Free German stage
The Free German Stage was a theater in exile for German-speaking theater professionals , which was formed in Buenos Aires in 1940 under the direction of the German actor and director of Jewish origin Paul Walter Jacob . Within a short time in Argentine exile, in collaboration with the German-Argentine actress Liselott Reger-Jacob , his wife, he set up a German-speaking stage for a German-speaking audience. The Germanist Frithjof Trapp , who specializes in exile literature, describes the Free German Stage as a “product of German-Jewish exile” in view of the schedule, the audience and the social function of the theater: According to Trapp, it was a response to the involuntary split-off and expulsion of the Jewish people Population group from German society.
With 215 productions and 750 performances in German from 1940 to 1949, the Free German Stage is one of the most successful theaters in German-speaking exile. Important actors such as Hedwig Schlichter (later Hedy Crilla) and Jacques Arndt emerged from this theater and fitted into the Argentine theater landscape.
history
The concept of this theater in exile was developed by Paul Walter Jacob and Liselott Reger-Jacob before their arrival in Argentina in January 1939. In April 1940, the German-language exile theater of Paul Walter Jacob and his ensemble was inaugurated in the Casa del Teatro with the support of the editor of the German-language daily Argentinisches Tageblatt , Ernesto F. Alemann .
In view of the limited number of theater-goers due to the language, a new play was staged every week, which was only performed three times on average. This program should appeal to as many theater-goers as possible with its constantly changing offer. Nevertheless, the income was low. Accordingly, the actors could only be paid for the season. During the summer break, they therefore had to work on the side. Changing the venue several times over the years also caused some difficulties. Overall, the operation of the Free German Stage was very complex, as the reduced rehearsal times for the weekly new productions were very labor-intensive. The hard work and low income often led to arguments and raised the question of the future viability of this stage. Nonetheless, the theater in exile prevailed and gained international reputation, which also made it possible for celebrity guest performances after the end of the Second World War . Famous actors such as Ernst Deutsch , who continued his career in Hollywood as an actor in exile in the USA , became guest members of the ensemble.
In November 1949 Paul Walter Jacob returned to the Federal Republic of Germany. The Free German Stage, which was strongly tied to his leadership and person, suffered from his departure: it continued to exist, but under different names and organizational forms until it finally dissolved in 1962.
The German-speaking Jewish Exile of Theater Artists (in Buenos Aires)
The theater artists Paul Walter Jacob , Hedwig Schlichter , Hansi Schottenfels (and others) were not only of German-speaking, but also of Jewish origin. Before she fled Germany, Hansi Schottenfels had worked at the Jüdisches Kulturbundtheater in Cologne from 1933 to 1935 . She and her colleagues had fled abroad because of the Nazi German policy. By founding a German-language theater in a foreign country, according to Germanist Frithjof Trapp, a section of German-Jewish history was repeated: Jewish assimilation in Germany in the 19th century was mainly through education. Theater played an important role here, as it helped social integration. The practice of the theater allowed u. a. a “social and cultural self-assertion” that counteracted the “social and cultural loss of identity or doubts about identity” caused by exclusion and exile. The members of the Free German Stage , as well as other German-speaking exiles, came across a German colony already located in Buenos Aires, which in part sympathized with the National Socialist German embassy, which in turn could count on the support of the Argentine governments. Anti-Semitism and National Socialist politics also encountered German-speaking (Jewish) exiles in Argentina.
However, the Free German Stage consisted not only of Jewish actors or actors of Jewish origin, but also of German-speaking opponents such as the Austrian Jacques Arndt, who had to flee his homeland as a dissident.
Program and political stance
Comedies instead of tragedies
The aim of this German-speaking exile theater was to offer the German-speaking audience in Buenos Aires a program that consisted of international pieces of European theater culture in German in Latin America . The artistic direction of the Free German Stage decided to alternate between entertainment comedies and sophisticated tragedies , with the first priority being given. This decision is due to an attempt to attract casual theater-goers rather than just subscribers. In addition, the audience seemed to be looking for distraction in the theater, especially at the beginning of the Second World War, as the number of spectators for tragic plays was significantly lower ... .... In order to guarantee the theater a long-term financial existence with a sufficient audience and correspondingly sufficient income, one had to meet the preference for the entertainment pieces. Although time pieces or plays made in exile were rarely considered, as these were not easy to find in German in Argentina at the time, one of Jacobs' pioneering achievements is his South American premiere of the original version of Franz Werfel's play Jacobowsky and the Colonel in 1944.
