Jews and the Making of Modern German Theatre (Studies Theatre History & Culture)

While it is common knowledge that Jews were prominent in literature, music, cinema, and science in pre-1933 Germany, the fascinating story of Jewish co-creation of modern German theatre is less often discussed. Yet for a brief time, during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic, Jewish artists and intellectuals moved away from a segregated Jewish theatre to work within canonic German theatre and performance venues, claiming the right to be part of the very fabric of German culture. Their involvement, especially in the theatre capital of Berlin, was of a major magnitude both numerically and in terms of power and influence. The essays in this stimulating collection etch onto the conventional view of modern German theatre the history and conflicts of its Jewish participants in the last third of the nineteenth and first third of the twentieth centuries and illuminate the influence of Jewish ethnicity in the creation of the modernist German theatre. The nontraditional forms and themes known as modernism date roughly from German unification in 1871 to the end of the Weimar Republic in 1933. This is also the period when Jews acquired full legal and trade equality, which enabled their ownership and directorship of theatre and performance venues. The extraordinary artistic innovations that Germans and Jews co-created during the relatively short period of this era of creativity reached across the old assumptions, traditions, and prejudices that had separated people as the modern arts sought to reformulate human relations from the foundations to the pinnacles of society. The essayists, writing from a variety of perspectives, carve out historical overviews of the role of theatre in the constitution of Jewish identity in Germany, the position of Jewish theatre artists in the cultural vortex of imperial Berlin, the role played by theatre in German Jewish cultural education, and the impact of Yiddish theatre on German and Austrian Jews and on German theatre. They view German Jewish theatre activity through Jewish philosophical and critical perspectives and examine two important genres within which Jewish artists were particularly prominent: the Cabaret and Expressionist theatre. Finally, they provide close-ups of the Jewish artists Alexander Granach, Shimon Finkel, Max Reinhardt, and Leopold Jessner. By probing the interplay between “Jewish” and “German” cultural and cognitive identities based in the field of theatre and performance and querying the effect of theatre on Jewish self-understanding, they add to the richness of intercultural understanding as well as to the complex history of theatre and performance in Germany. Contents......Page 8 Preface and Acknowledgments......Page 10 1. Introduction | Break a Leg!......Page 14 2. Reflections on Theatricality, Identity, and the Modern Jewish Experience......Page 34 3. How “Jewish” Was Theatre in Imperial Berlin?......Page 52 4. Stagestruck | Jewish Attitudes to the Theatre in Wilhelmine Germany......Page 72 5. Yiddish Theatre and Its Impact on the German and Austrian Stage......Page 90 6. German and Jewish “Theatromania” | Theodor Lessing’s Theater-Seele between Goethe and Kafka......Page 112 7. Arnold Zweig and the Critics | Reconsidering the Jewish “Contribution” to German Theatre......Page 129 8. Jewish Cabaret Artists before 1933......Page 145 9. Transforming in Public | Jewish Actors on the German Expressionist Stage......Page 164 10. The Shaping of the Ostjude | Alexander Granach and Shimon Finkel in Berlin......Page 187 11. Max Reinhardt between Yiddish Theatre and the Salzburg Festival......Page 210 12. Theatre as Festive Play | Max Reinhardt’s Productions of The Merchant of Venice......Page 232 13. The Unknown Leopold Jessner | German Theatre and Jewish Identity......Page 245 14. Epilogue......Page 274 Works Cited......Page 282 Contributors......Page 304 Index......Page 308 Introduction: break a leg! / Jeanette R. Malkin -- Reflections on theatricality, identity and the modern Jewish experience / Steven E. Aschheim -- How "Jewish" was theatre in imperial Berlin? / Peter Jelavich -- Stagestruck: Jewish attitudes to the theatre in Wilhelmine Germany / Anat Feinberg -- Yiddish theatre and its impact on the German and Austrian stage / Delphine Bechtel -- German and Jewish "theatromania": Theodor Lessing's Theatre-Seele between Goethe and Kafka / Bernhard Greiner -- Arnold Zweig and the critics: reconsidering the Jewish "contribution" to German theatre / Peter W. Marx -- Jewish cabaret artists before 1933 / Hans-Peter Bayerdörfer -- Transforming in public: Jewish actors on the German expressionist stage / Jeanette R. Malkin -- The shaping of the Ostjude: Alexander Granach and Shimon Finkel in Berlin / Shelly Zer-Zion -- Max Reinhardt between Yiddish theatre and the Salzburg Festival / Lisa Silverman -- Theatre as festive play: Max Reinhardt's productions of The merchant of Venice / Erika Fischer-Lichte -- The unknown Leopold Jessner: German theatre and Jewish identity / Anat Feinberg -- Epilogue Introduction: break a leg! / Jeanette R. Malkin Reflections on theatricality, identity and the modern Jewish experience / Steven E. Aschheim How "Jewish" was Theatre in imperial Berlin? / Peter Jelavich - Stagestruck: Jewish attitudes to the theatre in Wilhelmine Germany / Anat Feinberg Yiddish theatre and its impact on the German and Austrian stage / Delphine Bechtel German and Jewish "theatromania": Theodor Lessing's Theatre-Seele between Goethe and Kafka / Bernhard Greiner Arnold Zweig and the critics: reconsidering the Jewish "contribution" to German theatre / Peter W. Marx Jewish cabaret artists before 1933 / Hans-Peter Bayerdoerfer Transforming in public: Jewish actors on the German expressionist stage / Jeanette R. Malkin The shaping of the Ostjude: Alexander Granach and Shimon Finkel in Berlin / Shelly Zer-Zion Max Reinhardt between Yiddish theatre and the Salzburg Festival / Lisa Silverman Theatre as festive play: Max Reinhardt's productions of The merchant of Venice / Erika Fischer-Lichte The unknown Leopold Jessner: German theatre and Jewish identity / Anat Feinberg Epilogue. Contents 8 Preface and Acknowledgments 10 1. Introduction | Break a Leg! 14 2. Reflections on Theatricality, Identity, and the Modern Jewish Experience 34 3. How “Jewish” Was Theatre in Imperial Berlin? 52 4. Stagestruck | Jewish Attitudes to the Theatre in Wilhelmine Germany 72 5. Yiddish Theatre and Its Impact on the German and Austrian Stage 90 6. German and Jewish “Theatromania” | Theodor Lessing’s Theater-Seele between Goethe and Kafka 112 7. Arnold Zweig and the Critics | Reconsidering the Jewish “Contribution” to German Theatre 129 8. Jewish Cabaret Artists before 1933 145 9. Transforming in Public | Jewish Actors on the German Expressionist Stage 164 10. The Shaping of the Ostjude | Alexander Granach and Shimon Finkel in Berlin 187 11. Max Reinhardt between Yiddish Theatre and the Salzburg Festival 210 12. Theatre as Festive Play | Max Reinhardt’s Productions of The Merchant of Venice 232 13. The Unknown Leopold Jessner | German Theatre and Jewish Identity 245 14. Epilogue 274 Works Cited 282 Contributors 304 Index 308 1587298686,9781587298684 University Of Iowa Press