Eugen Herbert cake book

Eugen H. Kuchenbuch, portrait photo

Eugen H. Kuchenbuch doing a yoga exercise

Eugen Herbert Kuchenbuch (also known under the stage name Eugen Heribert , * July 20, 1890 in Aussig , Böhmen ; †  April 18, 1985 ) was a German actor , director , author of dramatic texts and libretti , journalist and professor of drama.

Life

Youth and education

Kuchenbuch was born as the son of the returned American emigrant and later director of the Bohemian-Saxon Steamship Company Ernst Kuchenbuch . He spent his youth in Aussig, later in Dresden or on his grandparents' winery in Niederlößnitz (Paradiesstrasse 19).

The special position of his father lulled him into the idea of ​​an ideal, monarchically ordered world. With his death due to the aftermath of an accident, she initially collapsed for Kuchenbuch. In addition, there were disagreements in the family in the new situation. Before he graduated from high school, he left his parents' house in order to be able to devote himself to his studies better in isolation. After graduating from high school, he initially wanted to study natural sciences , but gave up this plan and, inspired by a key experience, turned to the theater and then took his first acting lessons in Dresden. As a result, he moved to Munich, where he studied literature and art studies , while taking further acting lessons from A. Kronwald under the guidance of Ernst Ritter von Possart, among others . As a counter-program he saw his participation in Munich art theaters and cabarets as an actor, declamator and reader (including in the “ Schwabinger Schattentheater ” by Alexander von Bernus ). From 1908/9 he received his first engagements, beginning as a “shy young lover” in Potsdam and in various seasonal theaters.

Outbreak of war and the military

After the outbreak of the First World War , he volunteered in the Potsdam Guard Dragon regiment . He left the regiment due to visual difficulties (possibly also psychological); The official fact was that a voluntary examination revealed severe visual impairment. The disillusions of the barracks era, even though and especially experienced in such a traditional regiment, led him to a persistent aversion to militarism and nationalism, and, inspired by the expressionist movement, he saw his future task in a fundamentally newly founded theater work.

Theater work in the Weimar Republic

Having now retired from military service and exempted, he took on various engagements, including in Mainz and Brussels, and finally came to the Deutsches Theater Berlin under Max Reinhardt . Gradually he switched from the "youthful lover" to the character subject z. B. with roles like "Franz Moor" ( Schiller : " The Robbers "), " Savanarola " ( Thomas Mann : " Fiorenza ") or " Shylock " ( Shakespeare : " The Merchant of Venice ").

1921–1925 he worked as a senior director under Saladin Schmitt , who brought him to the Schauspielhaus Bochum . It was there in 1924 that his play “ Queen Draupadi ” was premiered (an expressionist-symbolist incarnation drama based on Indian mythology ). Ellen Widmann , first seen in the cinema a few years later in Fritz Lang's " M - Eine Stadt sucht ein Mörder " and later also an important actress in Dürrenmatt plays, took on the lead role. He married the Swiss actress in the same year. The marriage ended in divorce in the early 1930s.

From 1925 to 1926 he was director of the Recklinghauser Theater. After that, in addition to changing roles and directing, he resumed his work at the Berlin Theater School with Max Reinhardt. Above all, he was considered a specialist in language training. Among his students were well-known silent film stars who felt compelled by the rise of the sound film to learn German stage language and to improve their vocals, such as Leni Riefenstahl and Martin Herzberg .

In Spain

In 1931 he led a seminar abroad in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria , which came about through collaboration with Scandinavian film actors. It was primarily initiated by Martin Herzberg , the German child and youth film star. The "Scandinavians" received lessons in Reinhardt's Berlin theater school and wanted to train themselves as an intensive working group in an external summer seminar.

This one-month stay in the Canary Islands should (not least because of the political events in Germany) extend to several years for almost all seminar participants, or rather result in an official emigration to Spain. During this Canarian period, Eugen Heribert Kuchenbuch wrote dramas and libretti, including the comic opera “Adelina” with the subtitle “a Spanish love legend” (which was later premiered in Dresden in 1940 , set to music by Nino Neidhardt ).

