Ferdinand Christophory was born on April 7, 1885, in Mamer, a village in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. He began his career as an actor, working at the Lüneburg Stadttheater in 1907; at the Heidelberg Stadttheater from 1909; and the Osnabrück Stadttheater in 1912, where he was also a singer, chorister, secretary, and librarian.
In 1914 he was engaged at the Bremen Stadttheater, where he sang with the first tenors in the opera choir. He then went to the Hamburg Stadttheater as a soloist in 1915. There, from 1920 onward, he represented the interests of the ensemble members in the artists’ union “Deutsche Bühnengenossenschaft” as well as in the pension fund, serving for many years as chair of the Bühnengenossenschaft department responsible for the Hamburg Opera.
These political activities ultimately led to his dismissal in the summer of 1933, as later confirmed by former general director Leopold Sachse, who described Christophory as “a capable union leader, making him a target of the Hitler regime.”
In 1942 and 1943, Christophory performed in several productions at the Harburg Theater. Shortly before the end of the war, he was drafted into the military and eventually captured by the French. He returned to Hamburg after the war and was among the first activists who in June of 1946 sought to re-establish the artists’ trade union in the British occupation zone. Ferdinand Christophory died on November 14, 1974, in Hamburg.
1885 Mamer
1974 Hamburg