Brothers Herrnfeld Theater

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Seating plan 1903

The Gebrüder-Herrnfeld-Theater was a Jewish dialect theater in Berlin . It was founded and operated by the brothers Anton Herrnfeld (born  January 15, 1866 in Raab ( Hungary ); †  September 21, 1929 there ) and Donat (aka David ) Herrnfeld (born  November 14, 1867 in Raab (Hungary); †  June 8, 1916 in Berlin) The two actors and playwrights founded their own private theater in 1896 , which bore their name from 1899. In 1906 a newly built hall was occupied. The theater belonged to the Herrnfelds until around 1918.

History and public perception

prehistory

The Herrnfeld brothers grew up in the small town of Raab, which belongs to the Kingdom of Hungary , together with their two younger sisters Käthe and Ella. According to their own legendary information, they were already on stage as comedians with their parents as children . Later on, the four children , who had moved to Vienna with their families, formed the Abramowicz siblings quintet together with the mood singer Abramowicz , with whom they toured Europe. The siblings separated from Abramowicz around the beginning of the 1880s and, according to their own statement, formed the Vera Siblings group , which was led by Anton and Donat and with which they also traveled through Europe - without resounding success. It can be considered certain that Donat Herrnfeld was trained at the Vienna Conservatory and that the brothers appeared in children's performances and as singers from an early age.

In March 1884, the Herrnfeld brothers founded the First Original Budapest Orpheum Society , with which they also appeared in Germany from 1886 and sometime between 1890 and 1892 in Berlin, first in the Reichshallen Theater . There is also evidence of a series of performances by the siblings in 1893 in the Parodie-Theater on Moritzplatz , as a Budapest antics and operetta theater in Berlin Vaudeville by Richard Quarg (1844–1906), which was located in the Grand Hotel on Alexanderplatz , and from 1894 at the latest in Kaufmann's Varieté and in 1895 in the Viktoria Theater in Breslau .

Foundation of a theater in Berlin

Anton and Donat Herrnfeld, around 1897

In 1896, the brothers jointly took over Kaufmann's Varieté in the Villa Colonna in the Königskolonnaden at Alexanderplatz station as directors and renamed it in 1899 to Gebrüder Herrnfeld's Budapest Theater . In 1906 the Herrnfelds moved to a specially built new building at Kommandantenstrasse 57 in what was then Berlin's Luisenstadt district because of the construction of the light rail and called the theater for short, Gebrüder-Herrnfeld-Theater . The theater quickly became popular and established a permanent place in Berlin's entertainment scene. According to the historian Till van Rahden , the stage formed “an interface between the bourgeois theater world and the popular showman milieu. In this jargon theater, it was not lower-class Jews from the Scheunenviertel that enjoyed themselves, but Jews and non-Jews from the upper-class city quarters. "

The brothers wrote their more than 100 pieces, which were burlesque , themselves and played the leading male roles. The two wives, Therese Herrnfeld-Horn and Klara Herrnfeld-Birkholz, were also on stage for the first few years. The pieces were written in a kind of Yiddish jargon and had Jewish habits on the subject. The recipe for success was her stereotypical characterization of characters: Anton Herrnfeld usually played a character with a Slavic name, often a stubborn servant with a limited horizon, but who was smart as a farmer. Donat Herrnfeld played the main character, usually clearly recognizable as Jewish, choleric but soft-hearted. According to researcher Peter Sprengel, it was "ethno-comedy ... between caricature and realism".

