Fritz Jessner

Fritz Jessner (born August 19, 1889 in Stolp , Western Pomerania , † July 9, 1946 in Boston , USA ) was a German-American theater director and director .

Life

Jessner's father was Samuel Jeßner , a dermatologist in Königsberg . Fritz Jessner studied law at the University of Leipzig and completed his studies there with a doctorate. He then radically changed his career plans and took acting classes in Berlin . He initially played under the direction of Max Reinhardt in Berlin. During the First World War he worked under the direction of his cousin and later brother-in-law Leopold Jessner in Königsberg and was on stage in Munich , Hamburg and Berlin until 1924 .

From 1924 he was Richard Rosenheim's successor director at the Neues Schauspielhaus in Königsberg. After he was released in 1933, he worked between 1934 and 1936 as a director at the theater of the Jewish Cultural Association in Berlin. He then emigrated to Switzerland , worked as a theater director and senior director at the Stadttheater Bern , where he taught at the Conservatoire de Musique.

In 1940 Jessner emigrated to the United States. There he worked at the Yale School of Drama until 1942 and then taught acting at Smith College . Jessner directed various theater productions in the "Harvard Dramatic Club" and in the "Cambridge Dramatic Club". He was director of the Theater Workshop at Wellesley College . Shortly before he wanted to take up another position as a lecturer at the Dramatic Workshop in New York, he died on July 9, 1946 in Boston. Jessner was married to the doctor Lucie Jessner.

Jessner's theater work

Jessner's unpretentious demeanor as a theater director, director and actor was recognized in an obituary:

“He wasn't acting like the actor wanted. He did not change, he did not take on masks, he could not fool or depict anything that did not correspond to his own personality. And the strongest expression of his personality was their honesty, their love of truth [...]. "

- Erwin Piscator : Fritz Jessner , in: Aufbau , July 5, 1946

Filmography

1919: King Nicolo
1920: The Brescia women's refuge

literature

Thomas Blubacher : Fritz Jessner . In: Andreas Kotte (Ed.): Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . Volume 2, Chronos, Zurich 2005, ISBN 3-0340-0715-9 , p. 930.
German Biographical Encyclopedia (DBE), 2nd edition (Rudolf Vierhaus, ed.), Volume 5, Saur, Munich 2006, p. 345.

Web links

Fritz Jessner at filmportal.de

Individual evidence

↑ Quoted from: Erwin Piscator. Theater, film, politics. Selected writings . Edited by Ludwig Hoffmann. Berlin: Henschel 1980. pp. 209–211, here p. 210.

personal data
SURNAME	Jessner, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German-American theater director and director
DATE OF BIRTH	August 19, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH	Stolp , Western Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH	July 9, 1946
Place of death	Boston , USA

[1] Quoted from: Erwin Piscator. Theater, film, politics. Selected writings . Edited by Ludwig Hoffmann. Berlin: Henschel 1980. pp. 209–211, here p. 210.