Conflicting programming
The Argentine government was open to the Axis powers and, in cooperation with the then National Socialist German embassy, continuously observed the Free German Stage . However, since the audience in this case consisted mainly of emigrants and thus of a foreign-language minority, censorship and other political means were refrained from. Nonetheless, Paul Walter Jacob was very careful about the political definition of the theater through the program. Although he took part in political debates, he refrained from arranging the theater program according to political ideas. A precaution against which he was reproached among political exiles.
Disputes also arose in connection with Jewish organizations that wanted a greater presence of Jewish authors and a stronger thematization of Jewish circumstances. In addition, the decision to stage the plays in German was criticized because, in their opinion, the German language was the “language of persecutors” .
Audience and theater in exile
In view of the six years previously spent in exile, Walter Jacob was of the opinion that a theater in a foreign language environment had to adapt completely to the tastes of the audience. The audience in this case consisted of the German-speaking colony of Buenos Aires. It was therefore a linguistically limited audience that corresponded more to the size of a community or a club.
Audience or club?
Compared to an unfamiliar audience, a closed community as an audience receives more attention for special and personal demands and expectations. According to Trapp, one of the main features of a theater in exile is that the audience is not anonymous, but consists almost exclusively of a group of always the same people . As a theater in exile, the Walter Jacobs Theater was therefore dependent on the taste of the audience: apart from the German-speaking community in Buenos Aires, it had no other possible theatergoers. The Free German Stage is thus also a theater of adaptation to the difficult circumstances of exile and therefore not a “free” theater. This dependence on a small migrant population, which was caused by the German language, inevitably raises the question of whether the exile theater was a sustainable theater or just a temporary emergency solution.
In order to be able to start playing at all, Paul Walter Jacob created a theater fund as early as 1939, which was supported by some wealthy German-Argentine families with anti-National Socialist attitudes. Part of the running costs were paid from this fund.
Paul Walter Jacob and his artistic direction
The theater financed itself through the weekly new productions, which ensured a varied and dense repertoire that attracted the audience every week. The limited number of possible spectators should also be tied to the stage as tightly as possible through subscriptions. Frithjof Trapp puts forward the thesis that the basic prerequisite for the existence of this stage was the "local monopoly position", which Jacob strengthened in good time. With this in mind, he also designed the contracts for the actors, in which he excluded from the outset the actors' opportunity to accept other engagements outside the Free German Stage. In order to secure the position of his theater, Jacobs pursued the intention to tie other German-language theater productions to the FDB through attractive offers, with the aim that there should only be one German-language theater in Buenos Aires.
literature
- Theater 1940–1950: Ten years of the Free German Stage in Buenos Aires. Edited by Paul Walter Jacob. Ed. Jupiter, 1950, 187 pp.
Web links
- It was about German theater
- Frithjof Trapp : Theater and Politics - The Free German Stage Buenos Aires
- Exile research at the University of Hamburg
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Frithjof Trapp: Exile theater in France and Latin America . In: Anne Saveur-Henn (Ed.): Chased away twice . Berlin 1998, p. 173-174 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Frithjof Trapp: Handbook of the German-speaking Exile Theater 1933–1945. Persecution and exile of German-speaking theater artists . tape 1 . Munich 1999, p. 444 .
- ↑ a b It was about German theater | ila. Retrieved December 22, 2018 .
- ^ A b Paul Walter Jacob: Seven Years Free German Stage . Buenos Aires 1946, p. 24 .
- ↑ In 1943 Paul Walter Jacob took z. B. in Montevideo took part in the First Congress of Antifascist Germans in South America . See Trapp (1999) vol. 2, p. 450.