AUFRICHT, ERNST JOSEF

(1898-1971)

Manager, actor. Aufricht is best known as the producer ofBertolt Brechtand Kurt Weill'sDie Dreigroschenoper(The Threepenny Opera) andHappy Endat theTheater am SchiffbauerdamminBerlin. He took private acting lessons in Berlin after his release from the German army in 1918 and played minor roles in Dresden's newly renamed Saxon State Theater from 1920 to 1923. He then moved to Berlin, where he worked withBerthold Viertelfor three years, after which he became a directing assistant at the Wallner Theater. He leased the Schiffbauerdamm from 1928 to 1931 with a mind to present leftist-oriented alternative fare to Berlin audiences. In addition to the better known Brecht/Weill collaborations (directed byErich Engeland designed byCaspar Ne-her), he produced Peter-Martin Lampel'sPoison Gas over Berlinin 1929, Marieluise Fleisser'sPioneers in Ingolstadtin 1929, andErnstToller'sBank the FiresandÖdön vonHorvâth'sItalian Night, both in 1931. In 1932 he took over management of the Admiralspalast Theater in Berlin, but in 1933 the National Socialists forced him to leave Germany.