Effect and reception

Advert 1912

The Herrfelds' plays and acting quickly made them famous and popular. The evaluations of their work were extremely different. An expert opinion by the Prussian censorship office ruled in 1902: "The main repertoire pieces, which ... are correctly characterized as burlesque, in which Jewish jargon and Jewish lifestyles play a main role, are in no way on a higher artistic level." committed journalists and writers. Kurt Tucholsky was enthusiastic. He said, looking back in 1930, that he “laughed himself sick and healthy again”. He wrote in 1913 about the quality of the Herrnfelds:

“Not a word more about the presentation. We have portrayed them here so often - the curled nose of one brother, the spherical eyes of the other - that there is nothing left for us to do. But this time it's the piece that makes us sit up and take notice, so it's a different matter. A frightening naturalism crawls around on the stage, lounges in fohtoeches, grunts, excitedly moves the limbs of the actors and makes us smile painfully. "

In retrospect, Alfred Döblin characterized the game of the Herrnfelds as "brilliant", but denounced their comic language as a "self-prostituting (s) unworthy (s) swag". The stage repertoire in no way represents “real Jewish theater”, but consists of “burlesque jargon pieces” as well as “Budapest nonsense and French personalities”.

For Franz Kafka , the film adaptation of the Herrnfeld play “Endlich alone” in 1913 was the finale of a long evening at the cinema. And the writer and playwright Rudolf Kurtz (1884–1960) explained the theatrical success of the Herrnfelds in 1911 in the avant-garde weekly Der Sturm :

“The achievements of the Herrnfeld brothers go beyond the pure acting of the soul, so to speak. Her body parts are eminently involved in her designs ... Her personality rests with the same seriousness in her crazy situations as the tragic soul in his pathetic gestures ... You are always exactly what you imagine. "

But there were also voices who pointed to the danger that the image of Jews presented by the Herrnfelds could play into the hands of anti-Semites . The writer Edmund Edel , himself of Jewish origin, describes the success of the plays with non-Jewish audiences in 1909 in his book “The Joke of the Jews” as follows: “Downstairs on the floor they only laugh at the gross anti-Semitic effects and understand the real Jewish nature that is in individual movements seems terribly funny, absolutely not ”. And the Jüdische Rundschau accused the press, which it called "judoliberal", of being "the most ardent supporter of this anti-Semitic" mess "..."

In fact, the national anti-Semitic press advertised some of the Herrnfeld plays. Ironically, the national conservative magazine Die Standarte. In 1908, the weekly newspaper of the new nationalism accused the Herrnfelds, who had supposedly converted to the evangelical faith, of anti-Semitism:

“It is all the more unpleasant that a very bad and unpleasant remnant of the old radical anti-Semitism is holding up here in Berlin and does not want to disappear. We mean the Herrfeld brothers' theater, which has endeavored for years to abuse the Jewish nature and character in the crudest way and to portray all German Jews consistently as idiots or ragged fellows. It is well known that such anti-Semitic tendencies are the exclusive specialty of this theater. And it should be just as well known that the audience on the stage in Kommandantenstrasse is made up almost entirely of Christians of the purest possible state, probably mostly anti-Semites, for whom this incitement of Judaism is a given. Especially now that Berlin is full of summer guests from Uuckmarket and Pomerania, it's all very solemn. Every evening the Herrnfeld Theater is full of these living warriors who watch the gibberish and the mindless fidgeting on stage and tell at home that Berlin Jewry is really not worth a shot of powder. "

That is why the “ Central Association of German Citizens of the Jewish Faith ” repeatedly warned its co-religionists against visiting the Herrnfeld Theater, which forbids “Jewish self-respect”. Because the Herrnfelds would only damage the Jewish cause. Thirty years later - after the National Socialists came to power - these allegations were no longer mentioned in the Jewish press. On the contrary. In 1935, the Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung presented Donat Herrnfeld in retrospect as a “shining example”: “He never wanted to make fun of the Jewish characters he thought up and experienced. Throughout his life he was not only a devout, but also a good Jew, who secretly did so many good deeds. "

Film adaptations

Several of the Herrnfeld plays were filmed during the silent film era . In " Endlich alone " (also: "Isidor's honeymoon" ) the two brothers played the leading roles alongside Hanni Weisse in 1913 . The script was by Max Mack , who also directed. The film is based on the stage farce of the same name from 1895, "that Herrnfeld tragedy with the blooming, curly-haired groom Isidor Blumentopf, who is always interrupted in the hotel by knocking or a telegram as soon as he wants to consume the marriage." ( Alfred Kerr ). In 1916 Union Film filmed the Herrnfeld "original" version of the farce Die Klabriaspartie . Directed by Nunek Danuky , the main roles played, among others, Erich Schönfelder and Leonhard Haskel . The film was banned from youth.