After an intermittent trip to Germany in 1934, which included a stay in the monastery and participation in a retreat , he returned to the Canary Islands to continue working on his literary projects in the colony of Scandinavian film actors. On another trip from Las Palmas through France and Spain, he was surprised by the outbreak of the Spanish civil war in Barcelona in 1936 . He took the opportunity to make photo reports of the events on site.

In connection with this, like other foreigners, he was expelled and deported on an Italian ship heading for Genoa . On board he was arrested by the Gestapo as a supposed spy and transferred to the state prison in Munich. The Spanish Infanta Paz residing there , wife of Prince Ludwig Ferdinand of Bavaria , whom he had met on an earlier occasion, obtained his release.

In Turkey

In the same year 1936, like other artists and teachers who were critical of Reich cultural policy, he accepted an offer within the framework of the "German-Turkish cultural agreement" and became a professor in Ankara (for acting and voice training), together with Alfred Braun , Paul Hindemith among other members of the then Berlin artist circles in the field of radio, theater, music. You then took on tasks at the Ankara State Music Academy . Kuchenbuch married the daughter of a Hindemith assistant there.

In Dresden and Vienna

After the political-related termination of the “German-Turkish cultural agreement ” in 1939, he was appointed senior director in Karlsbad , where his son Thomas was born and then senior director in Dresden. In 1942 he was appointed professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, and at times he was also in charge of the seminar. The Max Reinhardt Seminar was then part of the university or academy, or today the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna . In connection with his teaching activities at the Max Reinhardt Seminar, he directed choral works, readings and theater performances for the Burgtheater, for the Schlosstheater Schönbrunn , for the Theater in der Josefstadt, among others .

In his private life he belonged to a group of people who helped Nazi refugees from Austria, Poland and Hungary to leave or flee.

After 1945 he founded the actor ensemble and theater " Die Stephansspieler ", which was dedicated to a tradition-based, anti-fascist cultural work. The game plan included a .: Emmet Lavery : "The First Legion", "The London Prodigal Son" (a Shakespeare apocryphal, edited by Ernst Kamnitzer ), Jerome K. Jerome: "The Stranger", Calderon: "The miraculous Magus".

In Munich

From 1947 he left Austria and moved to Munich; there he taught at the Philosophical University Berchmannskolleg Munich-Pullach, SJ, with which he had been associated since his retreat (subjects: phonetics, language training, rhetoric). In addition, apart from occasional directing and acting appearances, he worked in the youth welfare office in Munich as head of the Munich seminar for expression training.

Retirement

After his retirement in 1958, he moved back to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. He spent the years 1961–65, following the invitation of a couple of friends, in Switzerland (near Interlaken ), and then in 1965, following the call of the international artists and doctors colony, he took up residence in the Canary Islands, this time in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, where he ran a yoga academy and moved to a cave dwelling in the mountains for meditation during the summer months. During this time, the Spanish press was increasingly concerned with his eccentric biography and published articles about his work and life "between the limelight and monastic seclusion". Forced to have an operation, he turned to Germany and from 1972 spent the last few years in Marburg an der Lahn , where he died in 1985.

plant

Apart from his work as an actor, director and artistic director, his work can best be understood as a unity of teaching and stage work, as a lifelong undertaking to develop a concept of holistic theater work in which the focus is on the training of the artistic personality. In this respect, various references between his work and Stanislawski's teaching concept can be made, which at the time was known more from hearsay than from systematic publications.

Theater work before the First World War

The time of the first frequently changing engagements (1809–1914) offered ample opportunity to acquire routine on stage. As a continuously, almost non-stop actor, he got to know almost all types of theater, from summer theater in the provinces to gala theater in the residence. During choir rehearsals he got to know Max Reinhardt and was immediately fascinated by his work, just as, conversely, Max Reinhardt noticed him back then. A collaboration did not arise until later on the occasion of Kuchenbuch's engagement at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin (first engagement there 1918–1920).

