Background
Thimig was the founding father of one of Austria"s most famous theatrical families, but was born in Dresden, the son of a shoemaker.
Thimig was the founding father of one of Austria"s most famous theatrical families, but was born in Dresden, the son of a shoemaker.
He worked in a grocery and attended a trade school before making several appearances on stage as an amateur in his home town.
He made his professional debut in October 1872 in the town theatre of Bautzen. Within only two years, via the theatres in Zittau, Kamenz and Freiberg, Saxony, and the Lobe-Theater in Breslau, he obtained an engagement at the Burgtheater, and arrived in Vienna in 1874 to take it up. A week before his 20th birthday he gave his first performance there as Didier in Charlotte Birch-Pfeiffer"s Die Grille.
Thimig began as a "shy lover", but soon developed into both comic and serious character roles, and his career soon took official
As early as 1881 he was appointed Hofrat, in 1897 he directed his first play, and from 1912 to 1917 he was also director of the Burgtheater, from which he had long since obtained a contract for life plus entitlement to a pension. The youngest of the three, Hans Thimig, joined them a little later.
The entire family from then on worked in either the Burgtheater or the Theater in der Josefstadt. Thimig was a passionate collector of theatrical items and memorabilia.
His collection of documents and objects formed the basis of the collections of the Austrian Theatre Museum in the Palais Lobkowitz in Vienna.
1942: Goethe-Medaille für Kunst und Wissenschaft, awarded by Adolf Hitler 1944: Ring of Honour of the City of Vienna (Ehrenring der Stadt Wien) A street - Thimiggasse - is named after Hugo Thimig in Währing, the 18th district of Vienna.