Georg Dröscher

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Georg Dröscher , also Georg Droescher , (born September 17, 1854 in Puschkau , Schweidnitz district , Silesia , † 1945 ) was a German theater actor , director , opera director , translator, librettist and author. As an actor he played a. a. at the Grand Ducal Court Theater Oldenburg (1885–1896), of which he became an honorary member. He then headed the Belle Alliance Theater in Berlin and was chief director at the Royal Opera Unter den Linden (1899-1917), where he was briefly opera director in 1918/19. From 1929 to 1939 he headed the Theater Museum Berlin

Life

Dröscher, the son of a farmer and economic director, first graduated from grammar school in Schweidnitz from 1865 to 1874 and then studied four semesters of law in Breslau and Leipzig . During his studies in 1874 he became a member of the Leipzig fraternity Germania . However, he broke off his studies in 1876 because of his inclination to the theater. He joined a small Silesian dope that played on division. He took the stage for the first time as “Knecht Conrad” in Rudolf Kneisel's Die Lieder des Musikanten . He took dramatic lessons from Heinrich Oberländer .

Acting career

After working on several small stages, he came to Görlitz in 1876, from there to Bremen in 1879 (inaugural role "Horatio" in Hamlet ), then to Hanover in 1880 (inaugural role "Leopold" in Emile Augier's house in Fourchambault ), then to Sigmaringen ( Inaugural role "Don Caesar" in The Bride of Messina ). Then we find him in Mannheim (inaugural role “Loris Ipanoff” in Victorien Sardous Fédora ), from where he followed a call to the Oldenburger Hoftheater (inaugural role “Buyk” in Egmont ). There he not only found unconditional recognition as an artist, but also worked as a senior director and artistic director. When he left this art institution, where he worked from 1885 to 1896, Grand Duke Peter II appointed him an honorary member of the court theater in recognition of his services.

As a bon vivant and conversation lover, Dröscher earned the name of a skilled and thinking actor. According to Ludwig Eisenberg's Great Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in XIX. Century : "Conrad Bolz" in Gustav Freytag's comedy Die Journalisten , the title character in Freytag's drama Count Waldemar , "Reif-Reiflingen" in Gustav von Moser's eponymous Schwank, "Prunelles" in Victorien Sardou's comedy Cyprienne , " Mercutio " in Romeo and Juliet , “ Clavigo ”, “Don Caesar” and the “First Hunter” in Wallenstein's camp .

Director and theater director

In 1896 Ludwig Barnay hired him to the Berlin theater in Charlottenstrasse as chief director. There he also appeared as an actor (inaugural role "Prosper" in Sardou's comedy The Last Letter ). In 1897 Dröscher leased the Belle Alliance Theater , his time as director there was from November 1, 1897 to January 26, 1899. On April 30, 1899 he appeared in the Belle Alliance Theater as "Bolz" for the last time as an actor Audience.

Bolko von Hochberg , general manager of the royal theater in Berlin, offered him the position of senior director of the royal opera in 1899 . So he no longer had to bear the economic risk of a private theater. The court stages satisfied him financially, but artistically he had to adapt to the conservative tastes of the influential court party. When he was offered the direction of the Leipzig Opera in 1906 , he refused for financial reasons and stayed in Berlin. After Barnay's departure in 1908, in addition to his duties at the opera, he was temporarily artistic director of the theater. He also worked as an author, translator and librettist.

After Georg von Hülsen-Haeseler had taken over the general management of the royal theater, Dröscher asked in November 1915 to be replaced by a younger colleague (Dröscher was 62 years old at the time). His contract was therefore terminated in 1917. He received a pension entitlement of 4,900 marks per year, which was reduced to 4,800 marks (adjusted for inflation, approx. 14,500 euros) by the responsible minister, with the simultaneous requirement to provide evidence of employment. He said goodbye to the stage staff, but continued to work for the Royal Theater afterwards. Dröscher used the time and wrote a dissertation on Gustav Freytag's comedies, with which he received his doctorate in 1918/19 at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Berlin .