The World War and the Expressionism Movement

A renewed turn to the theater and the theoretical foundation of its possibilities was triggered by the catastrophe of the First World War . In view of the collapse of the old authorities and their moral failure, he shared with many artistic personalities of his generation the profound aversion to all formerly disciplining and dominant bodies that were responsible for the disaster or at least could not prevent its inhuman escalation. Shaken by the disturbing war experience, this generation of “ Expressionists ” was ready to question everything that had previously been considered the foundations of Western civilization and to believe in the breakthrough of radically new things to an unprecedented degree. “Return to the essential”, to the “elementary”, were the key words, “man begins again where he began millions of years ago. He can be as free and as impartial as the child ... ". From this impetus of the new beginning, the turn of many artists of the war generation to the theater is understandable and the fascination that the stage exerted on them: the theater seemed to be able to become an existentially meaningful authority again, a possibility to free oneself from what had become and encrusted, as the evocation of a space of experience in which everyday bourgeois life and its role models could be broken and new forms of life could appear as possible, and which allowed them to be tried out in a playful way.

Artistic consequences

For the individual actress or the individual actor, the will to break new ground and to re-establish theater work meant, in addition to the acquisition of technical skills: permanent work on oneself, expansion of the personality repertoire, finding one's core, all in all a continuous process from the new Design options were to be developed. In any case, there was a unity of work and life. ( Stanislawski 's work, which was systematically published only later, under the heading of “the actor's work on himself”, programmatically summarized this tendency for other related training concepts as well). For the audience, this should mean: the possibility of transcending their role-fixation in bourgeois life and existential knowledge that was by no means only allowed to get stuck in the mental, i.e. only in rational enlightenment. For the artist community, for the drama students, for the growing ensemble, the implementation of the theoretical vision meant, among other things, a communal experience in which one mutually enriched one another, meant a joint search for a way of the stage artist that shapes the whole way of life and at times also requires complete contemplation and seclusion.

The holistic approach and the concept of life

The postulate of a “new way of life” in the artist community as the background for the “artist's path” also explains the close connection between stage work and acting lessons, which is seen as a permanent project in which personality development is the decisive focus, as is, among other things in a characterization of Kuchenbuch's Recklinghausen ensemble by the theater scholar Carl Niessen reflects:

“[...] The theater that he had built out of unfavorable ground in Recklinghausen made an unusual impression, although (or because) it was supported by young artists. Its form gave it the effort of the director to do a real educational work on the artists ”.

The theater scholar Joseph Gregor gave a similar assessment of the work at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna , which above all also intended an “artistic community”.

Stage work and acting lessons

Concrete implications for the teaching were obvious, e.g. B. that Stanislawski's role model (who exemplarily demonstrated and systematized the actor's permanent work on himself) was trend-setting for the cake book, as far as his writings and work were known at the time. (This role model function of Stanislawski's (more or less understood) training work was of course valid at that time for many avant-garde artists on the stage and film, from Meyerhold to Brecht, who then admitted to him in different ways or who later withdrew from him). Only on the basis of a thorough training work à la Stanislawski did Eugen Herbert K. consider artistic virtuosity to be sensibly employed in the theater, expressive signs and attitudes developed as sustainable, and artistic alienation seemed to him purposeful and functional. The later theses-like contrast “ Brechts vs. Stanislawski's acting method “was never accepted by him in its striking form, but rather viewed as an artificially forced misunderstanding.

The role of the voice and voice training

A special feature of Kuchenbuch's teaching system was the development of the voice as a central expressive organ. The voice as the psychosomatic link, or rather the connecting sphere of emotion and articulation, seemed to him an ideal starting point for full-body training and the awareness of the correspondence between inside and outside, of impulse and expression. He developed this approach in constant discussion with the contemporary scientific authorities, but on the other hand saw himself inspired and confirmed by the Indian (Vedic) philosophy of speech sounds. Incidentally, the voice-relatedness in the training should not be confused with any dominance of language on the stage and should not aim at the primacy of spoken theater (body work was just as important in the teaching system as dance, fencing, music), but was chosen as the outcome of the Self-awareness of design options. Alfred Braun (the Reinhardt student and later RIAS director), who he met as a colleague in Ankara, defined the relationship to language training as follows:

"In terms of content, his work is characterized by the tendency to design the entire physical expression in harmony with the phonetic problem, so that the word becomes an expression of inner gestures [...]"

