Louise Dumont

Louise Maria Hubertine Heynen, born on 22 February 1862 in Cologne near Neumarkt, was the second of eleven or twelve siblings.^[1] Her parents were the merchant Christian Joseph Hubert Heynen (born in 1837) and Maria Elisabeth Elise Dumont (born 1836 or 1837). By 1879, Louise was working as a seamstress, following her father's second bankruptcy.^[1] Louise Dumont auditioned in 1882 at the Residenz Theater in Berlin, where she received her first role. As her artist's name she chose her mother's maiden name, Dumont. In 1888, she won an engagement at the Royal Court Theatre in Stuttgart, where she became acquainted with and a friend of Queen Charlotte of Wurttemberg. In 1898 Dumont left Stuttgart in order to join the Deutsches Theatre in Berlin, where she achieved her greatest successes, especially as a performer of pieces by Henrik Ibsen.

In 1903, she met Gustav Lindemann, who she would marry a few years later. As it was not possible for them to establish a theatre in Berlin because of local court intrigues, they then attempted to do so in Darmstadt, also without success. They finally succeeded in Düsseldorf, where Dumont and Lindemann founded the Schauspielhaus Düsseldorf on 16 June 1904, as a direct competitor to the municipal theatre. Dumont and Lindemann both contributed financially to the project, as did ten members of prestigious families like the Poensgens and the Luegs. The theatre opened on October 28, 1905, to which a theatre academy was later added. The academy trained a number of actors who significantly influenced German theatre life, such as Gustaf Gründgens, Peter Esser, Adolf Dell, Paul Henckels, Thea von Harbou, Paul Kemp, Wolfgang Langhoff, Maria Alex and Henry Orthmayer.^[2]

In 1907, Louise Dumont married Gustav Lindemann. They separated in the 1920s, after which Dumont was attached to a number of young actresses, including Fita Benkhoff, Hanni Hoessrich and Luise Rainer. It has been presumed that she was bisexual.^[1]