Historical dictionary of German Theatre

BERLIN

Berlin: translation

Berlin was the undisputed center of theater activity in Germany by 1871, surpassingViennaas the German-speaking theater's preeminent city. The city's prominence grew through succeeding decades until the post-World War II period; in the early 1970s, it began to regain that distinction, and since 1989 the process has accelerated.
Berlin came into existence with the union of two villages in 1307. It was unimportant until 1489, when it became the seat of the Brandenburg electors (Kurfürsten).Englische Komödianten(English Comedians) arrived in Berlin sometime in the early 17th century to play before the Brandenburg court, but whatever influence they may have had on Berlin vanished during the Thirty Years' War, which devastated the city. Frederick William the Great Elector (1620-1688) rebuilt the city, and German troupes began to visit it regularly. In 1701 Berlin became the Prussian capital, and Prussian courts were generous in granting performance licenses to troupes. They played mostly in the Theater im Marstall and the Theater in der Poststrasse, though both of these facilities were temporary.
In 1742 the Prussian court built the Royal Opera House on Unter den Linden, but it was reserved for Italian opera. Touring troupes utilized the Theater im Donnerschen Haus, the Theater am Monjoubi-platz, and the Theater in der Behrenstrasse.Carl Theophil Döbbelinbought the Theater am Monjoubiplatz for his own troupe but also rented it to others;Heinrich Gottfried Kochdid the same when he bought the Theater in der Behrenstrasse in 1771. The court constructed the Französiches Komödienhaus (French Comedy Theater) in 1776, but only French troupes played there until the court granted Döbbelin a license to stage plays in German. It became the Königliches Nationaltheater (Royal National Theater) in 1787 and in 1796August Wilhelm Ifflandwas named itsintendant.Court officials closed the building in 1801 and moved Iffland's troupe to the Langhans-Bau am Gendarmenmarkt, but Iffland was able to retain the name Royal National Theater.
Courtiers continued to run the troupe after Iffland's death, many of them maintaining its high quality with outstanding performers. In 1820 theKarl Friedrich Schinkel-designed Königliches Schauspielhaus (Royal Theater) was completed and the royal troupe moved in. In 1824 a group of private businessmen built the Königstädtisches
Theater am Alexanderplatz, financed on the basis of a royal license allowing performances the royal troupe declined to produce. In the 1840s a series of private garden theaters appeared, some of them prospering enough financially to establish themselves on a permanent basis. Owners added pavilions, then roofs, then panoplies of stage machinery;Wilhelm FriedrichDeichmann's Wilhelm-Städtisches Theater was one such that grew by accretion into one of Berlin's best-known entertainment venues.
By 1869 there were 11 full-time private theaters in Berlin, and in that year the Prussian court issued a decree removing all genre restraints on theaters and abolished the Royal Theater's patent. When the German Reich was declared in 1871 with Berlin as its capital, entrepreneurs built dozens of theater structures on the speculation that Berlin's growing population could support an increasing number of theater enterprises.Adolph L'Arrongepurchased the Wilhelm-Städtisches and refurbished it as theDeutsches Theater, which has been closely identified with Berlin's theater life ever since.Otto Brahmleased the theater from L'Arronge in 1894 and ran it until 1904;Max Reinhardtbought it from L'Arronge in 1906. Theater owners like L'Arronge,Oskar Blumenthal, and others leased their buildings to directors or ran the buildings themselves, a pattern that remained largely intact until 1935. The high point of theater enterprise in Berlin was between 1900 and 1914, when approximately 40 theaters operated profitably in the city. The most notable of them was Reinhardt's, who ushered in a new era of modernist theater practice.
By the time the city expanded its limits to become Greater Berlin in 1920, it had become the nation's largest city and indeed the fifth largest city in the world. Because it was also Germany's financial, political, commercial, and industrial center, Berlin bore immediate witness to the upheavals to befall both Germany and the German-speaking theater in the 20th century. Not all new trends or new plays began in Berlin, but nearly all theater artists wanted to establish careers there, knowing that success in Berlin usually meant success elsewhere. Compared to Berlin, most other theater centers in the German-speaking world (with perhaps the exception of Vienna) qualified only as provincial stages.
Theater performances continued through the Spartacist uprising in Berlin in the winter of 1918-1919, largely because the decades-old policecensorshiphad ended. Though civil war raged in the streets and scores of people were killed on a daily basis, new plays dominated repertoires, and new trends in acting and design came bursting out "lava-like" (asFritz Kortnerdescribed it) onto Berlin's theater scene.Leopold Jessnertook over the renamed Berlin State Theater and outraged traditionalists with "Jewified" treatments ofWilliam ShakespeareandFriedrich Schiller. Reinhardt continued to dazzle audiences at the Deutsches and even expanded his empire to include several other facilities in the city.
