Anton Hartmann

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Hofrat Theater Director Anton Hartmann (1864–1912)
Anton Hartmann and Friedrich Mitterwurzer in Wildenbruch's The Quitzows

Anton Christian Hartmann (born October 30, 1860 in Varel , † October 23, 1912 in Leipzig ) was a German actor and theater director.

Life

The actor

The son of a lawyer was trained for a stage career by August Münchenberg in Königsberg . He began his acting career in Oldenburg , further engagements took him to Krefeld , Metz , Trier , Kolberg , Chemnitz and Düsseldorf . In 1885 he came to the Stadttheater Kassel and celebrated triumphs at the Stadttheater Leipzig from 1890 as a well-grown, frizzy shower head in the role of the first adolescent lover . From 1896 to 1898 he was on the stage in Frankfurt am Main . He had an extensive repertoire that included the roles of old and new stage literature in the subject of youthful and sedate heroes. His playing shows the intelligent actor who knows how to interest his audience in the skill of the hero portrayed, whom he knows how to show warmly and lively.

The theater director

After a guest appearance as the king's son in Elsa Bernstein's play Königskinder at the Deutsches Volkstheater in Vienna , he initially took over the management of the Görlitz City Theater from September 1898 .

In 1902 Hartmann began his large theater project in Leipzig . He took over the Carola-Theater in Sophienstrasse, which he reopened on September 10, 1902 under the name Leipziger Schauspielhaus after extensive construction and modernization work . In addition to the classic comedy, the modern drama and comedy were mainly cultivated here.

In 1904 Hartmann also leased the Leipzig Central Theater on Bosestrasse. This building complex, which opened on August 30, 1902 as a variety theater, in which, in addition to the main stage, several ballrooms and restaurants were housed, was initially performed with French social dramas. He named the house Theater am Thomasring . From 1906 he engaged Herman Haller as artistic director and from then on ran the house as a pure operetta stage under the name Neues Operettentheater .

Hartmann initially led both stages successfully as director. Regular guest performances by famous actors and well-known domestic and foreign ensembles attracted the audience. In this way he was able to perform sophisticated pieces of modern drama without financial risk - despite high fees. For the spring of 1911, Hartmann planned a series of special performances at the Leipziger Schauspielhaus, for which he wanted to win over the best German-speaking actors in order to convey unforgettable theater experiences to his audience. 28 top executives from the Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg and Vienna theaters were simultaneously hired for this project, and new stage decorations and technology were commissioned. The festival week from April 1 to 12, 1911 was finally a great success. The critics celebrated it as a unique event in recent theater history.

As a result of the enormous psychological stress, however, Hartmann suffered a nervous breakdown from which he no longer recovered. After an unsuccessful cure in Bad Kissingen , he had to be admitted to a mental hospital. In the last few months before his death, the popular and celebrated theater man was supported by his wife, Julie Fanni Henriette Helene, b. Chef, well-groomed. The marriage had three children.

Hartmann's life was summed up by his student and friend, the actor Bernhard Wildenhain , in his funeral speech with the following words: Leipzig owes him new life in the realm of art and thus new youth who are always born again and never die - not even with him! Cloudy shadows have settled on the approaching autumn of his life - and so today we are almost with a feeling of soothing redemption on his bier that his friend Death, as we must say here, took him with him - to where all suffering comes to an end.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gustav Herrmann: Anton Hartmann - the friend . In: 25 Years of the Leipziger Schauspielhaus . Leipzig undated (1927), p. 5.
  2. ^ Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 395, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ^ Bernhard Wildenhain: To be an actor .. , Henschelverlag, Berlin 1958, p. 90f.
personal data
SURNAME Hartmann, Anton
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hartmann, Anton Christian (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Varel
DATE OF DEATH October 23, 1912
Place of death Leipzig