PAULSEN, HARALD

(1895-1954)

Actor. Paulsen is best known as the original Mack the Knife in the world premiere ofBertolt Brechtand Kurt Weill'sDie Dreigroschenoper(The Threepenny Opera). As a teenager Paulsen worked as an apprentice at the Thalia Theater inHamburgand took acting lessons there fromLeopold Jessner. Before his career could get started, however, he was drafted into the German army and served on the Western Front. Soon after his release from military duty,Max Reinhardthired Paulsen, and by 1922 he had made a name for himself as a comedian. His vocal gifts were so substantial that he sang in someBerlinopera productions during the 1920s, but he also worked in operettas, musical revues, and roles for the debonair man-about-town. His casting as Mack the Knife was therefore logical and ironic, given the goals Brecht andErich Engelhad for the production. They cast him again for the 1930 premiere ofAufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny(The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny). Paulsen remained active in both theater and film during the Third Reich, and in 1937 he was namedStaatsschauspieler(state actor), marking him as one of the regime's favorites. That did not harm his career after the war, though, for between 1948 and his death he appeared in more than 25 films.