Heinrich Eisenbach was one of several actors and playwrights who were very important in stimulating the Yiddish theatre. Eisenbach was born in Krakow, Poland where his father was a wealthy Jewish merchant. Like most Jews in Poland at that time, Yiddish, in addition to Polish, was an integral part of the language. This became valuable to Eisenbach when he expanded his theatrical career into the Yiddish theatre movement that grew rapidly in Vienna Eisenbach started in the theatrical world in Budapest as a clown and later incorporated his musical talents to become a comic singer. In 1894, he joined the Budapester Orpheumgesellschaft, a small theater group in the Jewish section of Vienna, founded in 1889 by Joseph Modl, the Ladies Württemberg and Kovats, Max Rott, Armin Springer, Hans Moser, Rolf Wagner and others. This group later became the Jewish cabaret of the city. Eisenbach at first performed short comic songs and danced duets with his wife, Anna. His theatrical talent became more dynamic and he performed every day in the Budapester. When he came on stage the audience, primarily “working class” Jews, greeted him with enthusiastic applause. He personified men who have an unbreakable and unbendable will to live. In his anecdotes, he turned the sad fate of his people into self-mocking, cynical jokes, using a jargon filled Yiddish which was called Jidien. None of this went well with the more educated bourgeoisie Jews of Vienna who looked upon Yiddish as a language of the lower class.
Performances at the Budapester usually started with a march followed by humorous songs and a one-act play written by one of the members of the group. The highlight of the evening came after the intermission with a one-person performance by Eisenbach or his close friend and colleague, Max Rott. Eisenbach’s excellent performance in Die Klabriaspartie, a one-act play by Adolf Bergmann, depicting the struggle of Jewish peddlers and beggars, brought him to the position of leading actor. Later he became the playwright and director of the Budapester. In 1907, Eisenbach founded his own company and performed in the Hotel Stephanie, but a year later moved back to the Budapester, where he continued acting, writing and directing.
In 1911, the writer, publisher Karl Kraus claimed that the real theatrical entertainment goes on in the Budapester and not in the prestigious Hofburgtheatre of Vienna.
Heinrich Eisenbach died in Vienna in 1923.