In 1927 there followed the quite free adaptation of the Herrnfeld comedy " Family Day in the Prellstein House " , first performed in 1905 , in which Anton Herrnfeld played as "Jaromir Schestak" alongside Szöke Szakall , Siegfried Arno , Paul Morgan , Erika Glässner and Ilka Grüning . The producer was Lupu Pick , and the later Nazi director Hans Steinhoff directed it . The film takes place in a Jewish café and tells the story of the gambling addict Samuel "Sami" Bambus, who fakes suicide to pay off his gambling debts and at the same time takes revenge on his wife Flora, née Birnbaum, and her cousin and lover Prellstein. The UFA , which had meanwhile been taken over by the right-wing conservative Alfred Hugenberg and on whose behalf the film had been produced by Rex-Film , were dissatisfied with the film and delayed its publication. The premiere did not take place until December 1927 in a remote Berlin cinema.

Advertisement Lübeck 1924

The Herrnfeld Theater from 1914

With the outbreak of war, the Herrnfelds' pieces became more serious, the characters less bizarre. Understanding and integration were now the focus. As a result, however, the income fell significantly. Donat Herrnfeld died in 1916. His gravestone, an obelisk made of black marble, can still be found today in the Jewish cemetery in Berlin-Weißensee . Anton Herrnfeld leased the house to the operator of the Metropol-Theater in 1917 , who irritably renamed the stage Central-Theater . This name actually referred to the Berlin theater in Alte Jakobstrasse 30-32, which, however, had not been used for years after a bankruptcy in 1908. A little later, Herrnfeld sold his theater to the Metropol-Theater-AG .

Anton Herrnfeld went to America with his son Kurt in 1920 to produce his own pieces there - apparently without success, as he returned to Berlin a few months later. Kurt Herrnfeld, on the other hand, stayed in the USA, where he initially worked as a stage actor for Jewish touring companies, and later as an actor in German audio versions of Hollywood films. Anton Herrnfeld opened the Intime Theater at Bülowstrasse 6 in September 1921 with a little more than 300 seats and played the old Herrnfeld antics. However, he did not succeed in building on the old successes. That's why he went on tour with his ensemble. In 1922 Anton Herrnfeld played a small supporting role at the side of Henny Porten and Hermann Thimig in "You and the Three" directed by EA Dupont and in 1926 published a book about the Herrnfeld humor. After his death as a result of a stroke, he was buried in the cemetery of the evangelical St. Georgen community in Prenzlauer Berg in 1929 .

After the sale by Anton Herrnfeld, nobody really knew what to do with the theater building on Kommandantenstrasse. The Metropol-Theater-AG initially operated the stage under the direction of Emil Berisch and then from Walter Kollo as the Central Theater and Theater in Kommandantenstrasse , then the house was leased. From autumn 1921, the stage was a year of a Russian Jewish touring company from Vilnius recorded, which Jewish Art Theater named. Then in 1922 a certain Dr. Eugen Poell the house, who performed German drama there. According to Alfred Döblin, the repertoire smelled “of local art and Teutschtum”. In 1922 Gustaf Gründgens also had his first appearance here in Berlin. At the beginning of 1923, the Christian-National Stage People's Union took over the theater. After attending a performance of Maximilian Böttcher's play Tauroggen on Kommandantenstrasse, Döblin noted with disgust in June 1923 that a right-wing radical newspaper advertised the performances with discounts and that some audience members sang the “ Deutschlandlied ” after the performance . In 1923/24 Walter Kollo again performed operettas here, and from 1924–26 the bustling Martin Zickel ( “United Theaters” ) ran the house. 1926/27 was Ferdinand Bruckner there under Director Neumann senior director . After that the stage belonged temporarily to the “Reibaro” group ( Reinhardt - Barnowsky - Robert ) and to the “ Saltenburg-Bühnen ” . Directed by the controversial Jo Lherman , the scandal-ridden world premiere of Robert Musil's “Die Schwärmer” took place in the house, now known as the theater in the city . The Deutsche Bühnen-Jahrbuch recorded the stage until 1932 , when the theater was no longer used.

