Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt (actor, 1772)

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Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt, portrait around 1830
The old Hamburg theater in the Opernhof until 1827
The new theater on Dammtorstrasse, photograph around 1865
Cover of the almanac from 1809

Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt (born August 5, 1772 in Hanover , † April 13, 1841 in Hamburg ) was a German actor , theater director , director and playwright .

Life

As the fourth of twelve children of a royal Hanoverian customs collector, Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt attended grammar school up to Tertia, then did a commercial apprenticeship in a large "cutlery" store and began training with the district surgeon in 1788, which he completed in 1791 with the examination as a surgeon or . surgeon graduated.

His first visit to the theater (“Der Fähnrich” by Friedrich Ludwig Schröder ) had awakened his passion for the stage as early as 1786 , and in 1788 he made his debut in a dilettante performance as the musician Miller in “ Kabale und Liebe ” by Friedrich Schiller , which he also wrote popular pattern, some plays. Without his father's knowledge, he went to Johann Carl Tilly's acting company in Braunschweig in 1792 , where he made his debut as Fedor Ossa in Babo's “Die Strelitzen” . He was initially used as a second lover and in servant roles as well as in singspiele, the repertoire consisted mainly of works by Kotzebue and Schröder, but also by Shakespeare .

Sponsored by the Berlin actor Ferdinand Fleck , Schmidt moved to the company of Döbbelin junior in 1794 . , where he appeared mainly as a hero actor, particularly successful as Abällino in Heinrich Zschokke 's play of the same name. Schmidt continued to write small plays, e.g. B. "Bad luck tests virtue", "The chain of generosity", "Righteousness and deceit". With the Döbbelin Society he had u. a. a guest appearance at the Berlin court theater, where he appeared as Anton in "Die Jäger" von Iffland in 1796, with the applause of the royal family .

After this success, Schmidt received an offer for the newly built city theater from Magdeburg in 1796 and took over the direction of the theater together with Alois Hostovsky, from 1798 to 1804 he was theater director there. Schmidt kept in close contact with Iffland and Kotzebue in Berlin, as well as Delbrück , the educator of Princes Friedrich Wilhelm IV and Wilhelm I , and through them met the royal family, which benefited the repertoire and actor level in Magdeburg. Schmidt staged a total of around 300 plays for the Magdeburg theater (not including operas), including dramas by Lessing, Schiller and Shakespeare. It is his merit u. a. that Lessing's "Nathan the Wise" became established as a stage work after the Magdeburg performance in 1801. After persistent staff and financial quarrels in the theater management, Schmidt withdrew to his acting career in 1804 and, after about a year, said goodbye to the Magdeburg stage.

In 1806 Schmidt was hired by director Herzfeld as an actor at the Hamburg theater, where he worked until shortly before his death in 1841. He made his debut as Baron Quelm in “Blinde Liebe” von Kotzebue, also shone in Hamburg as Franz Moor in “Die Räuber” by Schiller and was particularly popular as Baron Spinal Cord in “Die Ore desirns ” von Kotzebue and as Zurlering in “Nur he will speak ”by Schmidt himself. Schmidt had friendly contact with Friedrich Ludwig Schröder, who in 1811 had taken over the management of the theater again for a while and appointed him its director. Schröder often received him on his estate in Rellingen and in his city apartment to familiarize him with his dramaturgical principles and views. From 1815 to 1841 Schmidt held the post of theater director together with initially Herzfeld, then Lebrun from May 3, 1827 in the new theater (the spaciousness of which Schmidt could not get used to) and finally Mühling as co-director. Due to serious health restrictions, Schmidt felt himself no longer able to cope with the increasing disagreements on and behind the stage and decided to retire: On March 30, 1841, he gave his farewell performance as Councilor Wacker in The "Portrait of the Mother" with great applause Schröder. Only two weeks later did he suddenly die of lung failure?

"Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt", collective grave of the city ​​theater , Ohlsdorf cemetery

Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt is commemorated in the area of ​​the “Althamburg Memorial Cemetery” of the Ohlsdorf cemetery on the left half of the double collective tomb “City Theater”.

family

In Magdeburg in 1796, Schmidt married the daughter of a civil servant, Henriette Moers, who outlived him by three years. With her he had u. a. the son Philipp Schmidt (1800–1873), a well-known doctor and writer, married since 1831 to Betty Schmidt (1806–1887), née Elisabeth Johanna Friederike Schröder, a daughter of the famous tragedian Sophie Schröder . His son or Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt's grandson was Friedrich (Wilhelm) Ludwig Schmidt of the same name , a well-known baritone singer and opera director. The daughter Helene Franziska (1802-1854) married the lawyer Nicolaus Binder in 1821 .

Stage roles (selection)

Works (selection)

About the theater

For the theater

literature

  • Paul S. Ulrich: Biographical directory for theater, dance and Music. Volume 2: M – Z. Berlin-Verlag Spitz, 1997, p. 1659 (with references).
  • Barbara and Günter Albrecht: You can waste the stars - acting memories of the 18th and 19th centuries. Buchverlag Der Morgen, Berlin, 1980, pp. 113–125, p. 533.
  • Eike Pies : Principals - for Genealogy d. German-speaking professional theater from the 17th to the 19th century . Verlag Henn 1973, ISBN 3-450-01061-1 , 9783450010614 (1973), p. 323.

Historical

Portraits

  • Carl Gottfried Eybe , portrait (half figure), theater director Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt , canvas: 28.5 × 23.5 cm, inscribed: 1850.
  • Carl Gottfried Eybe, portrait (half figure), Dorothea Henriette Auguste Eleonore Schmidt, b. Moers , canvas: 28.5 × 23.5 cm, inscribed: 1850

Web links

Wikisource: Friedrich Ludwig Schmidt  - Sources and full texts

References and comments

  1. ↑ Schmidt later supplemented his incomplete education in a lively intellectual exchange of ideas, also by letter, with the then Magister Delbrück , who later became the educator of the Prussian princes. (Source: Paul Schlenther:  Schmidt, Friedrich Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 732 f.)
  2. ^ Eisenberg, ADB
  3. ^ Joseph Kürschner:  Hostovsky, Alois . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 13, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1881, p. 190 f.
  4. ↑ Schröder 1811/1812 residing at ABC-Straße 143, (source: Hamburg address book 1812 )
  5. ↑ Schmidt lived in Königstrasse 245 from 1817, Grosse Theaterstrasse 72 from 1830, Grosse Theaterstrasse 13 from 1833, (source: Hamburg address books 1818 , 1834 and 1841 )
  6. ↑ in detail Paul Schlenther :  Schmidt, Friedrich Ludwig . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1890, p. 732 f. Schmidt's "homesickness" for the old theater building (around the middle of the article)
  7. ↑ Register of persons p. 146. In: Christa Stöcker: Briefwechsel 1815-1856 Heinrich Heine (Google Books)
  8. ↑ Der Sturm von Magdeburg (1799), in which Schmidt dealt with the traumatic events of May 1631, was performed every year until 1876 and was the most successful play at the Magdeburg Theater with at least 71 performances until 1833 (source: Biographie Magdeburger Biographisches Lexikon)
  9. ↑ further volumes and editions in the Wikisource article Theater , section "Lexica"
  10. ↑ Dr. Carl Schellenberg : The Low German man in the Hamburg portrait of the past . Ed .: Landesbildstelle Hansa u. Museum f. hamb. Story . C. Boysen, Hamburg, DNB  362588414 , p. 38 (no year, [1935]).
  11. ↑ Schellenberg, p. 39
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Friedrich Ludwig
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Actor, theater director, director and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1772
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanover
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1841
Place of death Hamburg