KERZ - Leo. 1912 -1976
Berlin, Johannesburg, New York

They were called “refugees” a kind of pejorative term used to describe the emigres to America from Europe. In the 1930s and 40s some believed they were here to usurp employment of all kinds from American born citizens. They were on the run from foreign governments. The full murderous force of Hitler’s Nazi regime was not yet known or kept under cover.

After the burning of the Berlin Reichstag in 1933, and Hitler’s edict against the Jewish population, a constant stream of people climbed mountains, crossed Europe, sailed the oceans…they ran for their lives. Brilliant artists, bankers, business folks, musicians, composers, playwrights, directors, film makers, actors, and educators secured visas for America and settled mostly in Los Angeles and New York. Many arrived with just a few suitcases…and hope to continue their careers and lives like the Pilgrims…centuries before…they sought religious and social freedoms.

I knew such a person…and married him. This is his story.

Born in Berlin (1912) to Polish parents, he led a relatively privileged life at Stierstrasse #4. His Father Nathan was a fashion designer and Mother Nechuma ran the business. Charlottenstrasse housed a large apartment above a fashion salon, a manufacturing unit, and model showrooms. Nathan travelled to Paris four times a year to view the latest styles and reworked them for the Berlin market.

Nathan made a fur coat for young Leo when he was six years old and had his own puppet theatre and white doves as pets. He played the violin from age 4 – 16 with music classes on a regular basis. He also studied conducting while his sister Charlotte played on a grand piano. I don’t know if there were duets…between brother and sister. Leo switched from music to art and stage design when he realized he would not become a world renown violinist.

He attended the Moses Mendelsohn Schule, went to the Academy of Arts and then to the Erwin Piscator Schule for theatre. There is a photo of Leo in his class at the school in POLITICAL THEATRE, as a young student. As a teenager, he was good at gymnastics, was alight weight boxer…attended the six-day bike races. His reading of German classics included Thomas Mann’s BUDDENBROOKS. (He strongly suggested I read the book). The excitement of Berlin’s cultural and intellectual life in the late 1920s was a magnet to the young Leo Kerz. The “Berliner Luft” was filled with innovations in music, art, theatre and architecture. He attended the theatre, cabarets and films of the Weimar Era. One of his teachers, Moholy-Nagy, was THE BAUHAUS innovator. Director Max Reinhardt provided traditional theatre par excellence, while a younger generation was making art new.

Politics and social issues were explored with a new significance…They reflected the mistakes and tragedies of WWI and its disastrous aftermath. The leading radical theatre director was Erwin Piscator who together with writer Bertolt Brecht, designers Caspar Nehar and Traugott Muller fused new technology and current world problems into riveting stage productions. Film and mechanical devices were used to enlarge the landscape of the theatre. As the Nazi era grew, so did opposition…in the form of strong Socialist and Communist Parties. Leo joined the “Young Spartacists” …a left-wing Anti-Nazi group.

His artistic work was riveted by Director Erwin Piscator, who became his mentor. The concepts of political, epic and total theatre infiltrated his work as a stage designer and producer during his entire professional life. He became the assistant to famed stage designer Traugott Muller, worked on various productions and his designs were shown in exhibitions. He became an illustrator, commercial artist and Architect’s assistant in Amsterdam and Prague. After the burning of the Reichstag he was told not to return home by his parents, so he walked across the border to Prague. His school friend, Helmut Kindler wrote a chapter in his autobiography called “MY FRIEND LEO KERZ EMIGRATES”. His parents moved to Holland with their business, they eventually were apprehended and perished at the concentration camp Sobibor. Leo lived in anguish for the rest of his life. Yes, he eventually found a personal life, but he was sad and depressed, as so many survivors were.

Leo met a young athlete, famed and destined for The Olympics, but restrained because she was Jewish. Martel Jacob set forth with Leo for the southern tip of Africa, the couple married in Johannesburg, SA. They found a city that meant safety for them, and a new life. The marriage only lasted two years, but they were free. Leo developed in THE PIONEER THEATRE, which had an integrated cast for the first time in the Country. He mounted the first production of the ground breaking THREE PENNY OPERA there and was able to continue his artistic crafts.

