FLORATH, ALBERT

(1888-1957)

Actor. Florath began his career with touring troupes in 1908 and had a brief career as a politician after 1918, when he was elected to the Bavarian state legislature. In 1920 he returned to acting and became one of Berlin's best-known character actors, appearing in severalJürgen Fehlingproductions ofErnst Barlachpremieres. During the Third Reich, Florath was a "reliable rustic," playing comic parts in the State Theater'sShakespeareproductions, such as Dogberry inMuch Ado about Nothing, Touchstone inAs You Like It, and Grumio inThe Taming of the Shrew, in which he appeared as "a Germanic Sancho Panza," in the words of one reviewer (Bernhard Eck, "Ein komödiantsiches Spiel,"Völkischer Beobachter, 16 October 1942, 5). In the postwar period, there was considerable demand for Florath as a film actor, and from 1946 to 1956 he appeared in more than 50 movies.