Albert Kehm

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emil Stumpp Albert Kehm (1926)

Albert Kehm ( March 24, 1881 in Stuttgart - July 24, 1961 in Graefelfing near Munich) was a German director and general manager . In 1933 he was relieved of his position as general manager of the Württemberg State Theaters in Stuttgart by the Nazi regime .

life and work

Albert Kehm spent his school days in Stuttgart, then completed a commercial apprenticeship and took acting lessons from court actor Wilhelm Göhns. In 1901 he got his first engagement at the Theater Bonn . At the age of 30 he was called to Strasbourg as senior director. From 1914 to 1920 he was director of the City Theater in Bern .

A. Nef wrote about his time in Bern that, as director, Kehm had succeeded in discovering talents like Leopold Biberti , Alexander Moissi and Max Pallenberg . In addition to his efforts to renew the ensembles in drama and opera, Kehm also created innovative and at the same time popular repertoire. In drama, he presented works by Ludwig Fulda , George Bernard Shaw , August Strindberg and Frank Wedekind , but on the other hand also cultivated dialect theater and operettas .

Max Reinhardt and his ensemble also made guest appearances in Bern. Richard Strauss conducted his operas Elektra and Ariadne on Naxos . Arthur Nikisch took over the musical direction of the Walküre and Tristan und Isolde . Kehm also brought our own forces the entire Ring des Nibelungen by Richard Wagner performed. Kehm was already involved in contemporary operas in Bern, for example for Ilsebill. The fairy tale of the fisherman and his wife by Friedrich Klose .

Kehm's successes were recognized nationwide and an invitation from Stuttgart followed to take over the management of the Württembergische Landestheater there from 1920 , which Kehm accepted. In 1925 he was appointed general manager.

Kehm relied on Schiller in drama and Wagner in opera, but also brought numerous world premieres to Stuttgart, including the Sicilian Vespers by Verdi and Rusalka by Dvořák. Numerous actors in Kehm's ensemble were of national importance, for example Berta Drews , Rudolf Fernau , Christian Kayßler , Mila Kopp and Fritz Wisten , as well as the opera singers Margarete Bäumer , Willi Domgraf-Fassbaender , Hildegard Ranczak , Heinrich Rehkemper , Ludwig Suthaus and Margarete Teschemacher . Kehm was able to keep other top-class singers in Stuttgart for many years, for example Magda Strack , Hermann Weil and Fritz Windgassen . Fritz Busch , Franz Konwitschny and Hans Swarowsky were among the conductors of the house . Under Kehm's direction, Stuttgart played its way into the premier league of opera houses in Europe, with a repertoire of 60 works and constant novelties.

The first performance of the early Hindemith operas Murderer, Hope of Women and Das Nusch-Nuschi on June 4, 1921 led to a scandal and the Ministry of Culture to dismiss the operas. When a few bars of the Marseillaise , the national anthem of archenemy France, were played during the performance of Büchner's Danton's death in 1924 , this was also scandalized. The Hitler supporter Georg Schmückle accused Kehm of being a man “who lost any sense of national honor”. Kehm sued for insult but lost the case.

The performance of the anti-racist play Shadow over Harlem by Ossip Dymow in 1930 caused a scandal. The NSDAP-affine assistant director of the Stuttgart play, Alex Erwin Dieterich, accused Kehm of “cultural disgrace”, turned to Rudolf Hess “and, with the support of the district management and the SA leader of Stuttgart, Maier, staged a theater scandal the likes of which Stuttgart had never experienced . "

When the National Socialists hoisted the swastika flag at the Landestheater on March 5, 1933, Kehm demonstratively left the house. At the end of March, Prime Minister and Minister of Education Christian Mergenthaler announced his dismissal, as he “cannot guarantee that the theater will run in the National Socialist spirit”. However, Kehm had a valid contract until the 1935/36 season, which is why the minister of education transferred him to Freiburg im Breisgau because he feared he would be defeated in court proceedings. After the contract expired, Kehm retired and moved to Graefelfing near Munich.

In 1945 he was brought back as general manager during the brief French occupation of Stuttgart , where he worked for another year. After his reinstatement entnazifierte Kehm during these months the State Theater Stuttgart rigorously; Against the resistance of the Ministry of Education under Theodor Heuss and the staff council, he dismissed 81 members of the ensemble without continued pay. A collaboration with Hans Rosbaud , who had applied for the position of general music director in Stuttgart, failed due to resistance from Kehm, who assessed Rosbaud as "politically unreliable" because of his ambivalence towards Nazi propaganda. As a result of these measures, Kehm lost the support of the ensemble and politicians and was finally put into retirement in 1946 with the approval of the US military government .

In 1953, Kehm was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit.

Kehm's politically motivated dismissal was reconstructed as part of the Stuttgart part of the exhibition project Silent Voices . As a result of this exhibition, a memorial plaque was unveiled in the Stuttgart Opera House on April 7, 2016, commemorating the members of the Stuttgart State Theaters who were victims of National Socialist politics between 1933 and 1945. The plaque lists 23 names, including Kehm.

Award

Own pieces

  • Albert Kehm, Martin Frehsee: When I was still in my grand piano . A happy game in four acts. 1914.

literature

  • Albert Nef: Fifty years of the Bern theater. The professional theater in the city and canton of Bern in the first half of the 20th century , Bern 1956.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Letter from Dieterich to Rudolf Hess, the "Deputy Leader", dated September 5, 1933. Quoted from LEO-BW, regional information system for Baden-Württemberg , accessed on May 15, 2019
  2. ↑ Boris von Haken: "The Case of Mr. Rosbaud" - The Progress of a Career , in Albrecht Riethmüller (Ed.): Deutsche Leitkultur Musik ?: on the history of music after the Holocaust , Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006, p. 113.
  3. ↑ Boris von Haken: "The Case of Mr. Rosbaud" - The Progress of a Career , in Albrecht Riethmüller (Ed.): Deutsche Leitkultur Musik ?: on the history of music after the Holocaust , Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006, p. 114.
  4. ^ David Monod: Americanizing the Patron State? Government and Music under American Occupation, 1945–1953 , in Albrecht Riethmüller (Ed.): Deutsche Leitkultur Musik ?: on the history of music after the Holocaust , Franz Steiner Verlag, 2006, p. 51.
  5. ↑ Kultur-Port: “New blackboard" Silent Voices "in the Stuttgart Opera House commemorates victims of National Socialism” from April 8, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Kehm, Albert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, director and director, general director of the Württemberg State Theater
DATE OF BIRTH March 24, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH Stuttgart
DATE OF DEATH July 24, 1961
Place of death Graefelfing