The empty and run-down building became the theater of the Jewish Cultural Association in 1935 , until it was dissolved by the National Socialists in 1941. The building was destroyed by air raids in 1944 and the remains were blown up in 1953.

literature

  • Anton and Donat Herrnfeld: What's going on? [Jokes, anecdotes, etc. humorous stories.] 2nd edition Berlin: Baum 1914.
  • Anton Herrnfeld: Herrnfeld humor. A collection of the best anecdotes, jokes and humores. Berlin: Globus-Verlag 1926.
  • Stefan Hofmann: Civil habitus and Jewish affiliation: The Herrnfeld Theater around 1900. In: Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 12 (2013), pp. 445–480 ISBN 978-3-525-36942-5
  • Peter Sprengel : Popular Jewish theater in Berlin from 1877 to 1933. Berlin: Haude and Spener, 1997 ISBN 3-7759-0411-5
  • Peter W. Marx : Jargon Theater. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Jewish History and Culture (EJGK). Volume 3: He-Lu. Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 2012, ISBN 978-3-476-02503-6 , pp. 170-173.

gallery

  • Roll Photos (1898)

  • Anton and Donat Herrnfeld in "A Lost Night" (1910)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ German Biographical Encyclopedia . 2nd edition. Vol. 4: Görres - Hittorp. Munich 2006, p. 755f.
  2. ↑ Egon Jacobsohn : The Herrnfelds. In: Der Cross Section 11 (1931), Issue 3, pp. 199-201.
  3. ^ A b Stefan Hofmann: Bourgeois habitus and Jewish affiliation: The Herrnfeld Theater around 1900. In: Simon Dubnow Institute Yearbook 12 (2013), pp. 445-480.
  4. ↑ Information in Neuer Theater-Almanach 12 (1901), p. 255; not to be confused with the Vienna Orpheum Society founded in 1889 .
  5. ↑ a b c New Theater Almanac 7 (1896) - 11 (1900).
  6. ↑ a b Peter Sprengel: Between languages ​​and cultures. Popular Jewish theater in Berlin around 1900. In: Berlin in the past and present. Yearbook of the Berlin State Archives 1996, pp. 103-136; Ders .: Popular Jewish theater in Berlin from 1877 to 1933. Berlin 1997, p. 50ff.
  7. ↑ a b Jürgen Gottschalk: A doubly hidden “hidden” bibliography in Edmund Edel's “The Joke of the Jews” (no year) on humoristica-judaica.pirckheimer.org (accessed on December 29, 2013).
  8. ↑ Till van Rahden: From unity to diversity: Jews in the history of the German bourgeoisie. In: Andreas Gotzmann et al. (Ed.): Jews, citizens, Germans. On the history of diversity and difference 1800–1933. Tübingen 2001, pp. 9–32, here: p. 28.
  9. ^ Obituary by Donat Herrnfeld in: Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 28 (1917), p. 171.
  10. ^ Peter Sprengel: Popular Jewish Theater in Berlin from 1877 to 1933. Berlin 1997, pp. 62–73, quote: p. 73; Peter W. Marx: In the shadow of theater history? An overview of research on Jewish theater in German-speaking countries. In: IASLon-line, March 27, 2001 (accessed December 29, 2013).
  11. ↑ cit. in: Peter Sprengel: Between languages ​​and cultures. Popular Jewish theater in Berlin around 1900. In: Berlin in the past and present. Yearbook of the Berlin State Archives 1996, pp. 103-136, here: p. 130.
