Hamburg company

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The Hamburgische Entreprise (also Hamburger Entreprise or Hamburger Nationaltheater ) is the first attempt at a German national theater in the years 1767–1769.

history

Abel Seyler , main owner and actual director of the theater
Theater am Gänsemarkt, 1827

A model was the Danish National Theater ( Det Kongelige Teater ) in Copenhagen founded by Ludvig Holberg in 1748 . Together with other authors such as Johann Elias Schlegel, Holberg had promoted the bourgeoisisation of court theater .

The Hamburg Entreprise was founded by Johann Friedrich Löwen , who was also the theater director. The sponsorship was private, hence the name Entreprise (French: "company"). The theater was run by wealthy citizens, not the nobility. Twelve merchants formed a consortium and the main owner and actual director of the theater was Abel Seyler . The famous actor Conrad Ekhof played a key role in the company .

The house was the Ackermannsche Comödiantenhaus on the site of the formerly famous opera on Gänsemarkt , in which Konrad Ernst Ackermann's actor company played. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing was employed as a dramaturge . Sophie Friederike Hensel shone in tragic roles . For financial reasons, the project failed after two seasons. The house was taken over by Abel Seyler, who also later introduced the program of the "National Theater" in Mannheim.

effect

The following can usually be read about the meaning: The Hamburgische Entreprise promoted a literaryisation of German-language drama , an emancipation from its mainly French models and from Italian opera . Singing and dancing on the stage were pushed back. A “standing theater” was made as a model for the traveling troops who dominated theater life, and language and culture were presented as a unifying bond to the German-speaking area, which was fragmented by small states. The educated middle class might differ with these similarities between the competing interests of the nobility. Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg acted on the stage of the Ludwigsburg Palace Theater at the same time as the Sun King .

However, the reality was different: of course, translations of French pieces by Voltaire , Marivaux , Jean-François Regnard , Philippe Quinault dominated the repertoire in Hamburg too, and ballet , pantomime and " operetta " were by no means abolished, although Lessing kept silent about them. but often even given on the same evening with his own tragedy. Lessing wrote his pioneering Hamburg dramaturgy in connection with the performances .

However, the idea had a lasting effect. From 1776 the Burgtheater in Vienna was called the “Teutsches Nationaltheater”. The Mannheim theater was called the "National Show Stage" from 1777. These theaters were still in aristocratic hands. Only in the 19th century did the idea of ​​the national theater gain political weight in connection with Pan-Germanism . The rivalry with France and nationalism since the founding of the empire in 1871 gave the term an ambiguous cultural and warring meaning.

literature

  • Roger Bauer, Jürgen Wertheimer: The end of the impromptu play, the birth of the national theater. A turning point in the history of European drama . Fink, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-7705-2008-4
  • Richard Thiele: The theater bill of the so-called Hamburg Entreprise. Güther, Erfurt 1895, urn : nbn: de: hbz: 6: 1-224138 .

Trivia