Georg Katz was born on August 15, 1887, in Vilnius. He likely received his first stage engagement in 1912 at the Stadttheater in Kaiserslautern, where he also worked as a librarian. He later moved to Berlin, where from 1914 to 1917 he sang in the chorus of the Theater am Nollendorfplatz. In the course of 1917, Katz entered military service and was stationed in Constantinople—today Istanbul—the same year, possibly as part of the German Asia Corps. After the end of the First World War, he returned to Berlin, where he sang in the chorus of the Thalia Theater during the 1920/21 season.
In December of 1924, the musician was engaged as a choral singer at the Berlin State Opera, where he was employed as a second bass. Georg Katz’s name appeared on the list of Jews compiled by the Nazi factory cell at the State Opera. In June of 1933, he was dismissed under the “Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service”. His letter to the opera’s management, which he drafted together with his colleagues Josef Brotmann and Max Lexandrowitsch because the promised pension payments had not been made, went unanswered.
In the following years, the singer was actively involved in the chorus of the Jewish Cultural Federation, to which he belonged until its dissolution in 1941. Georg Katz remained in Berlin and became a victim of Nazi persecution. He died there on February 25, 1944, under unclear circumstances.
1887 Vilnius
1944 Berlin