Albert Bassermann

Albert Bassermann
Albert Bassermann as "Van Meer" in Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent.
Born	(1867-09-07)7 September 1867 Mannheim, Germany
Died	15 March 1952(1952-03-15) (aged 84) en route to Zurich, Switzerland
Occupation	Screen, Stage Actor
Years active	1887-1948
Spouse(s)	Elsa Bassermann (1908–1952; his death)

Albert Bassermann (7 September 1867 – 15 May 1952) was a German stage and screen actor. He was considered to be one of the greatest German-speaking actors of his generation and received the famous Iffland-Ring. He was married to Elsa Bassermann whom he frequently performed alongside.

Bassermann began his acting career in 1887 in his birthplace, Mannheim after he began to study Chemistry at the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1884/85. At Karlsruhe he was active corporative student from 1884/85 in the fraternity Palatia (beer-name: "Zampa") for several semesters he then spent four years at the Hoftheater in Meiningen. He then moved to Berlin. From 1899, he worked for Otto Brahm. He began work at the Deutsches Theater from 1904, and in 1909 worked at the Lessing Theatre. From 1909 to 1915, Bassermann worked with Max Reinhardt at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. Roles included Othello in 1910,Faust Part II with Friedrich Kayssler in 1911, Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and August Strindberg's The Storm with in 1913.

Bassermann was among the first German theatre actors who worked in film. In 1913, he played the main role of the lawyer in Max Mack's Der Andere (The Other), after the play by Paul Lindau. In 1915 he appeared in Egmont (play) with at the . He also worked with German silent film directors Richard Oswald, Ernst Lubitsch, Leopold Jessner and Lupu Pick. In 1928 he appeared in the first staging of Carl Zuckmayer's Katharina Knie, and in November that year in Herr Lambertier by Verneuil In 1933, Bassermann left Germany and lived in the United States from 1938.