Heinrich Schmidt (actor, 1779)

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Johann Heinrich Christian Schmidt (born September 27, 1779 in Weimar , † April 14, 1857 in Vienna ) was a German actor , theater director , director and writer .

Schiller apartment ( Windische Gasse ), today the new Schiller Museum
Schillerhaus ( Esplanade ) around 1900
Weimar Court Theater , engraving around 1800
Old kk theater next to the castle (right) and the winter riding school of the Hofburg (left)

Life

Heinrich Schmidt's father was the Weimar "buyer and trader" Johann Christoph Schmidt. His mother, Johanna Friederika Christina Martini, came from the Martini family of musicians from Allstedt . Schmidt grew up with seven brothers and four sisters in Weimar. In his memoirs , he says that his parents owned the front building on "Windischen Gasse" and the rear building on "Esplanade" (today the Schiller Memorial , Schillerstraße 12). His father sold the latter to Friedrich Schiller . He had previously lived in the front building in Windische Gasse from 1799. In childhood friendship with the children of Herder and Wieland , Heinrich Schmidt attended grammar school until 1796. He was a favorite student of the Goethe adviser Böttiger , and during his school days he was prepared for children's roles at the duchess Anna Amalia 's lovers' theater. From 1797 to 1800 Schmidt studied law in Jena, where he also attended lectures on philosophy. On his return to Weimar, he received dramatic acting lessons from Goethe, and he attended readings in Schiller's house. With Goethe's recommendations, Schmidt came to the Vienna Burgtheater in 1801 , albeit without any demonstrable success as an actor.

In 1804, however, Schmidt received from Prince Esterházy as director and director of his princely court theater in Eisenstadt ( Burgenland , Hungary), where he was also responsible for the princely art and music collection until 1813. At the Eisenstadt theater, opera was preferred to recitative drama, and Josef Haydn , whom Schmidt introduced to the then famous actor Iffland, also worked here. Under the influence of Prince Esterhazy, Schmidt also made a name for himself in Vienna , from where, in addition to his work as a writer, he traveled to Weimar and Berlin from 1813 to 1815 in order to recruit "first" actors for Viennese theaters.

From 1815 to 1825 and from 1831 to 1837 Schmidt led the theater in Brno with good success , where, in addition to plays, he also staged operas and singspiels.

Then Schmidt retired to Vienna for private life. Here he devoted himself to writing down his memoirs, which included encounters with important personalities of his time and which he published in 1856 at Brockhaus in Leipzig under the title Memories of a Weimar Veteran from sociable, literary and theater life . Heinrich Schmidt died soon afterwards on April 14, 1857 in Vienna.

family

Heinrich Schmidt's first wife, Therese Dollinger (1786–1806), daughter of a senior post administrator, was the first singer at the Esterhazy Theater in Eisenstadt and a student of Haydn. She died in her first childbed. His second wife, Elise Schneider, performed as a dramatic singer in Eisenstadt from 1807-1813 and from 1814 in Brno. She died seven years before her husband.

Schmidt's eldest brother Johann Christoph Friedrich Schmidt (1774–1827) was the father of the composer and conductor Gustav Schmidt .

His eldest sister Maria Henrietta Carolina (1775-1837), widow of Herder's eldest son, Hofmedicus Wilhelm Christian Gottfried Herder (1774-1806), married the lawyer Christian Gottlob Voigt (1774-1813), son of Christian Gottlob von Voigt , in 1811 . In the spring of 1813 he was taken prisoner by the French, from which he could be freed, but of the consequences of which he died shortly afterwards due to a febrile illness.

Works

  • 1800 poems
  • Opera libretti: 1810 Cendrillon (after Charles-Guillaume Etienne (1778–1845), music: Nicolas Isouard ). 1813/14 The Oesterr. Encampment. A military painting with singing. According to Wallenstein's camp (music: CM v. Weber , FJ Clement , I. v. Seyfried )
  • Memories of a Weimar veteran from sociable literary and theater life , Verlag FA Brockhaus, Leipzig, 1856, on Google Books

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Church register of the City Church Weimar
  2. ^ Church book city church and state and society in the age of Goethe , New contributions to the history of the city of Weimar
  3. ↑ see Schmidt's memories , p. 23
  4. ↑ see Schmidt's memories , p. 224
  5. ^ Church register of the City Church Weimar
  6. ↑ "Johann Christoph Schmidt!" Named as the builder of the house on the Esplanade that Schiller bought
  7. ↑ see Schmidt's memoirs , pp. 223–224
  8. ↑ detailed biography at Wikisource (ADB: Böttiger, Karl August)
  9. ^ Schmidt's debut in Weimar in Leo von Seckendorf : Korrespondenzen der Goethezeit , p. 743
  10. ^ Goethe 1807 to Heinrich Schmidt in: Briefe 1805-1808 at Google Books
  11. ↑ in Birgit Himmelseher: Das Weimarer Hoftheater under Goethe's direction: Art claims and cultural policy in conflict , p. 143, at Google Books
  12. ^ In Momme Mommsen: The emergence of Goethe's works: Diderot-Entoptische Farben , p. 224, at Google Books
  13. ^ The History of Brno City Theater , pp. 94-109 at Internet Archive
  14. ↑ The History of the Brno City Theater , pp. 118-131 at Internet Archive
  15. ↑ Self-productions in classical Weimar , p. 308 at Google Books
  16. ↑ see Schmidt's memories , p. 9
  17. ^ Letter texts , index p. 691 at Google Books
  18. ↑ in “German biography” in the father's article
  19. ^ Marriage and death of Voigt's son in Goethe's letters to CG von Voigt , 1968, pp. 99-103 at Google Books

Remarks

  1. ↑ Media in the Commons Category “Schiller's Home” in Weimar
  2. ↑ According to Wikipedia article Schillerhaus Weimar had acquired the house built in 1777 for a Weimar merchant by the English writer and translator Mellish in 1801 and sold it on to Schiller in 1802
  3. ↑ Schmidt learned from Goethe, for example, that it is against all the rules of beauty to clench your fist on stage; Likewise, it had to be avoided to show the audience the profile while playing
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Johann Heinrich Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, theater director, director and writer
DATE OF BIRTH September 27, 1779
PLACE OF BIRTH Weimar
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1857
Place of death Vienna