Heinrich Neft

Heinrich Neft (* July 17, 1868 in Worms, † 1944 in Vienna) was a human being and for a year (from 1928-1929) boss at the Volksbühne.
== Life and work ==
==== before ∇ ====
From 1902 onwards he was cashier in the association of the Neue Freie Volksbühne from 1902, later its managing director.
==== ∇ ====
He was in charge for the financial organisation of the Construction of the Volksbühne. By the time construction began in 1913 at the latest, he likewise spent most of his time at the Platz. Since 1919 he repeatedly received the title of Volksbühnen-Boss of the Summer , which meant that he was the fool who had to hold the position while everyone else was on vacation. Similar to Karl Holàn and Klaus Dörr, Neft had absolutely no artistic ambitions but was only there to take care of the money issues. At least during the time when he was not the boss himself, he managed to do that quite well, according to the circumstances. When Fritz Holl quit his reign rematurely, he was crowned the boss for good, of course amid wild protests from critics. In and of itself, his successor Karl Heinz Martin was secretly already in charge of the entire business, only to officially became boss one season later.
In 1914 Neft was registered at Kaiserstraße 40 in Friedrichshagen. https://digital.zlb.de/viewer/image/34295850_1914_1915/75/LOG_0011/ In 1923 he married Else Bäck, who during his term of office also served as Actress worked at the Volksbühne. Shortly afterwards he moved in with her on Gleditschstrasse in Schöneberg.
==== after ∇ ====
To the surprise of many, he left the Volksbühne e.V. in 1931. On March 1, 1933, he began leasing a bankrupt theater in Duisburg. https://www.berlin.de/ba-charlottenburg-wilmersdorf/ueber-den- Bezirk/geschichte/stolpersteine/artikel.179848.php However, the project ended as early as 1934. From then on, he refereed to himself as former theater manager.
He lived with Else and her mother Luise Bäck in Berlin-Westend for the next few years. While he was able to get his wife out of custody twice, his mother-in-law was killed on February 17, 1944 at the age of 87 in Theresienstadt.
After his death, Else changed her whereabouts every day in Berlin and finally made it to Vienna. When the US Army arrived there, she organized a stage program and later emigrated to the USA, where she died in 1968.
== References ==