Artists Under Hitler by Jonathan Petropoulos

Author:Jonathan Petropoulos
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2014-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Gründgens and Emmy Sonnemann Göring, who acted together at the Prussian State Theater. (Stadtmuseum Berlin)

In October 1933, Gründgens starred with Sonnemann in a staging of Hermann Bahr’s comedy The Concert, which proved one of many popular successes. Exhibiting a free and easy charm, Gründgens delighted audiences, including the Prussian Minister President, who came to see his future wife perform. Subsequent roles at the Staatstheater for Gründgens in late 1933 and early 1934 included Frederick the Great in Hermann von Boetticher’s The King, and Joseph Fouché in a drama about Napoleon called The Hundred Days, which was written by Benito Mussolini and Giovacchino Forzano (a film version followed in 1935). Gründgens showed considerable range, which contributed to a rise in his professional fortunes. His 1938 film Dance on the Volcano, a musical set in 1830 Paris, showcased his varied talents. Gründgens played Debureau, a minstrel who affronts King Charles X with his satirical song but who is saved from the guillotine by the masses. The costume drama-musical extended a long way from classical or avant-garde theater, although the linkages remained evident. Goebbels complained in his diary about the film, “typical Gründgens. A bit too cerebral.”21

Gründgens also benefited from the contemporaneous rivalry between Göring and Goebbels. Hanns Johst was in Goebbels’s camp—he became president of the Reich Chamber for Literature in 1935. With the Reich Propaganda Minister expanding his empire at a rapid rate—the Reich Chamber of Culture had come into existence in the autumn of 1933—Göring moved to consolidate power over the Prussian State Theater. Right after the premiere of the Mussolini-Forzano play on 26 February 1934, Göring decided to sack Johst and turn to Gründgens, offering him the leadership of the theater.22 Gründgens had most likely been alerted by Emmy Sonnemann that the offer was coming, but he still asked for time to consider the matter. Göring pressed him, promising the utmost artistic freedom. Gründgens relented and accepted the post—albeit on a provisional (kommissarische) basis at first. He knew that the appointment entailed becoming one of Göring’s creatures and that he was exposing himself in a politically fraught environment. Goebbels was also making a play to take over the Prussian State Theater in March 1934. But Gründgens took the leap, his appointment as Intendant becoming permanent in September 1934, thereby completing the Prussian Minister President’s tactical maneuver.

Göring more or less proved good on his word and served as Gründgens’s chief patron for the next eleven years. With regard to artistic freedom, the Prussian Minister President fostered an independent and more liberal Theaterpolitik.23 While this did not mean that productions by Jewish authors were staged, or that the theater featured aggressively modern set design, Gründgens oversaw a wide array of productions, ranging from German classics (Goethe, Schiller, Lessing) to foreign classics (Shakespeare, Alexandre Dumas), to more contemporary drama and comedy. Gründgens was also able to employ people like Erich Ziegel, an old friend and colleague from Hamburg who had been known for promoting Expressionist drama and who was married to a Jew, Mirjam Horwitz.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.