- Assessment by Alfred Braun , head of the Turkish State Theater Academy, Ankara. From June 5, 1939 (copy in the Thomas Kuchenbuch-Henneberg archive)

Especially in voice training, he tried out all the technical possibilities of the time in order to obtain exact, verifiable results: voice recording with phonograph, segmental reinforcements and corresponding corrections were the order of the day in order to track down bad posture and tension.

His technical, language-building lessons were limited to a few people, were considered methodically strict and were also considered a secret recommendation among film actors and singers in Berlin - (as reported by the silent film actor Martin Herzberg , and Leni Riefenstahl , who was engaged by Reinhardt as a dancer , who at the time was Actress went to the film and other witnesses). He was supported by Max Reinhardt in his stage tests of vocal effects in reading and choral performances .

The holistic idea of ​​the theater profession and the "external (political and social) circumstances"

Like many reform movements that had begun vigorously after the First World War , holistically conceived stage and teaching work had to overcome ever increasing resistance during the development of the Weimar Republic . The theatrical educational work soon reached its limits or between the fronts of political polarization.

Nevertheless, in Kuchenbuch's career there were several opportunities to come closer to the ideal of holistic theater work, and in doing so he also had the benevolence and support of influential artistic personalities, such as Saladin Schmitt in the development of the young ensemble from Recklinghausen, like that of Max Reinhardt in the unity of play, direction and teaching, among others at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin and later in Las Palmas with the Scandinavian film actors. Even with the exotic experiment in “self-chosen exile” in Ankara, according to the judgment of his colleagues, the formula of acting and voice training, the unity of teaching and performance seemed to work out successfully.

Work at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna

The extent to which the successful unity of teaching and performance work also applies to the politically extremely difficult years at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna remains to be seen. After all, various testimonials from experts (from the press, theater studies, cultural policy) also attest generally noted successes for this phase. But the political reality of the system upheavals before and after the World War, which he had escaped twice through voluntary exile, caught up with him here in a time and place-specific manner. The Viennese theater scholar Joseph Gregor wrote about some aspects of Kuchenbuch's tenure:

“In 1946, Prof. Kuchenbuch sought to work on the young actors in a very thoughtful, innovative way for an artistic community and collaboration in the spirit of Stanislawski. This, in connection with his vocal pedagogy and choir leadership, manifested itself in an excellent home reading by the ensemble. Prof. Kuchenbuch then founded the Theater der Stephansspieler and had a great and generally recognized success with the opening performance of Laverys 'The First Legion' "

- Joseph Gregor, cf. Note 3.

The play by the American author Emett Lavery (filmed in 1951, among other things) mischievously poses the question of the validity of a materialistic or a spiritualistic interpretation of a so-called “miracle healing” and thus apparently hit the discussion about ideological approaches in this time of upheaval that was more than contrasting.

"The Stephanplayers"

The company “ Die Stephansspieler ” was characterized, among other things, by an echo of the “idea of ​​the Spanish world theater”, which at that time had also flourished significantly under the support of the church. In the spirit of their initiators, “Die Stephansspieler” should set a signal for a departure from the rubble time with a return to traditional and thus also Christian roots. This corresponded to a movement that was not only reviving in Austria at the time. B. to be found in Gertrud von Le Fort and her examination of the mission of Catholicism (despite the undeniable horrors of the Inquisition and the involvement of the Church in the so-called Third Reich ).

