Hugo Baruch

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Hugo Baruch & Cie. was one of the largest European specialists for stage and festival equipment , with headquarters in Berlin and branches in London and New York , as well as supplier to the royal court .

Company history

“Our theater directors owe the success of numerous pieces of equipment to the late Hugo Baruch, who knew how to conjure up fairytale costumes in his studio.” Berliner Leben , magazine for beauty & art, 1905

Hugo Baruch (1848–1905) began his career as a men's tailor in Cologne . However, the manufacture of clothing gradually declined and so in 1887 he founded the company "Hugo Baruch", which specialized in furnishing theatrical costumes and props.

At the beginning of 1890 Hugo and his wife Rosa Baruch went to Berlin with their three sons Bruno, Richard and Erwin and the company. With its numerous theaters, the city offered a suitable business environment. The company "Hugo Baruch & Cie." Berlin was now not only a manufacturer of theater costumes and props, but also of decorations and furniture for stages and productions . Almost all of Berlin's theaters were customers of the studio, including the Metropol-Theater , which ordered the equipment for the revues here .

In 1898 the previous director of the Central Theater, Richard Schultz, took over the building on Behrenstrasse and named it the Metropol Theater . In 1897 Hugo Baruch was one of 17 people who had participated in Richard Schultz GmbH to take over and run the Metropol Theater . Hugo Baruch brought in 30,000 marks out of 400,000 marks in share capital. Hugo Baruch held shares in many Berlin theaters, including the Theater des Westens , although he hardly ever saw any hard cash, but demanded fixed assignments against which the money brought into the company was credited. In the case of the Metropole Theater , Schultz owed Atelier Baruch 70,000 marks without seeing any cash himself. Hugo Baruch did not do badly with this business practice; In 1897 the company's turnover was two million marks.

Even before 1900 “Hugo Baruch branches” were opened in London, Brussels and New York. Whatever equipment artists and entertainment establishments needed, they could buy it from Baruch. The extensive catalogs, some with 2,000 illustrations, offered, among other things, fabrics, buttons, trimmings, feathers, pieces of jewelry, ornaments, jerseys, historical theater costumes, headgear (several hundred), crowns (more than 40) and other historical headdresses, belts and buckles , Shoes, armor, weapons, class attributes, helmets, harness and saddlecloths, other props, from antiquity to the present. Even musical instruments, theater furniture and complete decorations were in the range. This documented the historicism , which was still triumphant at that time, on the stages and at festive events. It was not for nothing that Baruch was the emperor's purveyor to the court. Before the abolition of the monarchy in 1918, Baruch, the merchant and supplier to the court of Prussia, was named “Baruch & Cie.”, Commandit-Gesellschaft, court supplier Sr. Kgl. The Highness of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Berlin-London, was granted the title of “purveyor to the court”.

In 1911 the company had two addresses in Berlin: Alte Jacobstrasse 133 and Lindenstrasse 18–19 in Berlin-Kreuzberg . Until 1919, according to costume paragraphs, all actors were obliged to pay for their own costumes. Only famous and well-paid actors could afford the clothes from “Baruch & Cie.”. From the beginning of the Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933) the costume section was abolished and every theater had to take over the cloakroom for its actors. With the conversion of the court theaters and the communal lease theaters into state and municipal subsidy theaters after the collapse of the German Empire, not only political pressure from censorship but also commercial pressure from the cash register was largely eliminated. There were around 150 stages in Berlin, which were relatively generously supported by the public sector. In the 1920s, the business of "Hugo Baruch" changed and specialized more in interior and stage design. Sales increased, the company presented itself at large trade exhibitions, produced catalogs of goods and received awards. Within a few years, "Hugo Baruch & Cie." Had grown into the leading international company in the industry. The revue Von Mund zu Mund owed its entire equipment, decoration and costumes for the 1926/27 season in Berlin to "Hugo Baruch & Cie.".

"Hugo Baruch & Cie" had various exhibition rooms, workshops and warehouses. Stage sets and the complete cloakrooms were produced in various ateliers of the company. The production of all circus and variety theater costumes was based on own designs, as well as templates from the first costume painters . The designs were kept in tightly guarded rooms in sketch cabinets . Next to it were the rooms for the fitting .

After the death of the Jewish company boss in 1905, the children Richard, Bruno and Erwin Baruch were to run the company together.

Richard Baruch died in 1927. At the same time, the gigantic company “Hugo Baruch & Cie.” Got into serious economic difficulties. Affected by the economic crisis as well as its customers, the company had to file for bankruptcy in 1927.

The youngest son Erwin continued to run the company after the death of his father and after the death of his brother Richard. All business operations became less and less from 1931. The last entries in the Berlin trade register were in 1927 and 1931. The directories registered “Hugo Baruch & Cie.” In the interior design category. Due to the Nuremberg Laws and as a result of anti-Semitic reprisals, after the National Socialists “ seized power ” on January 30, 1933, an attempt was made to expel all Jews from German society, which probably succeeded. In 1937 the business was liquidated by the Nazis . Erwin Baruch's whereabouts are unknown.

