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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Oskar Blumenthal And The Lessing Theater In Berlin, 1888-1904, William Grange
Oskar Blumenthal And The Lessing Theater In Berlin, 1888-1904, William Grange
William Grange
OSKAR BLUMENTHAL (1852-1917) was Berlin’s most feared theatre critic in the early years of the new German Reich. He had the audacity of referring to Goethe as “an egghead” who had no understanding of what made plays effective for audiences, and in other critiques he ridiculed Kleist, Hebbel, and other “important” playwrights—prompting an adversary publicly to call him a “one-man lynch mob.” In the 1880s Blumenthal himself began writing plays, and he was so successful that many self-appointed cultural guardians accused him of damaging the German theatre beyond repair. His became the most frequently performed plays on any German stage …
Ersatz Comedy In The Third Reich, William Grange
Ersatz Comedy In The Third Reich, William Grange
William Grange
JOSEPH GOEBBELS and ALFRED ROSENBERG identified Jewish playwrights, especially those who wrote comedy, as “agents of the threatening anti-Western invasion. . . . With the help of nigger Americanism, Jews from the East brought hither by the Mongolian sources of Bolshevism” had polluted an ethnically pure German theatre. Goebbels attacked plays by Franz Arnold (1878-1960), Rudolf Bernauer (1880-1953) Julius Berstl (1893-1975) Bruno Frank (1887-1945), Carl Zuckmayer (1898-1977) and others of deploying “hyper-modern, bolshevistic, mollusk-like and neurasthenic aesthetics” on German audiences. Purging the German theatre of comic plays by Jews and other creators of “abusive and undesirable literature,” Goebbels, Rosenberg, and …
Impulses Mirrored Darkly: Theatrical Images Of Idealism In The Weimar Republic, William Grange
Impulses Mirrored Darkly: Theatrical Images Of Idealism In The Weimar Republic, William Grange
William Grange
The conflict within German theatre during the Weimar Republic was a reflection of a larger struggles taking place within German society. Those struggles exploded at the conclusion of World War I, when relieved of the pressures of war, plays and productions came sizzling out like a cloud of steam when the valve was opened,” stated Herbert Ihering. Actor Fritz Kortner discovered totally new rhythms in performance. No actors were schooled in the new style, he said. It simply burst forth “lava-like” from “inner volcanoes.”