Heinz Dietrich Kenter
Heinz Dietrich Kenter (born November 26, 1896 in Bremen , † November 15, 1984 in Stuttgart ) was a German theater actor and director. He is the father of the actress, speaker and author Bettina Kenter and the grandfather of the landscape ecologist Saskia Kenter.
Career
Kenter only worked briefly as an actor; he always saw himself in the direction. His first production was “The Race with the Shadow” by Wilhelm von Scholz at the Landestheater Darmstadt (1921–1924). Engagements at the Stadttheater Aachen (1923–1924) and the Landestheater Stuttgart (1924–25) followed. From 1925 to 1929 he was a director at the Nationaltheater Mannheim with Francesco Sioli . Legendary - in 1929 on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the theater - his staging of the "Robbers" with Marga Dietrich in the role of Amalie and Willy Birgel as Franz Moor (played by August Wilhelm Iffland in the same building in 1782).
Kenter had another resounding directorial success in 1929 at the Volkstheater in Berlin (Intendant Eugen Klöpfer) with the world premiere of the play "The Dreyfus Affair", which was based on the actual event of the Dreyfus affair . Soon after, Max Reinhardt brought him to the German Theater and, as a teacher, to the drama school of the German Theater. He also staged at the Hebbeltheater, Lessingtheater, the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm and the Schillertheater in the 1930s.
In 1935 he directed "Fresh Wind from Canada" (UFA) - his only film.
He went to Munich in the early 1940s, where he played at the Münchner Kammerspiele under Otto Falckenberg .
After the Second World War he was senior director at the Göttingen City Theater (1947–1949), at the Wiesbaden State Theater (1949–1950) and at the Essen Municipal Theaters (1953–1959). At the Folkwang School in Essen (now: Folkwang University of the Arts ) he continued his work in acting education. Some of his students or the talents he discovered are Jochen Busse , Klaus Maria Brandauer , Klaus-Michael Grüber, Hans-Joachim Kulenkampff , Christine Ostermayer, Maximilian Schell . Kenter also performed on stages in Hamburg, Bern, Wuppertal and Mannheim.
From 1959, Kenter headed the drama / stage department of the “State University for Music” in Stuttgart (under his leadership it was then renamed “State University for Music and Performing Arts”). Kenter also taught budding opera singers; the acting class soon presented itself regularly under his direction at the Kammerspiele of the Württemberg State Theater with public scene evenings. In addition to his teaching activities, Kenter directed several times a year, but not in Stuttgart. In the 1960s he was awarded the title of professor, in 1975 his contract was unexpectedly terminated; There were legal disputes with the state of Baden-Württemberg that lasted for years, and finally Kenter was awarded an honorary salary for lack of pension entitlements.
Until the late 1970s he staged at well-known theaters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, including in Baden-Baden, Düsseldorf, Hamburg (Thalia Theater), Koblenz, Tübingen, Wuppertal, at open-air plays in Bad Gandersheim, Bad Hersfeld, Burg Forchtenstein, Jagsthausen, Heidelberg, at the theaters in Basel, Bern, Lucerne and Graz as well as at the theater in the Josefstadt Vienna.
Numerous world premieres, European and German premieres are associated with the name Kenter. Jean Anouilh, Ernst Barlach, Bertolt Brecht, Sean O'Casey, Paul Claudel, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Günter Eich, TS Eliot, Max Frisch, Wolfgang Hasenclever, Arthur Miller, William Saroyan, Jean-Paul Sartre, HJ Rehfisch, Carl Sternheim, Tennessee Williams, William B. Yeats, Carl Zuckmayer were some of the modern writers he directed. In the end the work was difficult for him because of an eye problem; but not only the lifelong passion for the theater let him direct into old age, but also financial necessity.
Private life
Kenter grew up with a younger brother in Bremen and Cologne; his father, Chief Postal Director, died early. As a teenager, Kenter wanted to go to the theater.
At the age of 16 he attended a performance of “Don Carlos” (with Ernst Possart as a guest) and saw his future friend Willy Birgel as a young actor on stage. Birgel, Marga Dietrich, HDK and Ernst Langheinz were involved in Mannheim together and remained friendly for a lifetime.
In the 30s Kenter lived with Marga Dietrich. Their later husband, Alfred Schmid-Sas. was executed as a resistance fighter in Plötzensee in 1943, the bust of Schmid-Sas, passed into the possession of the Kenter family after Dietrich's death and has been in the "German Resistance Memorial Center" in Berlin since 2006.
The first two marriages were short-lived and had no children.
From 1950 until the end of his life, Kenter was married to Gertrud Katharina Jarand (1918–2006), a former student of the German Theater's drama school. Like Kenter, Jarand was of Huguenot descent. She brought a daughter into the marriage and gave up her own career in favor of the family.
1951 daughter Bettina was born; her twin brother died before giving birth.
Heinz Dietrich Kenter died on November 15, 1984, shortly before his 88th birthday. The largest part of his extensive estate is in the Mannheim Reiss Museum; a small part (mainly correspondence) in the theater museum in Cologne.
Awards
- Grillparzer ring
- 1972: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
- In 1973, Kenter was awarded the Otto Brahm Medal , the highest honor awarded by the Cooperative of German Stage Members.
literature
- Josef Gregor: "Great Directors of the Modern Stage", series of publications by the Austrian Commission for UNESCO, Vienna, 1958, p. 189 ff
- Ulrich Seelmann-Eggebert: "Theater as a spiritual statement - Heinz Dietrich Kenter as a stage director": a) Stuttgart Leben, Stuttgart 1960, b) Münchner Leben, Munich 1960, both published by Ch. Belzer
- Erika Sterz: “The theatrical value of scenic remarks in German drama from Kleist to the present”, Colloquium Verlag, Berlin-Dahlemn, 1963, pp. 159–171
- Helmut Schwarz: “Director”, chapter “Directors and pioneers of European spoken theater”, Carl Schünemann Verlag, Bremen, 1965
- Hannes Pagenkemper: "Heinz Dietrich Kenter as stage director", Mask and Kothurn, University of Vienna, Vienna, 1967, issue 2/3
- Susanne M. Schaup : “William B. Yeats in a German perspective”, dissertation, Salzburg
- Friedrich Michael: "History of the German Theater", Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart, 1969, p. 117
Individual evidence
- ^ Herbert A. Frenzel , Hans Joachim Moser (ed.): Kürschner's biographical theater manual. Drama, opera, film, radio. Germany, Austria, Switzerland. De Gruyter, Berlin 1956, DNB 010075518 .
- ^ Cooperative of German Stage Members (Ed.): German Stage Yearbook. The big address book for stage, film, radio and television 94th year 1986. Bühnenschriften-Vertriebs-Gesellschaft, Hamburg 1986, ISSN 0070-4431 , p. 783
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: No. 8 of January 10, 1961, page 7 ( Memento of July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: No. 192 of August 20, 1959, page 7 ( Memento of July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: No. 285 of December 6, 1973, page 7 ( Memento of July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kenter, Heinz Dietrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German theater actor and director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 26, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bremen |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 15, 1984 |
| Place of death | Stuttgart |