However, for Kuchenbuch, the tasks of “breaking new ground out of the rubble” were problematic in more than one respect: In addition to teaching, running a private theater that was to be commercially self-sufficient was one of the difficulties. The background of the ecclesiastical authorities is the other: On the one hand, this background was helpful because, paradoxically, it promised a certain independence of the stage practice, especially in the context of the contradicting Allied cultural policy, in which the Russian occupying power was dominant in some aspects according to its political weight. In the long run, however, the ties to the ecclesiastical authorities proved to be restrictive for planning a powerful repertoire.

After all, the diplomatic task of mediating between the interest groups in ecclesiastical and allied, partly Western, partly clearly Stalinist-oriented cultural policy was more than stressful. His personal attempt to build a bridge between Christian and Communist positions is also likely to have failed. In any case, only political pitfalls of every kind could lurk on the bottom of these constructions. Eugen Herbert Kuchenbuch finally canceled all his contracts and went to Munich in 1947.

Seminar for expression training in Munich

Performance of the seminar in 1959: the amateur play shop window no.7

It is difficult to say whether the activity in the Munich cultural office for the “seminar for expression training” represented a replacement or a kind of continuation of the teaching activity in addition to the teaching activity at the Philosophical University Berchmannskolleg. Kuchenbuch worked here, among others, with the acting teacher Alice Strathmann, whose students also included Dieter Hildebrandt . Some of his young amateur actors later found their way into the "real" acting, such as Anette Spola, later also theater director of the TamS (Theater am Sozialmarkt in Munich), and Claus Ringer . Educational work and sustainable foundation of the specialist tradition "Expression game" in youth and school work was highlighted by press and ministry reports.

Confrontation with political authorities

Kuchenbuch had demonstrated his uncompromising rejection of totalitarian constraints again and again spontaneously and radically: The sudden exit from the self-elected dragoon regiment was only the beginning. His escape from “German conditions”, declared as a “seminar abroad”, and his emigration to Las Palmas in 1931 were unmistakable. An even more radical move was his “voluntary exile” in Turkey 1936–39. In each case, it was a matter of decisions of the greatest importance, which were associated with complete personal uncertainty, especially for a theater person whose profession is closely linked to the German language, and all of this at a time when his reputation in Berlin was not insignificant , and at a time when many colleagues who were later considered anti-fascist were very comfortable and long afterwards in the Berlin of the “Führer”.

This uncompromising personal action was also shown by his activities as an escape helper in Vienna between 1942 and 1946, as well as his work as a householder in the house community Rahlgasse 1 during the bombing by the Allies and the invasion of the Russians in 1945. His later departure from Vienna without compensation or financial security ( 1947) can possibly also be explained in this way.

With regard to his “emigrations”, Eugen Herbert Kuchenbuch was aware that he had acted correctly and instinctively. However, / he later complained that he had paid little attention to the theoretical discussion of party and current political categories, or that he was only able to use leisure and time late on to reflect on political and concrete contemporary events. He later tried to remedy this deficit in terms of political categories through an intensive study of politics and contemporary history. The opportunity arose during his time in Munich, when he also wrote for the Allied newspaper “Neue Zeitung” and took part in the political education program of the “Akademie Tutzing” as a guest and also as a lecturer. Here he received a lot of suggestions and impulses (through contacts with Gertrud von Lefort, Karlfried Graf Dürckheim, Georg Grimm from the ancient Buddhist center). This was again an era of new beginnings, in which a discourse in an open, cosmopolitan spirit was possible and in which the most diverse positions met in what was now peaceful discussion. During this time he built on his lifelong correspondence with prominent contemporaries and continued to study Eastern philosophies.

criticism

Among other things, he was accused of the apolitical nature of his work, at least as far as the issues of daily politics are concerned. It is the accusation, which is certainly true in many respects, and which was made in retrospect to many artists of the generation of Expressionists. The accusation, however, is aimed at the core of the movement insofar as its representatives did not want a new classification in the spirit of the old systems and thought models and, above all, were looking for a metaphysical background for their work on the move. As a result, they always struggled when it came to getting closer to political groups or even trying to take them over. In the end, Kuchenbuch always tried to evade such suggestions through radical refusal, which then earned him, among other things, the accusation of reckless abandonment and a change of location and position. He pointed out, on the other hand, that he had duly completed his engagements and handed over his tasks correctly every time, as far as the administrative conditions of the time allowed. However, he admitted budget problems during his directorship, which reflected the difficulties in materially enforcing artistic priorities.

