Bela Jenbach


Bela Jenbach, real name Béla Jacobowicz was an Austrian actor and operetta librettist of Hungarian origin.
Jenbach was of Jewish origin and the brother of the screenwriter Ida Jenbach. He was co-author of several well-known operetta libretti. Jenbach died in the Auersperg Sanatorium in Vienna and was buried in the Matzleinsdorf Protestant Cemetery.

Life

Jenbach came to Vienna at the age of 18. At first he kept himself busy with casual work. He invested his earnings in speech lessons and proved to be an extremely talented student, as he managed to lose his accent in a very short time. The foundation for his career was laid and he was engaged by the Vienna Burgtheater. He took this opportunity to change his name from Jacobowicz to Jenbach. He hoped for greater recognition and did not want to be immediately associated with his Jewish roots.
Depressed about the low earnings as a Burgtheater actor he came via the "Operettenbörse" in Café Sperl to write libretti. He would rather have become a recognized author of spoken dramas, but the work for operetta composers was simply more lucrative.
During the Nazi period his working conditions became worse and worse. Jenbach had a Catholic wife and a daughter. He did not think of emigrating. From 1940, he hid in a cellar near Vienna's Kaunitzgasse. After three years in this involuntary dungeon, Jenbach felt severe physical pain. He was admitted to hospital with stomach cancer in its final stage and died there on 21 January 1943.
His wife, the actress Anna Brandstätter, survived him by only eight days; she died of breast cancer on 29 January 1943. They had a daughter, Lydia Jenbach.
A statue of Jenbach was unveiled in Miskolc on May 11, 2024.

Works

Operettas