His marriage to Rosa Resi Kerz produced two children…Paul and Leonore. The Nathan Kerz Family was doomed at The Hague…passports and visas never arrived. Leo could not help them…he was stricken. The letters from The Dutch Red Cross are unbearable to read.

Leo, his wife, and child Paul were able to secure passage to New York in 1941 where a position as teacher of stage, lighting, and costume design awaited him at THE NEW SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL RESEARCH. Sponsored by a member of his family, George Goldberg and his mentor, the Director Erwin Piscator, whose “Dramatic Workshop” at The New School was making theatre history in Greenwich Village in NY City. The intellectual life at the university was a great stimulation for Piscator and his staff. They studied and acted theatre classics, a vast change from life in Johannesburg. Students included…playwrights Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller…actors Marlon Brando, Harry Belafonte, Elaine Stritch and Walter Matthau. Stella Adler taught acting classes. Young Judith Malina, a fledgling actress/director and inspired by Piscator created THE LIVING THEATRE with Julian Beck. Their first performances were in their living room.

Leo was able to find work dressing windows at Lord and Taylor, set design at The Bucks County Playhouse and eventually as assistant to well known stage designers, Jo Mielziner, and Harry Horner. He began to integrate himself into the cultural life of New York City, including a five-year period as art director at CBS Television. The first major Broadway assignment was stage and costume designer for ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA in 1947. Then several seasons at THE SAN FRANCISCO OPERA and eventually THE NEW YORK CITY OPERA AND THE METROPOLITAN OPERA. His art made use of the filmic elements learned during the Piscator Weimar years in the late 1920s in Berlin.

New York was the center of the East Coast film industry and Leo became Art Director of many films that included ODDS AGAINST TOMORROW directed by Robert Wise, and which starred Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan.

He began to search for new plays that were cutting edge with a European Quality. His most resounding success on Broadway was the American version of RHINOCEROS by French author Eugene Ionesco. Labeled the “Theatre of the Absurd” the play was anti-Fascist comedy. The unique stage actor, Zero Mostel and Eli Wallach were the stars that brought laughter and fear to the audiences. At the time, I was Leo’s assistant and learned all aspects of stage production. It was an important learning process for me, which enhanced my career later as a theater researcher, curator and historian. He also designed the stage settings…that combined his talents as an artist/producer.

His second marriage came to an end around this time. After much deliberation, we decided to work together, and live as a unit.

When Erwin Piscator summoned Leo to West Berlin to design his latest play, we closed the NY office and moved to Berlin in Nov. 1962. The next year…THE DEPUTY written by Rolf Hochhuth…opened on the world stage as a historical question. Why did Pope Pius XII, fail to speak out against the Holocaust? Theatre history was made, and The Catholic Church examined its identity and motives…changes were made several years later.

The famed director Erwin Piscator whose concepts of political, epic and total theatre infiltrated his work on the stage. The audience was given a mission…to think, get involved and take action if necessary. Leo Kerz became part of the theatre that attracted him as a young person. His life changed when we married and had two sons, Jonathan and Antony. Our marriage was a treasure…and my sons have given me six grandchildren.

Leo Kerz was nominated for many awards and received the New York Music Critics Award for “SUSANNAH” and the New York Outer Circle Award for “RHINOCEROS”. There are Stoplesteine in front of the last Kerz residence at Stier Strasse in Berlin in memory of the Kerz family. 

In 2010, three brass sculptures “STOPLESTEINE were placed in front of an apartment building a #4 Steirstrasse, Berlin. The German artist Gunter Demnig designed and installed the pieces, which honor the memory of the Kerz Family that perished during The Holocaust. My sons Jonathan and Antony were with me for the ceremony. The music of Kurt Weill and Hans Eisler was played…I was  moved that playwright Rolf Hochhuth attended the event as well. It was a profound experience as we bid farewell to Leo Kerz.

Written and curated by Louise Kerz Hirschfeld