Heinz Hentschke

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Heinz Hentschke (born February 20, 1895 in Berlin ; † July 3, 1970 ibid) was a German actor , author , operetta librettist and theater director ( Metropol-Theater (Berlin-Mitte) ).

Life

Founder of the "Society of Radio Friends"

Heinz Hentschke was born on February 20, 1895 in Berlin. There his career as an actor began. Later he also played in Bremen and Hanover . In the early 1920s, Hentschke was "Head of Propaganda in the Großes Schauspielhaus " under director Maximilian Sladek .

In 1925, with start-up capital of 10,000 Reichsmarks, he founded the theater ticket sales organization “Gesellschaft der Funkfreunde”, whose members undertook to buy ten discounted theater tickets per season. When his target Hentschke, called "the largest possible solid Visitors tribe fed to the theater." The "Society of Radio Friends", which reported at the beginning of the 1930s from 40,000 to 60,000 members, based primarily on productions of Rotter stages to which at the beginning of the 1930s in Berlin included the Theater des Westens , the Metropol-Theater (today Komische Oper Berlin ), the Lessing-Theater , the Theater in Stresemannstraße , the Lustspielhaus and the German Art Theater as well as a stage in Dresden.

'King of the Operetta' in the Nazi state

When the brothers Alfred and Fritz Rotter ran into financial difficulties, Hentschke, as head of the “Gesellschaft der Funkfreunde” at the turn of the year 1932/33, “managed to drive the Rotters into bankruptcy” in order to - after the hoped-for collapse of the - hated National Socialists - To put the Rotter stages “in the place of the Rotters. He achieved this goal ”. On May 1, 1933, Hentschke joined the NSDAP . “He leases the Lessing Theater in 1933/34; At the end of 1934 also the Metropol. Until 1937 he got it for private management. Only then does the house go to the Nazi state, Hentschke becomes a Metropol director and an employee of the Propaganda Ministry [...]. “Until the general theater closure in the summer of 1944, Hentschke was director of the Metropol. From 1939 he also headed the Admiralspalast , where he mainly staged revues . In 1936, with the protection of the Reich Ministry of Propaganda, the so-called Hentschke Empire took over the Dresden Residenz Theater and the Dresden Central Theater .

Hentschke wrote the libretti for 14 operettas (see list below), most of which were very successfully premiered at the Metropol-Theater. He engaged the composers Fred Raymond ( Mask in Blue , Ball of Nations ), Ludwig Schmidseder ( Die or Keine , Frauen im Metropol ) and Friedrich Schröder ( Wedding Night in Paradise ) , who were most in demand at the time, as house composers at the Metropol-Theater and thus positioned this theater as that House for operetta in the German Empire. Therefore he was also called the king of operetta . Many of his operettas have also been performed very successfully in other German cities. For example, Schmidseder's operetta Die oder Keine has over 600 performances. Some pieces by Hentschke are still an integral part of the operetta repertoire of German-speaking theaters, such as Raymond's mask in blue .

"Heinz Hentschke was particularly favored by Julius Schaub , the dictator's personal adjutant." According to later information from the British "Information Control Services", Hentschke was able to maintain his box office successes until the end of the Nazi era, because he had "close relationships with Standartenführer Schaub , Hitler's adjutant, had no procurement difficulties, ie at the time when other theater directors had to restrict themselves very much, Hentschke was still able to put out brilliant performances. "

Operetta director in the post-war period

After the war, Hentschke tried in vain to find a permanent home for the operetta genre in West Berlin. But he was still very successful with new productions of well-known operettas.

Heinz Hentschke died in 1970 at the age of 75 in his hometown of Berlin. His grave is in the Dahlem forest cemetery .

He was married to the actress Hilde Schneider (1914–1961).

Libretti

literature

  • Anton Würz: Reclam's Operetta Guide , 24th edition, Reclam, Stuttgart 2011.
  • Heinz Hentschke: 50 years of Metropol 1892–1942 , Berlin 1942.
  • Heinz-Walter Schmitz: Ludwig Schmidseder (1904–1971) - the versatile one . In Franz-Reiner Erkens (ed.): Ostbairische Lebensbilder Volume IV . Klinger, Passau 2013, p. 183 ff.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter. A life between theatrical splendor and death in exile . Henschel Verlag in EA Seemann Henschel, Leipzig 2020, p. 253.
  2. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 254.
  3. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 255.
  4. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 255.
  5. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 260.
  6. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 260.
  7. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 261.
  8. ^ Peter Kamber: Fritz and Alfred Rotter . Henschel Verlag, Leipzig 2020, p. 261.
  9. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 582.
personal data
SURNAME Hentschke, Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, author, librettist, theater director
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 3rd July 1970
Place of death Berlin