FEHLING, JURGEN

(1885-1968)

actor and stage director; among the Re-public's finest interpreters of realism. Born in Lübeck to a city senator andBurgermeister, he completed theological and legal studies before breaking with his family in 1910 and becoming an actor at Vienna'sVolksbuhne. Moving to Berlin* in 1918, he acted at theTheater am Nollendorfplatz, gained an appoint-ment at Berlin'sVolksbuhne, and made his directing debut in March 1920 with a production of Gogol sHeirat(Marriage). Thus began one of Berlin s re-nowned interwar directing careers. He was appointed stage manager in 1922 of Leopold Jessner s*Staatstheaterand retained the position until the theater s destruction in a 1944 bombing raid. By focusing on acting rather than the theater* or the stage, Fehling was cel-ebrated as Max Reinhardt s* successor. His productions, which accentuated the realism in Expressionist works, were identified curiously as Expressionistic Re-alism. He introduced such dramatists as Else Lasker-Schüler* and Ernst Toller,* but was linked above all with Ernst Barlach.* Through his cycle ofDer arme Vetter(The poor cousin, 1923),Die Sundflut(The flood, 1925), andDer blaue Boll(Squire Blue Boll, 1930), Fehling established Barlach as an important post-Expressionist writer.

Rising nationalism increasingly led Fehling to the safety of Shakespeare. He demanded total commitment and realism from his actors; his productions were especially successful. After Gustaf Gründgens became theStaatstheater'sinten-dant in 1934, Fehling presented a spectrum of works ranging from George Ber-nard Shaw to the irrationality of Knut Hamsun.