Alice Hechy

German actress and singer Alice Hechy (1893-1973) appeared in some 30 films during the silent and early sound era. Later she mainly appeared on stage and on the radio.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 189. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Wolff, Berlin, no. P 53. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Wolff, Berlin, no. F 54. Photo: Alex Binder.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 421/4, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 1359/1, 1927-1928.

Mechanical doll

Alice Hechy was born in Anklam, Germany in 1893. She had singing lessons from Ludwig Mantler.

In 1912 she played, credited as Alice Scheel Hechy, her first film role in Problematische Naturen/Problemativ Natures (Hans Oberländer, 1912).

Other early silent films included Das rote Pulver/The Red Powder (Joseph Delmont, 1913), Fräulein Piccolo/Miss Piccolo (Franz Hofer, 1914) with Dorrit Weixler, and Dorrits Eheglück/Dorrit’s Married Bliss (Paul Otto, 1916) with Bruno Kastner.

Her most significant role in these years was that of the mechanical doll Olympia in Hoffmanns Erzählungen/Tales of Hoffmann (Richard Oswald, 1916), the early silent film adaptation of the operetta by Jacques Offenbach.

Then Hechy started her Berlin stage career. First, she appeared at the Lustspielhaus (comedy house), then at the Theater in der Kommandantenstraße, at the Neuen Theater am Zoo, and at the Theater in der Behrenstraße.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. 5881. Photo: Willinger. Alice Hechy (here as Alice Scheel-Hechy), Lotte Neumann (here as Lotti Neumann), and Georg Baselt in the stage comedy 'Hochherrschaftliche Wohnungen'(Stately Homes, 1913), performed at the Komödienhaus, and written by Toni Impekoven. Caption: Are there at the Kadewe [a department store] only such pretty ladies? Under the pseudonym Peter Panter, Kurt Tucholsky wrote a review of the play in 'Die Schaubühne (16, 17.04.1913).


German postcard by Verlag Hermann Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 7440. Photo: Ernst Schneider.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 89/1. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1406. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1407. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1415. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.

Revue star

In the 1920s and early 1930s, Alice Hechy was repeatedly the star of the revues of Herman Haller. Guest performances took her to revues and operettas in Vienna.

In the cinema, she appeared in the worldwide success Variété/Jealousy (Ewald André Dupont, 1925). The all-star cast included Emil Jannings, Maly Delschaft, Lya de Putti, Warwick Ward and Kurt Gerron.

From 1925 on, she played only minor roles, such as in Zuflucht/Refuge (Carl Froelich, 1928) starring Henny Porten. Meanwhile, she sang at recitals for the radio and performed in cabarets.

In 1945 she finally accepted a permanent engagement again at the Theater in der Kaiserallee. Later she was a guest during the tours of the Neuen Deutschen Bühne der Jugend (New German Youth Theatre).

She returned once to the cinema as herself in Das gab's nur einmal/It Happened Only Once (Géza von Bolváry, 1958) starring Hans Albers and Helga Martin. An experienced star recounts the history of the film industry to an aspiring young actress showing a compilation of clips from a variety of German films, many of them featuring Albers himself. Alice Hechy died in 1973 in Berlin.


German postcard by Photochemie, no. K. 2679. Photo: Oskar Einstein-Film, Berlin. Alice Hechy and Arthur Schröder in Das Land der Sehnsucht/The land of longing (Walter Schmidthässler, Arzén von Cserépy, 1918).


German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, K.2682. Photo: Oskar Einstein Film, Berlin. Alice Hechy and Arthur Schröder in Das Land der Sehnsucht/The Land of Desire (Walter Schmidthässler, Arzén von Cserépy, 1918).


German postcard by Berliner Illustrierte Geschichte, no. 1090. Series 'Bekannte Künstlerinnen am Toilettentisch' (Famous Artist at their Dressing Table).


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 88/3. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Rotophot in the Film Sterne series, no. 88/4. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 89/3. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard in the Film Sterne series by Rotophot, no. 89/4. Photo: Karl Schenker, Berlin.


German postcard by Ross Verlag, Berlin, no. 421/2, 1919-1924. Photo: Alex Binder.

Sources: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Wikipedia (German), and IMDb.