Karl Merkatz

Karl Merkatz (b. November 17, 1930 in Wiener Neustadt) is a well-known Austrian actor. He participated in numerous Austrian film productions and plays.

Merkatz is the son of a firefighter. He first wanted to become a carpenter. After World War II he was an active Boy Scout in Wiener Neustadt. However, later he started to enroll in acting lessons in Salzburg, Vienna and Zurich. Then he found employment in theatres, most notable in Munich, Salzburg, Hamburg and Vienna (Theater in der Josefstadt).

During his later career he starred in several roles in television and motion pictures. In the role of Edmund Sackbauer (Mundl) in the 1970s he got famous as the typical Viennese (Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter). Another big success came with the films "Bockerer" starring as a naive Viennese during the Second World War in Vienna (the later films are set in the subsequent years to 1945).

Since 1999 Merkatz has been chairman of the human rights group SOS Mitmensch.

Major roles

• Ein echter Wiener geht nicht unter: literally, A Genuine Viennese Does Not Go Under: In this show, which is about the life of a Viennese working-class family, he played Edmund "Mundl" Sackbauer, for which he is most known.

• Der Bockerer I-IV:, Merkatz plays the role of the Viennese butcher Karl Bockerer, who as a social democrat is shown during the time of the Anschluss and in the struggle against national socialism, during the post-war occupation of Austria by allied forces, during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956 and the Prague Spring of 1968.