), sometimes also called Esther plays, have been known since the fifteenth century in both Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities. These folk plays were performed on…
View Source
Photograph of figures sitting in furnished room.
Tooltip info icon

Thieves

This scene is from the 1917 Vilna Troupe production of Fishl Bimko’s Ganovim (Robbers), featuring, from left to right, Morris Tarlov, Avrom Teytlboym, Herts Grosbard, Luba Kadison, and Noyekh Nakhbush…
View Source
Photograph of many people sitting in rows.
Tooltip info icon

The First Habima Theater Audience

This photograph features the audience of the first performance by Habimah ha-‘Ivrit (the Hebrew Stage; known internationally as Habima). The theater was established by Naḥum Tsemaḥ (Zemach) in…
View Source
Page with Yiddish and Spanish titles and small portrait photographs.
Tooltip info icon

Komishe nakht (Comical Night)

Advertisement for an October 20, 1918, Yiddish production of Komishe nakht, a French comedy by José Sanz Pérez, adapted into Yiddish by M. Oyerbakh. It was performed by Salon Casa Suiza in Buenos…
View Source
Photograph of man in top hat looking off to the side.
Tooltip info icon

Photographs of Donat Herrnfeld

The actor, comedian, and playwright Donat (David) Herrnfeld grew up in the small town of Raab (Győr) in Hungary; his family later moved to Vienna. Donat and his siblings performed and toured early on…
View Source