Born on May 19, 1893, in Ach, Austria, the actor worked at theaters in Mainz and Stettin (present-day Szczecin, Poland) from the 1920s onward before joining the Hessian Landestheater Darmstadt in 1934.
Gaugl’s marriage to a woman from a Jewish family had implications under National Socialist ideology and, as a result, he was expelled from the Reich Chamber of Culture in January of 1937. Officials informed him that he did not possess the “reliability and suitability required under Reich Chamber of Culture legislation in the sense of National Socialist state leadership.” Although he was granted a special permit allowing him to remain at the theater until the end of the 1937 season, his career in Germany ultimately came to an end thereafter.
Gaugl first went to Vienna, where his wife’s family lived, but was unable to find employment there. In 1939, he spent one season at the Bern Stadttheater and, in 1941, he received an engagement in Ostrau (present-day Ostrava, Czech Republic). Again working under a special permit, he began performing at the Neues Schauspielhaus in Vienna in 1942, where he remained until the end of the war. He began working at the Klagenfurt Stadttheater in 1950 before joining the Vienna Volkstheater in 1954. Anton Gaugl died on February 8, 1861, in Vienna.
1893 Ach
1961 Vienna