Hans Otto

Hans Otto was born on 10 August 1900 in Dresden. He studied drama in Dresden and, from 1920, received engagements in Frankfurt am Main, Gera, Zeitz and Hamburg, performing a number of classic roles. In 1929-30 Hans Otto was appointed to the Schauspielhaus theatre on Gendarmenmarkt in central Berlin. Not only one of the day’s most promising artistic talents, he also had an irrepressibly enthusiastic personality and pronounced political convictions. He joined the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) in 1923 and became senior chairman of the Berlin district workers’ drama association and an instructor for agitprop groups in Berlin. From 1931 Hans Otto was head of the revolutionary, trade union opposition performing arts group “Film-Bühne-Musik” (Film-Stage-Music), which had been set up by the KPD. He acted as a functionary for the central Berlin branch of the KPD.

Early on, friends urged him to leave Germany. But his unfailing optimism and his sense of responsibility convinced him to stay despite the warnings. In 1933 Hans Otto was faced with the choice of bowing to the Nazi regime or leaving the Schauspielhaus. He opted to go underground and participated in the KPD’s anti-Fascist resistance struggle in Mitte. Searches of his home did not make him reconsider and he continued his resistance work. The SA seized Hans Otto on 14 November 1933. He was dragged through several SA barracks where he was subjected to physical abuse before being taken to SA headquarters in Voss Strasse.
Despite the torture he had suffered, Hans Otto still mustered enough strength and love to care for and comfort his fellow internees. Finally, he was taken to the state hospital, unconscious and with multiple skull fractures, where he died of his injuries on 24 November 1933.