Fritz Bennewitz

Fritz Bennewitz (born January 20, 1926 in Chemnitz , † September 13, 1995 in Weimar ) was a German theater director .

Bennewitz studied German language and literature in Leipzig from 1950 to 1953 and theater studies at the German Theater Institute in Weimar. He was then a lecturer in aesthetics , from 1955 to 1960 senior theater director in Meiningen and from 1960 to 1975 acting director at the German National Theater in Weimar. From 1969 he was an associate member of the Akademie der Künste and from 1974 a full member .

From 1957 he tried to get Brecht's works outside of Berlin. He turned the Meininger Theater into the GDR's second Brecht stage by 1960. With the people of Meiningen, he had a great success with the GDR premiere of the Threepenny Opera at the Berlin Festival in 1958. His productions of Goethe's Faust I and II in Weimar 1965–67, 1975–76 and 1981–82 became famous . He has also repeatedly directed for the Berliner Ensemble , the Deutsches Theater and the Volksbühne .

Since 1970 he has also had international success with more than twenty productions of works by Goethe, Brecht and Shakespeare in Latin America , Southeast Asia and India , where he received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1991 . Since 1977 he has also given Brecht seminars in the USA , the Philippines and India. Fritz Bennewitz was Vice President of the International Theater Institute ITI and professor at the Leipzig Theater School. He was unable to complete his last production of Goethe's Faust at Das Meininger Theater (Faust - Joachim Rodewald , Mephisto - Ulrich Kunze and Gretchen - Christine Zart ). His grave is in the historical cemetery in Weimar.

theatre

1958: William Shakespeare : What you want ( Meininger Theater )
1958: Bertolt Brecht : Life of Galilei (Meininger Theater)
1958: Bertolt Brecht: Threepenny Opera (Meininger Theater)
1959: William Shakespeare: Hamlet (Meininger Theater)
1963: Lope de Vega : Knight of the Miracle ( Volksbühne Berlin )
1964: Bertolt Brecht / Kurt Weill : The rise and fall of the city of Mahagonny ( German State Opera Berlin )
1965: Friedrich Schiller : Wallenstein ( German National Theater Weimar )
1965: Rudolf Wagner-Régeny : The Citizens of Calais (German State Opera Berlin)
1966: William Shakespeare: The Storm (German National Theater Weimar)
1966: William Shakespeare: The Winter's Tale (Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar)
1971: Bertolt Brecht: Life of Galilei ( Berliner Ensemble )

source

Alfred Erck: History of the Meininger Theater , Das Meininger Theater 2006.

aftermath

On January 27, 1996, a "Fritz Bennwitz Group of Friends and Workers" was founded in Leipzig to set up an archive and promote publications by and about Bennewitz.

literature

Short biography for: Bennewitz, Fritz . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Individual evidence

^ Homeland GDR. Adventures. Considerations. Findings. Documents, including Werner Kühn: "My friend, the director", Ed. Horst Jäkel, GNN-Verlag Schkeuditz 2015, p. 229ff., ISBN 978-3-89819-416-7 .

Web links

Fritz Bennewitz Archive in the Archive of the Academy of Arts , Berlin

personal data
SURNAME	Bennewitz, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German theater director
DATE OF BIRTH	January 20, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH	September 13, 1995
Place of death	Weimar

[1] Homeland GDR. Adventures. Considerations. Findings. Documents, including Werner Kühn: "My friend, the director", Ed. Horst Jäkel, GNN-Verlag Schkeuditz 2015, p. 229ff., ISBN 978-3-89819-416-7 .