The devastating monetary inflation in 1923 sent many theaters into bankruptcy, but when economic stabilization returned in 1924, Berlin's theater life resumed a throbbing vitality. New directors, actors, and designers matched and even exceeded the innovations of the early 1920s; playwrights such asBertolt Brecht, Carl Zuckmayer, andGeorg Kaiserfound complementary directorial talents inErich Engel, Heinz Hilpert, andJürgen Fehling. Producers continued to make substantial profits on a booming boulevard theater culture that thrived on plays byFranz ArnoldandErnst Bach, Toni ImpekovenandCarl Mathern, andCurt Goetz.
The Wall Street crash of 1929 initiated a downward economic spiral for theaters in Berlin, and as the economic crisis worsened, politics began to affect theater practice.Joseph Goebbelshad called Berlin "the reddest city west of Moscow," and by 1930 Nazi sympathizers were openly threatening Jewish-owned facilities and disrupting performances of plays they considered politically offensive.
The National Socialist takeover in 1933 marked a profound change in Berlin's theater life, as it did on the rest of Germany. For the first time, a German national government set up an elaborate apparatus to subsidize and promote theater throughout the country; Goebbels's Ministry of Propaganda and Popular Enlightenment assured artists of steady incomes, health insurance, and generous old-age pensions. Outwardly the German theater thrived on the regime's cultural policies; those policies, however, imposed control over all aspects of theater work. They also specified the exclusion of Jews, "cultural Bolsheviks," and others deemed undesirable. The result was an unprecedented emphasis on extravagance in design and acting, along with a burst of playwriting that accorded with the regime's philosophy. The regime refurbished most of the theaters in Berlin, many of which the Propaganda Ministry had expropriated and turned into "state theaters." Hermann Goering appointedGustaf Gründgensto run the State Theater, while Goebbels countered with Hilpert at the Deutsches;Heinrich Georgeran the Schiller Theater, andEugen Klopferthe Volksbühne on the renamed Horst-Wessel-Platz. In August 1944 the regime closed all theaters in Germany and Austria to direct resources toward the failing war effort; theaters did not open again until May 1945, when the Renaissance Theater in Berlin stagedDer Raub der Sabinerinnen(The Rape of the Sabine Women).
The postwar period in Berlin saw the repair of many theater buildings damaged in the war, including the Deutsches, theTheater am Schiffbauerdamm, and the Volksbühne; others, including the Lessing and the State Theaters, had been damaged beyond rescue. Allied occupation forces fostered a desire among many Berliners to rehabilitate the city's theater life, though the city remained divided. The Soviet zone contained most of the older theaters, and there Brecht located hisBerliner Ensemble. The Western zones in many instances witnessed new construction, such as the Schiller Theater. Many artists formerly identified with Berlin's theater life, however, left and settled elsewhere. When East German officials sealed off the eastern sector of Berlin in 1961, two distinct Berlin theater cultures arose, both enjoying lavish subsidies as showpieces for opposing regimes.
The establishment in 1964 of the BerlinerTheatertreffen, or "theater gathering," was a recognition that West Berlin had become an island and that Berlin itself was no longer the epicenter of German theater life; the gathering invited to Berlin outstanding productions from provincial stages which in many cases were producing work far more substantial than Berlin's anyway.Erwin Piscatorhad returned to West Berlin, but Gründgens was inHamburg, Hilpert in Göttingen, and Kortner inMunich. In East Berlin, the Berliner Ensemble was rapidly becoming a Brecht museum, while the Deutsches, the Volksbühne, and other East Berlin theaters remained content to serve what amounted to captive audiences. From a material standpoint, Berlin's theater in the Cold War period ironically reproduced National Socialism's subvention extravagance while serving primarily a propa-gandistic function.
In 1968, a new generation of theater artists began working in West Berlin, and a theatrical renaissance began to take place. At the
Schaubühne am Halleschen Ufer,PeterStein's productions were often the most stunning anywhere, spawning a host of imitators. By the 1970s his company was probably the most distinguished in the German-speaking world, and in 1981 the city provided Stein's troupe with a new facility, the Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz.
When the Soviet Union collapsed and Berlin was reunited, opportunities for former East German artists in Berlin improved—though public funding began to shrink markedly throughout the 1990s. Several theaters (including all of the Berlin city theaters) closed, and debates intensified about Berlin's enormous public subsidies for its theaters; many struggled to maintain relations with influential members of the Berlin Senate who could enable them to continue receiving subventions. Some private theaters remained, but Berlin's theater landscape could never return to its original, pre-National Socialist contours, when most theaters could stay in business on their own.

