Karl Merkatz was born in 1930 as the son of a toolmaker and a weaver in Wiener Neustadt. Even as a child he was fascinated by the theater and played in an amateur group, but at the request of his parents to learn “a real trade”, he first did an apprenticeship as a carpenter.
Detour via Zurich
After completing his apprenticeship, he went to Zurich and from there pursued his goal of becoming an actor. After acting lessons in Vienna, among other places, he began studying at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, which he graduated with honors in 1955. Merkatz had his first stage engagements at the Small Theater in Heilbronn and at the Salzburg State Theater. In Heilbronn he also met his wife Martha Metz, to whom he has been married since 1956. He then went to Germany for a few years, where he worked at the municipal theaters in Nuremberg, the theaters in the city of Cologne, the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg, the Thalia Theater and the Munich Kammerspiele.
Nestroy, Raimund, Shakespeare
In his more than 150 stage roles, Merkatz mainly played Nestroy, Raimund and Shakespeare characters, but one of his favorite plays is still Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”. At the Burgtheater and at the Salzburg Festival in 2005 he was seen in “König Ottokar” and in the same year he played the poor neighbor in “Jedermann”. Merkatz also took part in operettas and made guest appearances in Hamburg and at the Dutch Opera in Antwerp.
Musical excursion
In 1993 he played for the first time in a musical role at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt as “The Man from La Mancha” and later at the Theater an der Wien as the milkman Tevje in “Anatevka”. In 2009 he announced his departure from the theater stage – his great wish to play “King Lear” did not come true. After he successfully staged his cabaret program “Der Blunzenkönig” from 2008, the play also came to local cinemas in 2015 with Merkatz in the leading role – by no means the only screen appearance of the versatile artist.
He shaped his career: The “Mundl”
During his career, Merkatz has appeared in more than 250 film and television productions. He had his breakthrough and his formative appearance to this day in Reinhard Schwabenitzky’s “A Real Viennese Doesn’t Go Down”. The role of “Mundl” became one of the most popular television characters of the Second Republic and made Merkatz one of the most popular actors. In 2008 the success story of Karl Sackbauer found a successful sequel in the film “Echte Wiener – Die Sackbauer-Saga”, which was followed in 2010 by “Echte Wiener 2 – Die Deppat’n und die Gspritzt’n”. His second personal role was that of “Bockerer” in Franz Antel’s film series of the same name.
Bockerer brought recognition
In 1982 he was awarded the Filmband in Gold and the German Acting Prize for his role as Franz Bockerer. Finally, in 2013 he received the Austrian Film Award for Best Leading Actor for “Anfang 80”. But there were also numerous official honors, such as the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art, the Golden Medal of Honor of the Federal Capital Vienna or, in 2002, the Great Golden Medal for Services to the Province of Lower Austria.
