Heinrich Kilger the Younger

Heinrich Kilger 1949

Kilger (right) 1953 with Wolfgang Langhoff (director of the Deutsches Theater), in the background Heinar Kipphardt , dramaturge at the Deutsches Theater

Grave site in the cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder communities

Heinrich Kilger (born March 8, 1907 in Heidelberg ; † January 19, 1970 in Berlin ) was a set designer at the Deutsches Theater Berlin and, among other things, the set designer for the premiere of Bertolt Brecht's mother Courage and her children in 1949.

Life

After an apprenticeship as a painter, Kilger studied with Georg Schrimpf at the Municipal School of Applied Arts in Munich in 1928/29 . From 1929 to 1933 Kilger worked at the Berlin painter's hut. Until 1938 he found no permanent job and worked as a house painter. In 1938 he got a job as a theater painter at the Deutsches Theater Berlin. In 1940 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht and remained in Soviet captivity until 1945, where he met the writer Wolfgang Weyrauch , who was editor of the Berlin magazine Ulenspiegel from 1945 to 1948 . Weyrauch first gave him jobs with the magazine.

Kilger designed his first set in 1946 for the Hebbel Theater . In 1948 he found a job as chief stage designer at the Deutsches Theater, where he worked regularly for the artistic director Wolfgang Langhoff . His best-known work of the post-war period was the set design for the premiere of Bertolt Brecht's mother Courage and her children in 1949.

Kilger created numerous dance masks for the dancer Jean Weidt.

Kilger received a professorship for stage design at the Berlin-Weißensee University of Applied Arts . I.a. In 1953 Harry Leupold and Horst Sördert studied with Kilger. In 1961 he became a member of the German Academy of the Arts , which also looks after his estate.

Kilger's father was Heinrich Kilger the Elder .

Filmography

• 1957: Mother Courage and her children (theater recording)

literature

• Heinrich Kilger: stage design and stage technology. Mitteldeutscher Verlag , Halle / Saale 1953.
• Christoph Funke: The set designer Heinrich Kilger. A publication by the Academy of the Arts of the GDR. Henschelverlag Art and Society , Berlin 1975.
• Short biography for:  Kilger, Heinrich . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 1. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Heinrich Kilger  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Press archive of the Academy of the Arts
• Heinrich Kilger Archive in the Archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin
• Heinrich Kilger the Younger in the Internet Movie Database (English)