Maria Dronke

German actress, drama producer and teacher (1904–1987)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (March 2013) Click [show] for important translation instructions.
  • View a machine-translated version of the German article.
  • Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
  • Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
  • You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing German Wikipedia article at [[:de:Minnie Maria Dronke]]; see its history for attribution.
  • You may also add the template {{Translated|de|Minnie Maria Dronke}} to the talk page.
  • For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Minnie Maria Dronke OBE (née Kronfeld, 17 July 1904 – 28 August 1987) was a New Zealand actor, drama producer and teacher.

She was born Minnie Kronfeld in 1904 in Berlin, Germany, the daughter of Laura (Liebmann) and Salomon Kronfeld, a barrister.[1] Born into a Jewish family, she converted to Catholicism in 1928 and took on the name Maria Magdalena. Her Jewish background placed her in great danger in Nazi Germany and in December 1938, she went to live at a Catholic convent at Fenham, England. She was eventually reunited with her husband, judge Adolf John Rudolf Dronke, and children there, and the Archbishop of Wellington, Thomas O'Shea, arranged for them to come to New Zealand, where they arrived in August 1939.[2] Her son was scholar Peter Dronke. She is also related to Josh Kronfeld, a member of the All Blacks squad in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

In the 1980 New Year Honours, Dronke was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the performing arts.[3] She died in Lower Hutt on 28 August 1987.[2]

References

  1. ^ "Dronke, Minnie Maria".
  2. ^ a b Beaglehole, Ann. "Minnie Maria Dronke". Dictionary of New Zealand Biography. Ministry for Culture and Heritage. Retrieved 23 April 2017.
  3. ^ "No. 48043". The London Gazette (3rd supplement). 31 December 1979. p. 26.
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
International
  • VIAF
National
  • Germany
  • Israel
  • United States
Artists
  • Te Papa (New Zealand)
People
  • Deutsche Biographie


  • v
  • t
  • e