Christiane Weidner

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Joseph Lange , Johann Ernst Mansfeld : Christiana Friderica Huberin (before 1772)

Christiane Friederike Weidner , née Lorenz , married Huber and Weidner , ( May 29, 1730 in Zittau - November 14, 1799 in Vienna ) was a German-speaking actress, engaged at the Vienna Hofburgtheater from 1748 until her death and the first doyenne of the ensemble. She was acquainted with Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and also edited some theater plays.

life and work

The “pretty Demoiselle Lorenz” was a comedian child, “whose mother represented older comedy roles”, so the doyen of German literary history Erich Schmidt in his Lessing book. The demoiselle "stepped onto the Viennese boards very young [...] and was then thrown north with her parents to Danzig". She played "initially in Lisette and second lover roles" in performances by the Neuber'sche Komödiantengesellschaft and the Schönemann'schen Truppe in Leipzig, Dresden and other cities. Schmidt's book also discusses “Lessing's heartfelt affection” for the maiden Lorenz: “There is no reason to doubt the rumor [...] but also no testimony to the degree of warmth and the circumstances.” The youth group around Lessing celebrated the pretty girl as the "embodiment of love", Lessing's friend Christlob Mylius asked the painter Hartmann: "Paint me the Lorenzinn" and Lessing dedicated an enthusiastic poem to the painter and subject:

That, painter is your masterpiece!
Yes, H **, yes; rich in grace
this child looks like my child.
This is his hair; these his looks;
This is his mouth; that his chin.
Oh friend, don't let it bother you,
And look at that side:
I have to, I have to kiss the picture.
How tenderly it does not accept the kiss:
What a shame it can't reproduce him.

Lorenz came to the Hofburgtheater at the age of 18, made her debut as Duchess of Irton in Corneille's Count of Essex and quickly became one of the mainstays of the ensemble. She was considered the accomplished actress of tragic heroines and embodied a number of princesses and queens - including Elizabeth I of England in the tragedy The Favor of the Princes by Christian Heinrich Schmidt .

In 1751 she married the actor Joseph Karl Huber (1726–1760) and from then on appeared as Christiana Friderica Huberin . "Her roles in the tragedy are queens, violent heroines and first mothers, as well as the first mothers and first character roles in comedies." She also worked on a number of plays, including probably 1756 Cleveland Third Part or: The honest unfaithfulness , a tragedy in five acts, based on Abbé Prévost's Le philosophe anglois . In 1760 she must have already had cult status, because she is listed on the cover of the tragedy Human Life is a Dream as the only actress, but the name of the author is forgotten.

When the new building of the Kärntnertortheater , which had burned down two years earlier , was opened on July 9, 1763 in the presence of the imperial family and in front of an illustrious audience , there was a prelude by Friedrich Wilhelm Weiskern in which two "darlings of the Viennese theater audience", Christiane Huber and Gottfried Prehauser , participated in important roles. In the text book it was said: “The Schaubühne presents a desert of collapsed walls and desolate fragments, which are overgrown with thorn hedges and thistle bushes.” This desolate setting at the beginning of the play was miraculously transformed into a wonderful and splendidly illuminated hall in to which all the actors and dancers of the Kärntnertortheater evoked the happy future of their house. Before that, a simple stone was transformed into the magnificent emperor's coat of arms. On the list of “Theatrical People”, subtitle “The Quays. Royal privilege. German Schaubühne ”, the actress -“ according to the time of her admission ”- was listed first among the actresses, admittedly as“ Fr. Huberinn ”, as was common back then.

On October 1, 1768, the actress appeared as Miss Sara Sampson . However, the performance was called Miss Sara and Sir Sampson , concealed Lessing's name as the originator and acted as an adaptation of the late husband Joseph Karl Huber, as New Bourgeois Tragedy, “drawn from English”. And it contained a "Hannswurst, Des Mellefonts loyal servant".

In 1775 she married a judicial officer and then changed her name to Weidner. In the same year she met Gotthold Ephraim Lessing one last time.

In 1786 Emperor Joseph II commissioned his Imperial and Royal chamber painter Joseph Hickel to portray the most important actors of the Hofburgtheater in their prime roles. With the help of Anton Hickel , the court painter's younger brother, 14 paintings were created, which are among the first portraits of actors made in Austria. These paintings were hung in a connecting corridor between the Hofburg and the Burgtheater, the so-called actor's gallery. The portrait by Christiane Weidner shows her as Queen Elisabeth of England.

On the occasion of her 40th stage anniversary, the actress was awarded the Great Golden Medal of Honor by the Kaiser . She was the first member of the Hofburgtheater ensemble to receive this award. In the general register of theater speeches - with the date April 29, 1794 - there is a farewell speech by Christine Friederike Weidner , "written by Schießling". contain.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erich Schmidt : Lessing , His life and his writings, Georg Olms Verlag, 1923, accessed online at: [1] , p. 68.
  2. ↑ As was customary at the time, there are different spellings of the name. Christiane and Christiana as well as Friederike and Friderica vary. When she had the family name Huber, she was announced on theater slips as Huberin or Huberinn.
  3. ↑ a b c d Erich Schmidt : Lessing , His life and his writings, Georg Olms Verlag, 1923, p. 90.
  4. ↑ a b Litteratur- und Theater-Zeitung, Volume 2, page 415
  5. ↑ EssayDocs: The Viennese Theater, 1740-1790 Author Index Addison, Joseph, 1672-1719 , accessed October 8, 2016.
  6. ↑ Julius Friedrich Scharffenstein, Pedro Calderon de la Barca : Human life is a dream translated from the Italian, a new tragedy in five acts by Pedro Calderon de la Barca "and in German verses brought by M. Julius Friedrich Scharfenstein (sic! ), L. Occ.P. “, Vienna 1760, accessed online at: [2] on October 8, 2016.
  7. ↑ a b Austrian National Library (collection of incunabula, old and valuable prints): On the reconstruction of the Kärntnertortheater 1763 ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 26, 2016.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.onb.ac.at
  8. ↑ Austrian National Library (collection of incunabula, old and valuable prints): The Ensemble des Kärntnertortheater ( Memento of the original from September 26, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed September 26, 2016.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www2.onb.ac.at
  9. ^ Karl Goedeke , Edmund Goetze : Outline for the history of German poetry , sixth book: From seven years to the world war: National poetry, part 1, Walter de Gruyter 2011, p. 369.
  10. ^ The learned Austria 1778, page 392
  11. ↑ ORF : 200 years of theater cult - Burgtheater stars from then until today , March 28, 2012, accessed on September 26, 2016.
  12. ↑ Wolfgang F. Bender , Siegfried Bushuven , Michael Huesmann : Theater periodicals of the 18th century , bibliography and content indexing of German-language theater magazines , theater calendars and theater pocket books , part 3: 1791-1800, KG Saur Munich 2005, p. 1415, accessed online via [3] on October 17, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Weidner, Christiane
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weidner, Christiane Friederike (full name); Lorenz, Christiane Friederike (name at birth); Huber, Christiane Friederike
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-speaking actress, doyenne of the Burgtheater
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1730
PLACE OF BIRTH Zittau
DATE OF DEATH November 14, 1799
Place of death Vienna