Web links

• Eugen Herbert Kuchenbuch in the Internet Movie Database (English)

Notes / individual evidence

1. ^ Address book of Dresden with suburbs (1901), p. 395.
2. ↑ Herbert Lederer: Before everything blows away ... Wiener Kellertheater 1945 to 1960. Österreichischer Bundesverlag. Vienna 1986, p. 51. See entry on the Stephansspieler 1946–1948. In: Austrian theater almanac. Vienna 1949, p. 124 ff.
3. ^ Friedrich Markus Huebner: Expressionism in Germany. In: Otto. F. Best: Theory of Expressionism. Stuttgart: Reclam 1982, pp. 37-51, here p. 38.
4. ^ Konstantin Sergejewitsch Stanislawski : My life in art. Berlin: Henschelverlag 1987.
5. ^ Carl Niessen , Institute for Theater Studies at the University of Cologne, connected with the Theater Museum, letter to the head of culture, Hans Ludwig Held, January 10, 1952. (Copy in the Thomas Kuchenbuch-Henneberg archive).
6. ^ Assessment by Joseph Gregor , director of the theater collection of the Austrian National Library, honorary lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts and the State Academy for Music and Performing Arts, Vienna April 30, 1947. (Copy in the Thomas Kuchenbuch-Henneberg archive).
7. ↑ Cf. Funk-Woche No. 5, January / February 1930, p. 69: Microphone language teacher, a new profession.
8. ^ Leni Riefenstahl : Memoirs. Berlin: Albrecht Knaus Verlag 1987, p. 136.
9. ↑ Carl Niessen, cf. Note 2.
10. ↑ Alfred Braun, cf. Note 4.
11. ↑ Among other things, the so-called Qualtinger Affaire, or “Qualtinger's entry into Viennese post-war culture”, illustrates the sometimes grotesque conditions in the cultural scene of that time: Qualtinger, at the age of 17, falsely pretended to be a communist civil commissioner for one of his own to enforce youth theater approved by the Soviet occupying power, an undertaking that was not supported by the Soviet side. Qualtinger, on the contrary, was arrested for illegally occupying a villa. Kuchenbuch, who was also interested in the development of youth theater culture, when asked about Qualtinger's suitability, pointed out, as head of the Max Reinhardt Seminar , that Qualtinger had failed the exam in the Reinhardt Seminar and was considered unsuitable there. However, this had no effect on Qualtinger's further career. See Willi Weinert: From the archive: Helmut Qualtinger's entry into Viennese post-war culture. www / klahrgesellschaft.at / Mitteilungen / Qualtinger_1_02…
12. ↑ Before that, he regulated the acceptance of the production of Hans Naderer's “Das unheilige Haus” and handed over the management of the Stephen players to Karl Schwetter. See Lederer (note 1), p. 52 and the Austrian Theater Almanach 1949 (see note 1).
13. ↑ City School Board Fingerle. Munich, letter to Eugen Herbert K. dated February 17, 1958 (in the Thomas Kuchenbuch-Henneberg archive).

Written estate

Dramas:

• Queen Draupadi. Tragedy by Eugen Herbert Kuchenbuch, Essen: Ruhrlandverlag 1924.
• Storm in the MS tower.
• Yahweh why? MS.
• Radio play: The silk shoe (based on Paul Claudel).

Libretti:

• Among others “Adelina. A Spanish love legend ”, set to music as“ Adelina, a Spanish love legend ”, comic opera in 6 pictures. Music by Nino Neidhart, first performed in 1940

Various:

• Theater reviews, records of voice and acting training, memories.