Günther Büch

Günther Büch (born December 3, 1932 in Saarbrücken , † April 26, 1977 in Nuremberg ) was a German theater director. He studied German , philosophy , art and theater history in Vienna , Paris and Munich .

Fixed theater engagements

In 1956/57 he had his first engagement as a dramaturge , assistant director and actor at the Stadttheater Saarbrücken . In three seasons he staged twelve different plays before moving to the Städtebundtheater Hof in 1959 . Here he worked as a dramaturge and game director. At the beginning of the 1961/1962 season, Günther Büch went to the Städtische Bühnen Oberhausen as director and later senior director . Here he staged around 60 different plays and was seen on stage in several roles. In his last time in Oberhausen, Büch has brought several musicals to the stage with the drama ensemble and has also taken on smaller roles (e.g. Ajax 2 in Die Schöne Helena ).

Sponsor of Peter Handke

The discovery of Peter Handke by Günther Büch, who, along with Claus Peymann, is considered to be the author's great sponsor , also fell during the Oberhausen period . Büch has staged a total of twelve productions with pieces by Handke, including the world premieres of prophecy and self-incriminations , of calls for help on a tour of the Oberhausen Theater in Stockholm and of Kaspar , which were directed on the same day in Oberhausen under Büchs and in the Frankfurt Theater am Turm under Claus Peymann took place. Guest performances led the Oberhausen Ensemble with the pieces by Peter Handke a. a. to Copenhagen , Oslo , Paris , Amsterdam , Munich and Berlin . In 1967 the Oberhausen productions of prophecy and self-incriminations were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen .

Guest director

Thanks to the success of the Handke productions, Günther Büch became known in German-speaking countries. This led to the fact that after the end of his engagement in Oberhausen he worked as a freelance director in many theaters in Germany and Switzerland . His work took him to Hamburg , Berlin , Zurich and Bern . He was also in Nuremberg , where he staged thirteen plays and where his last, unfinished work also took place. The number of other stages that Büch worked on is large. These include Düsseldorf , Hanover , Moers , Wiesbaden , Cologne and various touring theaters. Günther Büch created a total of around 160 productions.

death

Günther Büch died of liver disease on April 26, 1977 in Nuremberg after suffering from severe diabetes since 1969 .

Critics of various daily newspapers praised his life's work:

• “… Günther Büch - he was probably the most original, most amazing, most shocking figure on the German stage scene. He really was the terrible child of German theater ... "(Karsten Peters, Abendzeitung München, April 2nd, 1977)
• “... He was addicted to the theater. With heart, body and soul, a theater person through and through, was able to debate plays, authors, productions, actors and directors all night long. 'Grandpa's theater is dead' he scolded as early as 1966 and immediately started a new beginning: Peter Handke has him to thank for the premiere of his Kaspar , he saved the Berlin tribune from closing with his happy-end production ... "(Berliner Morgenpost, April 27, 1977)
• “... He became known beyond the borders of the Ruhr area as the world premiere director of the spoken pieces by Peter Handke, who remained loyal to him when highly subsidized state theaters were fighting for the (former) enfant terrible . And Büch, the chaotic, who also understood the stage, but not only as a political forum, proved to be a disciplined disciplinarian of Handke's language cascades. His Berlin staging of public abuse ran for almost a decade in an Off-Ku'damm theater ... "(Hans Jansen, WAZ, April 27, 1977)

On April 29, 1977 he was buried in the Nuremberg South Cemetery.

In 2009, a street in the Alstaden district of Oberhausen was named after Günther Büch.

Productions (selection)

• Looking back in the anger of John Osborne Saarbrücken 1958
• The cat on the hot tin roof of Tennessee Williams yard 1960
• Bunbury by Oscar Wilde Hof 1960
• Heroes by George Bernhard Shaw Oberhausen 1961
• The maids of Jean Genet Oberhausen 1962
• The last volume by Samuel Beckett Oberhausen 1962
• Outside the door of Wolfgang Borchert Oberhausen 1962
• In the J. Robert Oppenheimer case by Heinar Kipphardt Oberhausen 1964
• Fear and Misery of the Third Reich by Bertolt Brecht Oberhausen 1965
• Irma la Douce by Marguerite Monnot Oberhausen 1967
• Kiss me, Kate by Cole Porter Oberhausen 1967
• The beautiful Helena by Jacques Offenbach Oberhausen 1967
• The Threepenny Opera by Bertolt Brecht Oberhausen 1968
• What's so sexy about Tolen? by Ann Jellicoe Oberhausen 1968
• The robbers by Friedrich Schiller in an arrangement by Hans Bertram Bock Oberhausen 1968
• My Fair Lady by Lerner / Loewe Oberhausen 1969
• Women's popular assembly by Aristophanes Berlin, Forum-Theater 1969
• Great by Tankred Dorst Nuremberg 1970
• The hostage of Brendan Behan Oberhausen 1970
• The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht Bern 1971
• The Man from La Mancha by Dale Wassermann Nuremberg 1973
• End of the line longing from Tennessee Williams Düsseldorf 1974
• A report for an academy by Franz Kafka Hannover 1974
• A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare Basel 1974
• Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Wiesbaden 1975
• The glass menagerie of Tennessee Williams Hanover 1975
• The lost honor of Katharina Blum by Margarethe von Trotta based on a story by Heinrich Böll Bonn 1976

Staging of plays by Peter Handke

• The yes man and the no man Oberhausen October 22, 1966
• Prophecy Oberhausen October 22, 1966
• Self-incriminations in Oberhausen October 22, 1966
• Insulting the public in Berlin, Forum Theater 1967
• Calls for help Stockholm 1967 (together with The Yes Man and the No Man and Self- infliction / Prophecy )
• Kaspar Oberhausen May 11, 1968 ( Kaspar - Ulrich Wildgruber )
  • Nuremberg June 23, 1968;
  • Berlin September 5, 1968;
  • Zurich May 7, 1969;
  • Swiss Tour Theater Basel 1968/69
• The ride across Lake Constance Nuremberg February 2, 1971
• The unreasonable die in Wiesbaden May 4, 1974;
  • Hanover August 21, 1974

swell

• Gerd Lepges: Günther Büch Staging - a Documentation (advertising agency team 2, Oberhausen-Cologne) 1993
• German stage yearbook 1968–1969

Individual evidence

1. ^ Street for Günther Büch , derwesten.de , March 12, 2009