Actress and singer Else Berna (sometimes Elsa Berna) started her career on stage in cabarets and revues. The glamorous star appeared in a dozen silent German films in the 1910s and 1920s./b>
![Else Berna]()
German postcard by Richard Laibisch & Co., Berlin for Gargoyle Bohner-Wachs. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin NW. Caption: Else Berna. Die schöne Cabaret-Diva.
![Else Berna]()
French postcard by P.C.M., no. 0565/66. (P.C.M. was possibly a French affiliate of Rotophot. See the style and numbering of the card below by Rotophot's Austrian affiliate Rotophot - S. Blüh, Wien). Sent by mail in 1909.
![Else Berna]()
Austrian postcard by Rotophot - S. Blüh, Wien, no. 0565/66.
Little is known about the career and life of Else Berna. As the upper postcard suggests she must have been a cabaret star in the 1910s and 1920s.
On the net, there are plenty of photos of her, which were made for German magazines. They show that she was the star of such plays as 'Prinzess Gretl' (1914) by Heinrich Reinhardt and such revues as 'Die Welt ohne Schleier' at the Komische Oper in Berlin in 1923. There are also photos on which she poses for fashion magazines or in which she shows her luxurious appartment in Berlin.
The cinema must have been a logical next step in het career.Else Berna made her film debut with the lead role in the drama Tuberosen (Josef Stein, 1917). It was followed by another leading role in Der König ihres Herzens/The King of her Heart (Ludwig Trautmann, 1918).
Among her other films are Ernst Lubitsch's Madame DuBarry (1919) starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings, and Freie Liebe/Free Love (Max Mack, 1919).
She also appeared in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's lost film Satanas/Satan (1920). In this three-part historical film, she played Lucrezia Borgia. Only a brief fragment of the first episode taking place in ancient Egypt has been found.
Her final film was Nelly, die Braut ohne Mann/Nelly, the bride without husband (Friedrich Zelnik, 1924) withLya Mara. We could not find information about her later life and career.
![Else Berna]()
German postcard by Verlag. Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 3044. Photo: Atelier Anni Eberth.
![Else Berna]()
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 133. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.
![Else Berna]()
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1552. Photo: Rudolph Dührkoop, Berlin.
Source: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Getty Images, and IMDb.
German postcard by Richard Laibisch & Co., Berlin for Gargoyle Bohner-Wachs. Photo: Ernst Schneider, Berlin NW. Caption: Else Berna. Die schöne Cabaret-Diva.
French postcard by P.C.M., no. 0565/66. (P.C.M. was possibly a French affiliate of Rotophot. See the style and numbering of the card below by Rotophot's Austrian affiliate Rotophot - S. Blüh, Wien). Sent by mail in 1909.
Austrian postcard by Rotophot - S. Blüh, Wien, no. 0565/66.
Lubitsch and Murnau
Little is known about the career and life of Else Berna. As the upper postcard suggests she must have been a cabaret star in the 1910s and 1920s.
On the net, there are plenty of photos of her, which were made for German magazines. They show that she was the star of such plays as 'Prinzess Gretl' (1914) by Heinrich Reinhardt and such revues as 'Die Welt ohne Schleier' at the Komische Oper in Berlin in 1923. There are also photos on which she poses for fashion magazines or in which she shows her luxurious appartment in Berlin.
The cinema must have been a logical next step in het career.Else Berna made her film debut with the lead role in the drama Tuberosen (Josef Stein, 1917). It was followed by another leading role in Der König ihres Herzens/The King of her Heart (Ludwig Trautmann, 1918).
Among her other films are Ernst Lubitsch's Madame DuBarry (1919) starring Pola Negri and Emil Jannings, and Freie Liebe/Free Love (Max Mack, 1919).
She also appeared in Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau's lost film Satanas/Satan (1920). In this three-part historical film, she played Lucrezia Borgia. Only a brief fragment of the first episode taking place in ancient Egypt has been found.
Her final film was Nelly, die Braut ohne Mann/Nelly, the bride without husband (Friedrich Zelnik, 1924) withLya Mara. We could not find information about her later life and career.
German postcard by Verlag. Herm. Leiser, Berlin-Wilm., no. 3044. Photo: Atelier Anni Eberth.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 133. Photo: Alex Binder, Berlin.
German postcard by Photochemie, Berlin, no. K. 1552. Photo: Rudolph Dührkoop, Berlin.
Source: Thomas Staedeli (Cyranos), Getty Images, and IMDb.