Harald Kreutzberg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Harald Kreutzberg (1950);
Collection Nationaal Archief of the Netherlands

Harald Kreutzberg (born December 11, 1902 in Reichenberg , † April 25, 1968 in Muri near Bern ) was a German dancer and choreographer . Kreutzberg was one of the most important representatives of expressive dance in Germany - he was the most famous student of Mary Wigman .

Life

Harald Kreutzberg - son of an American from Pennsylvania who grew up in Germany - received ballet lessons as a child and performed at the Lobetheater in Breslau in 1908 at the age of six .

Kreutzberg's dance pose;
in a recording by Will Burgdorf

After attending secondary school , Kreutzberg trained as a graphic artist and draftsman at the Dresden School of Applied Arts . Parallel to his training, he took ballet lessons in a lay group at the Mary Wigman Dance School a. a. at Berthe Trümpy , where his extraordinary talent and dance creativity were noticed. In 1922 he graduated from the final class and in 1923 went to the Hanover Opera House , where he appeared as a solo dancer and with many of his own choreographies .

In 1923 he met the composer and pianist Friedrich Wilckens , who remained lifelong as a piano accompanist, manager and friend. In 1924, Kreutzberg moved to the Berlin State Opera together with Max Terpis . The first great success of the collaboration with Friedrich Wilckens was the ballet Don Morte based on Edgar Allan Poe , which was staged by Max Terpis in 1926. Harald Kreutzberg danced the role of court jester to the music of Friedrich Wilckens. To do this, he shaved his head, which later became his trademark.

Max Reinhardt discovered him in Berlin , who signed him for the Salzburg Festival in 1926 . Following the festival, Harald Kreutzberg went on a first successful tour to the USA together with Yvonne Georgi . Further guest performances in the USA made Kreutzberg world famous as the figurehead of German dance . In 1934 he went on a world tour with the American dancer Ruth Page via Hawaii , Japan, Shanghai and Vladivostok . From there the dancers returned to Vienna and Berlin on the Trans-Siberian Railway .

Kreutzberg continued his artistic career during the Nazi era without interruption. Even completely apolitical, Kreutzberg allowed the National Socialists to use him as a figurehead for German cultural life and became one of the most honored and best-paid artists in Nazi Germany . Despite the war, he made numerous guest appearances in Europe and the USA, where he also taught at universities . In Germany he also took part in several feature films , such as the 1943 film Paracelsus directed by GW Pabst . In 1941 Kreutzberg was appointed director of the State Academy for Dance Art in Vienna .

After 1945 Kreutzberg was able to continue his career as a dancer. In 1955 he founded his own dance school in Bern. In 1959 he gave his farewell guest performance with Willy Maertens in the Hamburg Thalia Theater , where he once again demonstrated his artistic and dance skills.

Harald Kreutzberg's estate is kept in the German Dance Archive in Cologne .

Honors

Publications

  • Farmer's ball calendar Bimmelbach 1921 . 15 woodcuts. Published by the Academy of Applied Arts. Rau, Dresden 1920.
  • About myself . Hammann, Detmold 1938.

literature

Monographs about him:

  • Emil Pirchan : Harald Kreutzberg. His life and his dances. Frick, Vienna 1941, 3rd edition 1956.
  • Frank-Manuel Peter (ed.): The dancer Harald Kreutzberg. Hentrich, Berlin 1997.

Lexicon entries:

Articles (selection):

  • Frank-Manuel Peter: "A center of modern dance culture, a powerful attraction for up-and-coming talents ...". Harald Kreutzberg, Yvonne Georgi and the stage dance in Hanover during the Weimar Republic. In: Hubertus Adam, Sally Schöne (Ed.): Expression dance and Bauhaus stage . Michael Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-7319-0852-4 , pp. 40-57.

Web links

Commons : Harald Kreutzberg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gregor Herzfeld : Poe in music. A versatile alliance. Waxmann, Münster 2013, ISBN 978-3-8309-7923-4 , p. 196 ( Google books )
personal data
SURNAME Kreutzberg, Harald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German dancer, choreographer and film actor
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenberg
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1968
Place of death Muri near Bern