page_title: Aleksandër Moisiu
section_title: Early years
hierarchical_section_title: Aleksandër Moisiu / Early years
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Alexander Moissi ADN-ZB Der Schauspieler Alexander Moissi als Prinz Kalaf in Carlo Gozzis "Turandot", aufgeführt vom Deutschen Theater zu Berlin. (Aufn.: Dezember 1911) Abgebildete Personen: Moissi, Alexander: Schauspieler, Deutschland (GND 118583271)
context_page_description: Alexander Moissi was an Austrian stage actor of Albanian origin.
context_section_description: Moissi was born in Trieste to Moisi Moisiu from Kavalye, Ottoman Empire (today Kavajë in Albania), who was a rich Albanian merchant of oil and wheat, and an Arbëresh mother, Amalia de Rada, from Trieste, daughter of a Florentine doctor.
  After an international childhood in Trieste, Durrës and Graz, the 20-year-old Alexander settled with his mother and two sisters in Vienna. He began vocal studies and applied for a drama training at the k.k. Hofburgtheater, but was rejected due to his strong Italian accent and had to confine himself to non-speaking roles. It was his performance in Molière's Tartuffe of the Burgtheater 1899/1900 season, which stunned the renowned Austrian actor Josef Kainz, playing the lead role.
  With Kainz' encouragement and support, Moissi's career as one of the great European stage actors of the early-20th century began. The following year took him to the New German Theatre in Prague and in 1903 he joined the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, where he became a protégé of the influential director Max Reinhardt.
  Together with Rudolph Schildkraut he performed in Reinhardt's staging of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, now emphasizing his melodious speech, which despite first damning reviews finally made him a star. Moissi and the Reinhardt ensemble toured the Russia in 1911 and was acclaimed in Saint Petersburg by critic and dramatist Anatoly Lunacharsky for his interpretation of Sophocles' Oedipus. Traveling across Europe and the Americas, his most famous role was Fedya in Tolstoy's The Living Corpse — performed more than 1400 times by him. In 1914, Moisiu acquired German citizenship to become a volunteer in World War I, and during the German Revolution of 1918–19 joined the Marxist Spartacus League.
  In 1920 he played the leading part in the first performance of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann adaption of The Somonyng of Everyman at the Salzburg Festival. However, Moissi did not keep up with the German Expressionist and epic theatre movement initiated by directors like Erwin Piscator and Bertolt Brecht. He finally left Germany after the Nazi Machtergreifung in 1933 and was offered Albanian citizenship by King Zog.
  Alexander Moissi died of pneumonia on 22 or 23 March 1935, most likely in Vienna (other sources claim 23 March 1935 in Lugano). He was cremated at Feuerhalle Simmering and his ashes are buried at the Morcote cemetery overlooking Lake Lugano in Switzerland.
caption: Moissi as Prince Kalaf in Gozzi's Turandot, Deutsches Theater, Berlin, December 1911
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