  12. ^ Kurt Tucholsky: Twenty-five years. In: Die Weltbühne No. 37 v. September 9, 1930, p. 373.
  13. ↑ Ignaz Wrobel: The family. In: The Schaubühne No. 41 v. October 9, 1913, p. 978.
  14. ↑ Alfred Döblin: A guy must have an opinion. Reports and reviews 1921–1924. Munich 1981, p. 36.
  15. ^ Alfred Döblin, Kleine Schriften I , ed. v. Anthony W. Riley, Olten - Freiburg i.Br. 1990, p. 126
  16. ^ Alfred Döblin, Kleine Schriften I , ed. v. Anthony W. Riley, Olten - Freiburg i.Br. 1985, pp. 365-267.
  17. ^ Franz Kafka: Diaries 1910-1923 on projekt-gutenberg.org (accessed on May 15, 2020).
  18. ^ Rudolf Kurtz: Apotheosis of the Herrfeld Brothers. In: The Storm No. 82 BC. October 21, 1911, p. 656 ( digitized version ).
  19. ↑ Edmund Edel: The joke of the Jews. Berlin 1909, p. 55.
  20. ↑ a b Jüdische Rundschau 13 (1908) No. 35 v. August 28, 1908, pp. 346f .; there also quotes the article from Die Standarte.
  21. ↑ a b In the German Reich 14 (1908), No. 10 (October), p. 579f.
  22. ↑ The creator of the "Klabriaspartie". Memories of Donat Herrnfeld. In: Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung No. 23 v. June 5, 1935, supplement.
  23. ↑ Alfred Kerr: The world in drama. Vol. IV: Mayflies or The Power of Criticism. Berlin 1917, p. 284. THIS PAGE IS INCORRECT. PLEASE IMPROVE
  24. ↑ Die Klabriaspartie (1916) on earlycinema.uni-koeln.de (accessed on January 6, 2014).
  25. ↑ Bundesarchiv-Filmarchiv (Ed.): Filmblatt 7th Family Day in the Prellstein house. (undated) ( PDF 398 kB, accessed December 30, 2013); Jewish humor and anti-Semitism on filmportal.de (accessed December 29, 2013).
  26. ^ A b c Peter Sprengel: Popular Jewish Theater in Berlin from 1877 to 1933. Berlin 1997, p. 115; Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 29 (1918), p. 314; 31 (1920), pp. 274 f .; 32 (921), pp. 283f.
  27. ↑ Yiddish-German Comedians here. In: Variety No. 13 BC May 21, 1920, p. 13 ( PDF ); St. Louis Yiddish Stock One Show Weekly. In: Variety v. October 4, 1923, p. 4 ( PDF , both accessed on January 6, 2014); Florabel Muir: What's News In Hollywood. In: Buffalo Courier-Express v. October 25, 1929.
  28. ↑ Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 37 (1926), p. 219; Tour announcement in Lübecker Volksbote v. October 17, 1924.
  29. ^ "You and the Three" on filmportal.de (accessed on December 29, 2013).
  30. ^ Obituary by Anton Herrnfeld in: Deutsches Bühnen-Jahrbuch 41 (1930), p. 124.
  31. ↑ Alfred Döblin: A guy must have an opinion. Reports and reviews 1921–1924. Munich 1981, passim, quote: p. 115; Peter Sprengel: Popular Jewish theater in Berlin from 1877 to 1933. Berlin 1997, p. 137, Karl Corino: Robert Musil. A biography. Reinbek 2003, p. 752
  32. ↑ Jürgen Gottschalk: Occasional stamps of the Berlin Jewish jargon theater of the Herrnfeld brothers (no year) on humoristica-judaica.pirckheimer.org (accessed on December 29, 2013)