LAUTENSCHLÄGER, KARL

(1843-1906)

Stage technician. Lautenschläger is best known for his adaptation of Japanese designs for theDrehbühne, a stage revolve mechanism, for theMunichResidence Theater in 1896. The stage revolve he developed was a turntable 16 meters (52.5 feet) in diameter, installed on an even plane with the floor surface of the stage and driven by a gearing device beneath the stage floor under electric power. His design was used in dozens of other German theaters;MaxReinhardt's production at theDeutsches TheaterofA Midsummer Night's Dreamwas among the first fully to exploit Lautenschläger's technology, though several other directors and designers, both at the Deutsches and elsewhere throughout the German theater, made wide use of it thereafter.