Leontine Sagan

Leontine Sagan
Born
Leontine Schlesinger

(1889-02-13)13 February 1889
Budapest or Vienna, Austria-Hungary
Died20 May 1974(1974-05-20) (aged 85)
Pretoria, South Africa
Occupation(s)Theatre director and actress
SpouseVictor Fleischer

Leontine Sagan (born Leontine Schlesinger; 13 February 1890 – 20 May 1974) was a theatre director and actress of Jewish descent, whose life and career took her from the Austro-Hungarian Empire to South Africa, Britain and the United States.[1] She is, however, best known for directing a film, Mädchen in Uniform (1931), which has been celebrated for its scathing indictment of Prussian military-style schooling, as well as its sensitive portrayal of same-sex intimacy between a teacher and a student at a girls' school, in the waning years of Germany's Weimar Republic,[2][3]

Sagan was born in Budapest but grew up in South Africa.[4] After returning to Vienna to attend Max Reinhardt's Theatre School in Vienna, she acted on Austrian provincial stages, and moved on to major roles in Dresden, Frankfurt and Berlin, where she also directed theatre, first in Germany and, after she had to flee Hitler, in Britain, South Africa, and Australia. She co-founded the National Theatre Organisation of South Africa in 1947, and died in Pretoria, South Africa in 1974, at the age of 85.[5][6]

  1. ^ Bernard Sachs, South African Personalities and Places (pitzer.edu), Kayor Publishers, Johannesburg, 1959.
  2. ^ "Leontine Sagan - Biography, Movie Highlights and Photos - AllMovie". AllMovie.
  3. ^ Mennel, Barbara (2023). Mädchen in Uniform. London: Bloomsbury/British Film Institute. ISBN 9781839024177.
  4. ^ Sagan, Leontine (1996). Kruger, Loren (ed.). Lights and Shadows: The Autobiography of Leontine Sagan. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. pp. 1–16. ISBN 9781868142880.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Foster, G. pp. 361–362 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Sagan, Lights and Shadows, 229