Karl Paryla

Karl Paryla
Left to right: Karl Paryla, Wolfgang Heinz, ADN interviewer
Born	1905
Died	1996

Karl Paryla (1905–1996) was an Austrian theater actor and director, and later a film maker as well. A lifelong, dedicated communist, his career in the Austrian theater was first interrupted by the Second World War, and then strained by Cold War politics. In the 1950s he began working in East Germany, where he performed as an actor and directed plays and films. An actor trained in the school of Constantin Stanislavski, he is praised for the realism he brought to his performances especially in Johann Nestroy's plays and for his ability to organize large ensembles dynamically on the stage. He is remembered also for his work ethic and his fervent belief in the emancipatory power of the theater.

Paryla was born to working-class parents; his father was an instrument maker, and a lower officer and civil servant in the administration of Austria-Hungary. Born Catholic, he dropped his religious affiliation in 1922. He trained at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna, and began a career as an actor with the Raimund Theater in Vienna (some of his siblings, including Emil Stöhr, also had theatrical careers) in 1924 and by 1926 was working in theaters in Germany, where he also became involved with communist workers' organizations. He was fired in Darmstadt in 1933 for political reasons and fled to Vienna, where he found work with the Theater in der Josefstadt. After the Anschluss he emigrated to Switzerland.

In Zurich, he contributed to the reputation of the Schauspielhaus Zürich as an anti-fascist exile theater, performing in original productions and stagings of classical plays, and he played a central part in the development of realistic drama based on the work of Constantin Stanislavski. He had over 90 roles at the Schauspielhaus, performing in classical tragedy (the titular character in Oedipus Rex) and comedy (Orgon in Tartuffe). He worked with Bertolt Brecht and played the role of Schweizerkas in the first performance of Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children. After World War II ended he was one of the first actors to return to Vienna, in December 1945.