German cigarette card by Eckstein-Halpaus, Dresden, in the series 'Die Tanzbühnen der Welt', Group 4: 'Die Revue- und Varietébühne', no. 230. Photo: Jacobi. Caption: Katta Sterna. Solo dancer of the Matray Ballet, in the charming dance pantomime 'Das Märchen' (The Fairy Tale).
German actress and dancer Katta Sterna (1897-1983) was the wife of actor-dancer Ernst Matray and sister of actress-dancer Maria Solveig. After a career in silent films, she became one of the personalities of Modern Dance in Germany. The rise of the Nazis broke the career of the Jewish artist.
Katta Stern was born Katharina Ida Stern in Charlottenburg near Berlin in 1897. Stern was the daughter of the engineer Georg Joseph Stern and his wife Bertha Elisabeth, née Schmidt. Katharina was born into an artistic family. Her sisters were also active in the entertainment business and her aunt was the famous artist Käthe Kollwitz. Her sister Gregola appeared on stage with the stage name Regula Keller, her sister Johanna became well-known as the actress Johanna Hofer (married to director Fritz Kortner) and her sister Marie acted on stage and in front of the camera as Maria Solveg. Katta had a difficult puberty and behaved unconcentrated and impulsive. Her parents sought advice from Professor Theodor Ziehen of the Psychiatric and Mental Hospital of the Charité at Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin. He misjudged her as incurable and recommended that she be placed in a sanatorium. But luckily her parents did not comply with this judgment. When Katharina saw the famous Anna Pawlowa dance she decided to become a dancer too. She took lessons from the Austrian dancer and choreographer Grete Wiesenthal and briefly afterwards she got her first engagements at the German opera house where she adopted the pseudonym Katta Sterna. In 1913, she met the actor and dancer Ernst Matray and they became a couple, professionally as well as privately. Matray who was married to the actress Greta Schröder at that time separated from his wife. She also appeared as a solo dancer in the Matray Ballet.
Katta Sterna made her stage debut as an actress under the direction of Max Reinhardt in William Shakespeare's 'Sommernachtstraum' (A Midsummer Night's Dream) at Ernst Matray's side. It was followed by many other appearances together, often as a dancing duo, in the next years. In 1914, she already made her film debut in the silent short Lumpchens GlückLumpy's Luck (N.N., 1914). Soon followed parts in Das Sportsmädel/The Sports Girl (Ernst Matray, 1914) with Paul Hartmann, Teufelchen/Little Devil (Ernst Matray, 1914) and Die verkaufte Braut/The Bartered Bride (Ernst Matray, 1915) with Alice Hechy. But her film performances were rare. Her other silent films were Marionetten/Marionettes (Richard Löwenbein, 1915), the serial Ticky-Tacky (Richard Löwenbein, 1918-1919), Ein genialer Einfall/A Brilliant Idea (N.N., 1919), Das Verlobungsfernrohr/The Engagement Telescope (N.N., 1919), Flimmerherzen/Flickering Hearts (N.N., 1920), O du Quetschfalte meines Herzens/O You Crease of my Heart (N.N., 1920), and Kameraden/Comrades (Kurt Courant, 1921). Her only sound film was Tingel Tangel (Jaap Speyer, 1930) with Elisabeth Pinajeff, Ernst Verebes and Fritz Kampers.
Katta Sterna became one of the personalities of the Modern Dance movement. Her dancing filled the public with enthusiasm. In contemporary literature, her dance style was described as a new kind of pantomime, it was ‘based entirely on mimo-dramatic gestures. As much as the spiritual influence can be felt, it is also closely interwoven with rhythm. Above all, one senses a desire for movement; a desire to let off steam in a spiritually imbued, but no longer spiritually directed emotion'. In the 1920s Sterna did many projects with Ernst Matray and her sister Maria Solveg, like 'Die grüne Flöte' (The Green Flute, 1925), 'Vor dem Spiegel' (In Front of the Mirror, 1925) and 'Sommernachtstraum' (A Midsummer Night's Dream, 1928). When the National Socialists seized power in Germany in 1933, the career of Katta Sterna and her sisters became strongly restricted because they were considered to be 'Volljüdinnen'. Sterna could no longer appear in Germany. Tours in England and the USA followed but an emigration failed. She had to return to Germany and was forced to retire from public life. Katta Sterna died in 1984 in Berlin. She was 86. Her estate is preserved in the German Dance Archive in Cologne.
Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German) and IMDb.
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