Hugo Baruch's eldest son, Bruno Baruch, left the company in 1919. He was financially involved in theaters and banks and owned gambling clubs, which he liked to visit himself. At the request of his parents, he married Daisy Marguerite Tuchmann, who was a member of the British money aristocracy and was born in London in 1883. The son from this marriage, named after his grandfather Hugo, later gave himself the name Jack Bilbo (1907–1967). Bruno Baruch emigrated to Spain in 1935, where his son Hugo was already living, and killed himself in Sitges . Bruno's wife, mentally ill and most recently living in Berlin in the mental hospital Wuhlgarten and the Municipal mental hospital Herzberge , was deported in July 1940 and in the killing center Brandenburg murdered .

Arms by Hugo Baruch

Hugo Baruch supplied weapons until 1935, including knives, sabers, swords, firearms, bows and crossbows, lances, cutting and stabbing weapons. E.g. Hugo Baruch's bayonet (purveyor to the court, Berlin SW), there was only one in the range of weapons, had three parallel lines as a drawing. The weapons carried were intended as props, so-called theater weapons, for use on the stage, because Baruch & Cie had not made any edged weapons and probably obtained them from the productions in Solingen or Suhl.

Employee Hugo Baruch

Equipment (selection)

  • 1908: Wiener Blut , operetta in 3 acts, Stadttheater Düsseldorf , costumes
  • 1914: The Queen of the Movies, Globe Theater, 205 W. 46th St., New York, stage design and costumes
  • 1912: Baron Trenck , Casino Theater, 1404 Broadway, New York, stage design and costumes
  • 1912: A Night with the Pierrots, Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway (At W. 50th St.), New York, costumes
  • 1912: Sesostra, Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway (At W. 50th St.), New York, costumes
  • 1912: The Whirl of Society, Winter Garden Theater, 1634 Broadway (At W. 50th St.), New York, costumes
  • 1916: The Song of Life, film by Alwin Neuss , set
  • 1921: Hamlet (1921) , costumes for the literary film adaptation with Asta Nielsen

literature

  • Nils Grosch: Aspects of the modern music theater in the Weimar Republic. Waxmann Verlag, 2004, ISBN 3-8309-1427-X .
  • Christine Schmitt: Artist costumes: On the development of the circus and variety wardrobe in the 19th century. De Gruyter, 1993, ISBN 3-484-66008-2 .
  • Tobias Becker: Staged Modernism: Popular Theater in Berlin and London, 1880–1930 . De Gruyter Oldenbourg, 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-035361-7 , p. 339.
  • Christine Schmitt: Artist costumes. 1993, ISBN 3-484-66008-2 , p. 33.
  • Hugo Baruch & Cie. Theater furniture department. Sample catalog. Berlin 1890.
  • Hugo Baruch & Cie., Commandit Society, purveyors to the court Sr. Kgl. Highness of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Berlin-London: Factory for theater equipment. Sales catalog. Volume 3, 1915.
  • Berlin life . Zeitschrift für Schönheit & Kunst, 1905, 8th year, issue 7. P. 4 (photo) and 6 (mention), urn : nbn: de: kobv: 109-1-5303965 ; on the death of Hugo Baruch

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ History of the Metropol Theater
  2. ^ Image catalog of the royal purveyor to the court
  3. ↑ Hugo Baruch & Cie. Entry since 1901 : Alte Jakobstrasse 133 (Kreuzberg), liquidated: 1937
  4. ↑ Hugo Baruch & Cie. In: Berliner Adreßbuch , 1911, part 1, p. 107.
  5. ↑ Daisy Baruch, née Tuchmann, on December 9, 1883 in London . Resident in Berlin (Wuhlgarten sanatorium and nursing home) and Berlin (Herzberge sanatorium and nursing home); Deportation: from Berlin, Heil- and Pflegeanstalt Herzberge July 9, 1940, Berlin-Buch, Heil- und Pflegeanstalt July 1940, Brandenburg ad Havel, killing center . In: Gedenkbuch, on bundesarchiv.de, as of January 27, 2017
  6. ^ John Walter: German Bayonet, 1871-1945. Weidenfeld & Nicholson military, 1976, ISBN 0-85368-211-9 .
  7. ^ Knut Ström in the Swedish Theater in Düsseldorf
  8. ^ Theater bills, Düsseldorfer Stadttheater, The new costumes are by Hugo Baruch & Komp., Berlin
  9. ↑ Das Lied des Lebens, Architektur: Hugo Baruch ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.film-zeit.de
  10. ↑ picture Asta Nielsen in Hamlet