When the court stages were converted into state theaters in the course of the November Revolution in 1918, the opera staff elected Dröscher as artistic director of the Unter den Linden opera alongside Richard Strauss at a plenary meeting on November 19, 1918 . However, Strauss was not interested in sharing the management with Dröscher. In a letter to his wife he judged: "Droescher has no guts". In addition, two of the opera's most prominent actors - the prima donna Barbara Kemp and the first tenor Alexander Kirchner - repeatedly questioned Dröscher's authority and cited the new, democratic conditions. With the appointment of Max von Schillings , a personal friend of Strauss, Dröscher was replaced again in June 1919.

Head of library and museum

In 1919 his civil servant status was withdrawn from him, his pension received on the basis of a private contract, but this ended in 1924. Since he was now in a financially threatening situation, he was offered a job from March 1, 1923 in the theater archive. His daily working time was four hours. Dröscher completed the reorganization of the archive in 1927. In addition, on March 1, 1925, he took on the task of processing and cataloging the theater library, which at that time comprised 40,000 books, 10,000 smaller writings, 3,000 manuscripts and 3,000 pieces of music. Here Dröscher created an organizational structure for the first time that met modern demands.

In 1927, the general director commissioned Dröscher to prepare the German theater exhibition in Magdeburg. In the following year he was entrusted with the preparatory work for the establishment of the Berlin Theater Museum , which opened in 1929. Subsequently, he was also responsible for the management of the theater library and the theater museum, where he himself - without assistants - was responsible for looking after the constantly growing collection as well as for the visitors and for public relations. When the theater museum was relocated to the Berlin Palace in 1937, Dröscher asked for a release from his duties. However, he did not leave the service until 1939 - at the age of almost 85. He handed over the management of the library to Julius Kapp , and that of the museum to Rolf Badenhausen .

His daughter Eleonore, born in 1889, married the astrophysicist Rolf Müller .

Works

  • From second marriage! (1884)
  • The Roland of Berlin ; [Text book] Opera by Ruggero Leoncavallo Translation and revision from Italian (1904)
  • The path of Satan: comic opera in 2 acts; [Text book] / music by François-Adrien Boieldieu . Translation and revision from French (1913)
  • Gustav Freytag in his comedies (1919)
  • The Schinkel Building (1921)
  • Statistical review of artistic activity and personnel relationships during the period from January 1, 1886 to December 31, 1935 (1936)

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Felix Schmeidler:  Müller, Rolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 336 ( digitized version ).
  2. ↑ a b c Ruth Freydank: The case of the Berlin Theater Museum. Pro Business, Berlin 2011, p. 12.
  3. ^ A b c d e Ludwig Eisenberg: Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 213, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  4. ^ Hugo Böttger (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members according to the status of the winter semester 1911/12. Berlin 1912, p. 40.
  5. ↑ a b Ruth Freydank: The case of the Berlin Theater Museum. Pro Business, Berlin 2011, p. 13.
  6. ^ Ruth Freydank: The case of the Berlin theater museum. Pro Business, Berlin 2011, pp. 18-19.
  7. ^ Misha Aster: State Opera. The eventful history of the Berlin Linden Opera in the 20th century. Siedler, Munich 2017.
  8. ^ Ruth Freydank: The case of the Berlin theater museum. Pro Business, Berlin 2011, pp. 13-14.
  9. ^ Ruth Freydank: The case of the Berlin theater museum. Pro Business, Berlin 2011, pp. 15-16.
  10. ^ Ruth Freydank: The case of the Berlin theater museum. Pro Business, Berlin 2011, p. 30.
  11. ^ The Roland von Berlin in the International Music Score Library Project

Remarks


This article is based on a public domain text from Ludwig Eisenberg's Large Biographical Lexicon of the German Stage in the 19th Century , 1903 edition.

Please only remove this note if you have revised the article to such an extent that the text reflects the current state of knowledge on this topic, this has been proven and it meets today's linguistic requirements.
personal data
SURNAME Dröscher, Georg
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Droescher, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theater actor, director, opera director, translator, librettist and author
DATE OF BIRTH September 17, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Pushkau
DATE OF DEATH 1945