Georg Altmann

Portrait of Georg Altman, drawn by August Heitmüller , around 1929

Georg Altmann (born June 15, 1884 in Berlin , † June 19, 1962 in Los Angeles ) was a German theater director and theater scholar.

Life

Altmann was the child of a couple of Jewish merchants. After graduating from high school, he studied literary and art history and philosophy in Heidelberg , Berlin , Munich and Oxford and received his doctorate in Jena in 1906 with Rudolf Eucken . Even during his studies he acted in student groups and caused a scandal in Munich when he premiered parts of Arthur Schnitzler's dance dance in the student theater. Altmann received actor and directing training from Max Reinhardt in Berlin . In early 1907 he got a permanent position as a director and dramaturge at the Grand Ducal Court and National Theater in Mannheim under the artistic director Carl Hagemann . Altmann married a wealthy American actress there and, like his two children later, took her citizenship. In 1910 he moved to a private theater in Hanover, where, in contrast to the traditionally oriented Hanoverian court theater, he brought the European playwrights of the time to the stage: Ibsen, Hauptmann, Wedekind, Strindberg, Schnitzler, Wilde and Shaw. In 1913 he followed Victor Barnowsky as director of the “Small Theater Unter den Linden” in his hometown of Berlin. From 1921 he worked as a freelance guest director, translator, lecturer and director of theater courses.

After an appointment to Hanover failed in 1922 because of the alleged proximity to the theater entrepreneurs Rotter , Altmann was appointed head of the Hanover City Theaters in 1927 on the initiative of Mayor Arthur Quantity and Senior City Director Heinrich Tramm .

Altmann was also the director of the Schauburg in Hanover, which was renamed the “Städtisches Schauspielhaus” .

In contrast to his predecessor Rolf Roenneke , he believed he could steer his theatrical work through the political struggles of the Weimar Republic by abstaining from political statements and thus came into the line of fire of both the local SPD, which criticized him as too unfashionable, and the political right who did not fit the schedule and called for measures to be taken against the Judaization of the play and the dismissal of the Jew Altmann. In its conservative schedule, the world premiere of Stefan Zweig's Das Lamm des Armen , u. a. with Theodor Becker , remarkable. Lord Mayor Quantity also tried to use political tactics, promising measures against the Judaization of the theater, but held on to Intendant Altmann in December 1932. Among the National Socialist agitators were the Gaufach consultant for sound art Theodor Abbetmeyer and the landscape painter Robert Stratmann. After the handover of power to the National Socialists in the Reich, there was finally a leave of absence in March 1933 and Altmann's resignation shortly afterwards.

Altmann appealed against his dismissal, referring to his US citizenship, which was rejected by return of post on August 14, 1933. Altmann emigrated to Nice and worked there as a theater critic. In 1938 he moved to San Francisco , where he was one of the first to direct Bertolt Brecht on American soil . He moved on to Los Angeles , where he found employment as a theater director, lecturer in theater studies ("Professor") and writer.

See also

• History of the Jews in Hanover

Works

• Theater pictorial; a history of world theater as recorded in drawings, paintings, engravings, and photographs , Berkeley, University of California Press, 1953.
• Good advice from the "bad" Hamlet Quarto, Washington, DC: Univ. and College Theater Assoc., 1950
• Heinrich Laube's principle of theater management , Hildesheim: Gerstenberg, 1978, reprograph. Dr. d. Issued in Dortmund 1908
• Goethe and Lower Saxony , Hanover: Hahn, 1932
• Old Nuremberg. Schwän̈nke, songs and dances by Hans Sachs and his contemporaries , Berlin: Drei Masken-Verl., 1918
• Tristan Bernard , The lovely Gaston: Comedy in 3 acts , German by George Altmann, Berlin: Arcadia-Verlag 1925
• Ludwig Devrient: Life u. Works e. Artist , Berlin: Ullstein AG 1926
• In front of foreign and own backdrops: what you see Experiences , Emsdetten / Westf. : Lechte 1964
• The play under the direction of Dr. George Altman 1927-1933 , Berlin: Marita Hasenclever, 1933?
• My beginnings: 1902–1910, 1933–1946.

literature

• Claus Harms : Georg Altman , in: Life and Fate. On the inauguration of the synagogue in Hanover , with photos by Hermann Friedrich et al., Publisher: Landeshauptstadt Hanover, press office, in cooperation with the Jewish Community of Hanover eV, Hanover: [Beeck in commission], [1963], pp. 160–166
• Ines Katenhusen : Art and Politics. Hanover's confrontations with modernity in the Weimar Republic Hanover: Hahn, 1998 ISBN 3-7752-4955-9
• Carl Niessen , instead of an introduction. In memoriam of Prof. Dr. Georg Altmann. In: Georg Altmann, In front of foreign and own backdrops , Emsdetten / Westf. : Lechte 1964
• Hugo Thielen : Altman (n), Georg (e). In: Dirk Böttcher , Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein, Hugo Thielen: Hannoversches Biographisches Lexikon . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2002, ISBN 3-87706-706-9 , p. 28 and others, online via Google books
• Hugo Thielen: Altman, George. In: Klaus Mlynek, Waldemar R. Röhrbein (eds.) U. a .: City Lexicon Hanover . From the beginning to the present. Schlütersche, Hannover 2009, ISBN 978-3-89993-662-9 , p. 22f.
• Altmann, Georg. In: Lexicon of German-Jewish Authors . Volume 1: A-Benc. Edited by the Bibliographia Judaica archive. Saur, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-598-22681-0 , pp. 132-134.

Web links

• Altmann, George at worldcat

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hugo Thielen : Theater. In: Stadtlexikon Hannover , p. 620f.
2. ↑ Theodor Abbetmeyer: About modern theater unculture , Hanover: NSDAP des Gaues Süd-Hannover-Braunschweig 1933. For Theodor Abbetmeyer (1869–1944) see: Dirk Böttcher, Hannoversches biographisches Lexikon: from the beginnings to the present , Hannover: Schlüter , 2002 ISBN 3-87706-706-9 . Fonts at dnb