Valeska Gert Video | Celebrity Interview and Paparazzi

Valeska Gert (11 January 1892 – circa 16 March 1978) was a German Jewish dancer and cabaret artist. She was also active as an actress and artists' model. Gert was born as Gertrud Valesca Samosch in Berlin to a Jewish family. She was the eldest daughter of manufacturer Theodor Samosch and Augusta Rosenthal. Exhibiting no interest in academics or office work, Gert began taking dance lessons at the age of nine. This, combined with her love of ornate fashion, led her to a career in dance and performance art. In 1915, she studied acting with Maria Moissi. World War I had a negative effect on... MORE

Valeska Gert (11 January 1892 – circa 16 March 1978) was a German Jewish dancer and cabaret artist. She was also active as an actress and artists' model. Gert was born as Gertrud Valesca Samosch in Berlin to a Jewish family. She was the eldest daughter of manufacturer Theodor Samosch and Augusta Rosenthal. Exhibiting no interest in academics or office work, Gert began taking dance lessons at the age of nine. This, combined with her love of ornate fashion, led her to a career in dance and performance art. In 1915, she studied acting with Maria Moissi. World War I had a negative effect on her father’s finances, forcing Gert to rely on herself far more than other bourgeois daughters typically might. As World War I raged on, Gert joined a Berliner dance group and created revolutionary satirical dance. In 1916, Gert made her dance debut in a Berlin movie house, performing between movie reels. The same year, she began acting at the Munich Kammerspiele. Following engagements at the Deutsches Theater and the Tribüne in Berlin, Gert was invited to perform in expressionist plays in Dadaist mixed media art nights. Her performances in Oskar Kokoschka’s Hiob (1918), Ernst Toller’s LESS