Iffland Ring

The Iffland-Ring is a finger ring with a portrait of the famous German actor, theater director and playwright August Wilhelm Iffland (1759-1814), who at the Mannheim National Theater in the premiere of Friedrich von Schiller's drama The robbers to Franz Moor played.

The diamond studded iron ring from its respective carrier testamentary to his opinion, "each important and worthy entertainers awarded the German-speaking theater" for life, where tradition demands that this is a male. Werner Krauss received the ring in 1954 not from his previous owner Albert Bassermann , but from the Kartellverband Deutschsprachiger Bühnenememiger, because the three heirs designated by Bassermann had died one after the other before him.

From 1996 to 2019 Bruno Ganz was the holder of the Iffland Ring. After Ganz's death, the Austrian Minister of Culture Gernot Blümel announced on March 22, 2019 that the German actor Jens Harzer had been chosen to wear the ring.

The Iffland-Ring has been earmarked property of the Republic of Austria since 1954 .

In 1978, the Austrian federal government donated the Alma-Seidler-Ring as a female counterpart to the castle actress Alma Seidler , who died in 1977 .

History and founding legend

It seems not unlikely that Iffland himself had given away several rings with his portrait to friends, because the passing on of such gems (finger rings, gems , pictures, medals and the like) to close friends was quite common at the time. It also seems likely that one of these rings was an heirloom of the Devrient family, who were friends with Iffland . However, it is unlikely that there were actually seven rings, as Wilhelm Burckhardsberg wrote in 1954, and that an award was associated with this. It seems more likely that Iffland alluded to Lessing's ring parable from Nathan the Wise by passing on several rings . The fact that the Devrientsche Ring did not remain in the family's possession, but was passed on from Emil Devrient to Theodor Döring, was probably due to internal family disputes. Apparently Devrient was not thinking of an institutionalized award either, because then the wearers would certainly not have made a secret of the existence of the "one" ring before Haase. It cannot therefore be clarified whether the actual foundation starts with the passing on of the ring by Döring, which is only documented by Haase, or with the testamentary passing on by Haase himself.

The first verifiable mention of today's Iffland Ring as an award is the estate of the actor Friedrich Haase , who died in 1911, who explained the legend of this ring with a note on the ring case and an explanatory letter and at the same time stipulated that if the wearer died, the ring would be removed from this ring "Currently worthiest" should be considered. Haase bequeathed it to Bassermann, who gave it to three colleagues one after the other ( Alexander Girardi , Max Pallenberg and Alexander Moissi ), who all three died surprisingly early, with Bassermann laying it on the coffin of the deceased Alexander Moissi and he was saved at the last moment had to, so that he finally deposited it in the Austrian National Library in Vienna in 1935 . Bassermann, who emigrated from Germany in 1934 and from Austria in 1938 because of the discrimination against his Jewish wife, had his eye on Werner Krauss , but because of his attitude during National Socialism, especially because of his participation in the anti-Semitic film Jud Suss, he did not want to hand over the ring. After Bassermann's death in 1952 it was unclear how the ring was to be passed on until the Cartel Association of German-Speaking Stage Members Werner Krauss awarded it in 1954 . Because of the ambiguities under inheritance law in 1952/54, the Austrian Ministry of Education issued guidelines that will unequivocally regulate the future distribution of the ring.

The choice of Josef Meinrad surprised the public and experts. The anecdote, also shared by Meinrad himself, emerged that Krauss said on his deathbed: "My advice is: ..." but no longer uttered the name of the actor he advised, so that the ear witnesses fell for Meinrad.

The writer Georg Markus wrote the following about the passing on of the Ifflandring in his book “Schlag nach bei Markus”: The Ifflandring should be presented to the most important German actor, according to its founder, the theater man August Wilhelm Iffland. After the death of his colleague Werner Krauss in 1959, the actor Josef Meinrad received the following letter: “Dear Josef Meinrad! On November 28, 1954, I received the Ifflandring. In the same year I handed over my disposition over the successor to the federal theater administration in Vienna. You are now the bearer of the ring, dear Josef Meinrad. "And then Werner Krauss describes the recent history of the ring:" Friedrich Haase left it to the young, modern actor Albert Bassermann. Albert Bassermann first determined Alexander Girardi. He died. Then Alexander Moissi. He died. Then Max Pallenberg. He crashed on the plane. And since Bassermann was superstitious, he no longer chose a successor. He handed it over to the Austrian federal theater administration. So the ring came to me. Now, dear Josef Meinrad, you can no longer ask me why I have chosen you as the porter, I have to write it down. You are the most worthy for me in your simplicity, your simplicity, your truthfulness. So please take the ring, wear it and sometimes remember me. Werner Krauss "

Josef Meinrad kept the Ifflandring in a bank safe throughout his life and bequeathed it in his will to the actor Bruno Ganz, who received it after Meinrad's death on February 18, 1996.

Bearer of the Iffland Ring

Duration	carrier
approx. 1815-1832	Ludwig Devrient
1832-1872	Emil Devrient
1872-1878	Theodor Döring
1878-1911	Friedrich Haase
1911-1952	Albert Bassermann
1954-1959	Werner Krauss
1959-1996	Josef Meinrad
1996-2019	Bruno Ganz
since 2019	Jens Harzer

Web links

• Rolf Krekeler: The Iffland-Ring. Legend and story of an artist idol
• Rolf Krekeler: The Iffland-Ring (very detailed)
• Jörg C. Steiner: The Iffland Ring (with black and white illustration)
• Entry on Iffland-Ring in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )

See also

• Alma Seidler Ring
• Albert Bozenhard Ring
• Hans Reinhart Ring

Individual evidence

1. ^ Minister of Culture Blümel: Jens Harzer receives the Iffland-Ring. Retrieved March 22, 2019 . 
2. ↑ According to a statement by the widow von Krauss, he wanted to bequeath the Ring to Alma Seidler, but this was not possible due to the foundation's conditions. The next time the Iffland-Ring is passed on (by Bruno Ganz), this should be possible, as the foundation's conditions have since been changed on this point.
3. ^ So Wilhelm Burckhardsberg; quoted by: Rolf Krekeler: The Iffland-Ring. Legend and story of an artist idol .
4. ↑ “When Iffland had the idea of ​​donating his ring (in the spirit of his romantic age), he had several of them made and distributed them to his most intimate friends, tradition speaks of seven. The actual foundation ring, however, was preciously set. ”Quoted from: Rolf Krekeler: The Iffland-Ring. Legend and story of an artist idol .
5. ^ Rolf Krekeler: The Iffland-Ring. Legend and story of an artist idol .
6. ↑ Jörg C. Steiner: The Iffland-Ring .
7. ↑ Gustav Knuth : I laughed a lot about that . Frankfurt a. Main 1980.

Remarks

1. ↑ In 1927, Bassermann had "issued an enunciation" in which he made considerations about possible future bearers of the ring and which subsequently raised doubts about the authenticity of the ring. - See Small Chronicle. [...] The Iffland Ring. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt (No. 22643/1927), September 30, 1927, p. 6, top right (online at ANNO ). .