100th birthday - Austria / II. Republic of Austria 1950 - 30 Groschen

Alexander Girardi, the great popular actor of Austria, was born on 5 December 1850 in Graz. He grew up as the only son of master locksmith Andreas Girardi in simple bourgeois conditions and was destined to the honorable craft of his father, who died at an early age. He was already an assistant at the age of sixteen, but he soon switched the hammer to the theater role. His path led him to engagements in Rohitsch-Sauerbrunn, Krems, Salzburg, Ischl and finally to Vienna, where he was to celebrate his greatest triumphs. First of all he played in the Theater an der Wien, where he sang a melody written especially for him in the Strauss operetta "The Merry War" - "Only for Nature". The few bars made the Viennese crazy and the singer Girardi was at one go "the" Girardi. With his style, his gestures, his clothes, he coined the style of an entire epoch, the "Girardi period". He had taken his mother to Vienna after the death of her second husband and lived in solid modesty. In the zenith of his fame, he married actress Helene Petermann aka Odilon. However, the marriage was extremely unhappy and soon broken by the guilt of the wife. Girardi suffered heavily from this disappointment. Five years later, he joined with stepdaughter Ludwig Bösendorfer, Baroness Lenoie of Latinoviecz, a particularly happy marriage community. Girardi continued to celebrate great stage success at the Theater an der Wien, then went on guest tours, including to Berlin. Later he played much acclaimed at the Viennese speech stages. On April 20, 1918 Alexander Girardi died. The Girardi period was over, but "Girardi" lives on in the hearts of the Viennese.