  1. berlin—Berlin translation Berlin Capital of the German Empire and of the Kingdom of Prussia dd Catholic Encyclopedia.Kevin Knight Berlin Berlin Catholic_Encyclopediau Berli...Catholic encyclopedia
  2. berlin—Berlin bersetzung die Hauptstadt des Knigreichs Preuen hat Wohnhuser und Einwohner Straen ffentliche Pltze Kirchen Brcken Fabriken Brunnen etc. Die merkwrdigsten ...Damen Conversations Lexikon
  3. berlin—Berlin bersetzung Berlin [bl] Substantif Berlin neutreem...Dictionnaire Francais-Allemand
  4. berlin—Berlin translation In the midnineteenth century Heinrich Heine referred to Berlin as that mixture of white beer mendacity and Brandenburg sand. Berlin was never the livel...Historical dictionary of Weimar Republik
  5. berlin—Berlin bersetzung Bundeshauptstadt Spreeathen umgangssprachlich Hauptstadt von Deutschland Kitchener Hauptstadt von Deutschland u.u deutsches Bundesland. Istrong Berli...Universal-Lexicon
  6. berlin—Berlin bersetzung. Herkunftsnamen neben der deutschen Hauptstadt kommen noch andere gleich lautende Orte infrage z.B.Berlin in Holstein. Im alemannischen Raum ist eine Ab...Wörterbuch der deutschen familiennamen
  7. berlin—[bln bln]Берлинстаринный дорожный четырехколесный крытый экипажвязальная шерстьвязаные перчаткиберлин...Англо-русский большой универсальный переводческий словарь
  8. berlin—берлин старинная дорожная карета...Англо-русский дополнительный словарь
  9. berlin—ковкое железо...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  10. berlin—ковкое железо...Англо-русский онлайн словарь
  11. berlin—n Берлин...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  12. berlin—a берлинский...Англо-русский словарь Лингвистика-98
  13. berlin—Berlin . noun старинная дорожная карета mot. берлин тип кузова .adj. Berlin iron Berlin wool...Англо-русский словарь Мюллера
  14. berlin—I [] сущ. геогр. Берлин столица Германии II [] сущ. старинный дорожный четырехколесный крытый экипаж вязальная шерсть Syn Berlin wool вязаные перчатки авто берлин тип...Англо-русский словарь общей лексики
  15. berlin—n. ковкое железо...Англо-русский словарь редакция bed
  16. berlin—n. Берлин [геогр.]...Англо-русский словарь редакция bed
  17. berlin—берлинский...Англо-русский технический словарь
  18. berlin—геогр. Germany Берлин Германия...Англо-русский универсальный дополнительный практический словарь И. Мостицкого
  19. berlin—берлн...Англо-український словник
  20. berlin—n геогр. н. м. Берлн старовинний дорожнй екпаж берлин авт. берлин тип кузова blue берлнська лазур....Англо-український словник Балла М.І.
  21. berlín—Берли...Большой испанско-русский словарь
  22. berlin—n sБерлин город тж. округ в ГДР...Большой немецко-русский и русско-немецкий словарь
  23. berlin—Берлин...Большой французско-русский и русско-французский словарь
  24. berlin—Берлин м [\Berlint] fldr. Берлин\Berlin demokratikus vezete демократический сектор Берлина...Венгерско-русский словарь
  25. berlín—brlin f Berlnar г. Берлин...Исландско-русский словарь
  26. berlin—Берлин gyptisches Museum Alte Nationalgalerie Altes Museum Antikenmuseum BodeMuseum Galerie des .Jahrhunderts Galerie der Romantik Gemldegalerie Kupferstichkabinett Museu...Немецко-русский словарь по искусству
  27. berlin—[bln] n. геогр. г. Берлин. старинный дорожный экипаж. авт. кузов лимузин с внутренней перегородкой тж. Berline. тонкая вязальная шерсть. вязаные перчатки. танец типа поль...Новый большой англо-русский словарь
  28. berlin—Berlin [bln] ni . геогр. iг.i Берлин . старинный дорожный экипаж . авт. iкузов лимузин с внутренней перегородкой тж. ie . тонкая вязальная шерсть . вязаные перчатки . тан...Новый большой англо-русский словарь II
  29. berlin—bln n . геогр. Берлин . старинный дорожный экипаж . авт. emкузов лимузин с внутренней перегородкой тж. eme . тонкая вязальная шерсть . вязаные перчатки . танец типа ...Новый большой англо-русский словарь под общим руководством акад. Ю.Д. Апресяна
  30. berlin—Берлин...Новый французско-русский словарь
  31. berlin—г. Берлин...Норвежско-русский словарь
  32. berlin—[берлн]...Польсько-український словник
  33. berlin—Rzeczownik Berlin Берлин...Универсальный польско-русский словарь
  34. berlin—avoir des nerfs Berlin см. avoir des nerfs...Французско-русский фразеологический словарь
  35. berlín—Берлин...Чешско-русский словарь