Ivan Nagel

Ivan Nagel (born June 28, 1931 in Budapest , † April 10, 2012 in Berlin ) was a Hungarian - German polymath , critic , publicist and theater director .

Life

Berlin memorial plaque on the house, Keithstrasse 10, in Berlin-Schöneberg

tomb

Nagel came from a Jewish family of Hungarian origin. His father was the manager of a textile factory in Budapest. The family had to go into hiding under a false name during the Second World War . She managed to survive the Holocaust . After the war, Nagel initially wanted to study at Loránd Eötvös University in his hometown, but knew that as a bourgeois he would not be allowed to do so. In 1948 he fled to Switzerland . Nagel graduated from high school in Zurich and studied in the 1950s as a stateless person, first in Paris and at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , and later at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . In Frankfurt he studied philosophy with Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno , who later also helped him to prevent the threatened deportation as an “undesirable asylum seeker”.

After completing his studies, Nagel worked as a theater and music critic and was chief dramaturge at the Münchner Kammerspiele from 1960 to 1969 , where he worked with Peter Stein , among others . In 1972 he was appointed director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg and remained so until 1979. During this time he worked with numerous renowned directors, including Giorgio Strehler , Jérôme Savary , Peter Zadek and Luc Bondy . The productions by Peter Zadek (including " Wildente ", " Othello ", " Wintermärchen ") have become famous .

In 1981 he founded a theater festival that was supposed to give an overview of the development of theater in the most diverse cultures around the world. The “ Theater der Welt ” festival takes place in changing German cities to this day and gave the German audience the opportunity to watch outstanding performances such as those by Peter Brook , William Kentridge , Anatolij Wassiljew, Peter Sellars, Simon McBurney and many “ off-theaters ” in Europe to see American, Far Eastern avant-garde.

In 1981, Nagel went to New York as a cultural correspondent for the FAZ and lived there until 1983. He was twice a fellow of the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin , director of the Stuttgart State Theater and from 1989–96 professor for the history and aesthetics of the performing arts at the Berlin University of the Arts . After German reunification , he designed a concept for the Berlin Senate , which resulted in Heiner Müller's Berliner Ensemble , Frank Castorf's and Christoph Marthaler's Volksbühne on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz. In 2003 he married Renate Klett .

He has also become famous for his writings on theater theory and portraits of theater directors such as Fritz Kortner , Peter Zadek , Klaus Michael Grüber , Peter Stein , Robert Wilson , Frank Castorf , Peter Sellars . His book on Mozart's operas, Autonomy and Grace, has been translated into English, French, Spanish and Japanese. Books about art: “Ariadne on the Panther”, “The artist as a matchmaker - Goya's naked and clothed Maja”, “Paintings and drama - Giotto, Masaccio, Leonardo” 2009. Political, cultural-political books: “Policies” 2001; “The Wrong Dictionary - War and Lies in the 21st Century” 2004. Since 2009, Suhrkamp Verlag has published his collected writings in individual editions.

In long conversations shortly before his death, Nagel also commented on his homosexuality and emphasized: “I want to live this puzzle. I stand by to be me. "

Ivan Nagel was buried on April 20, 2012 in the Dorotheenstädtischer Friedhof in Berlin-Mitte .

On August 30, 2017 , a Berlin commemorative plaque was unveiled at his former place of residence, Berlin-Schöneberg , Keithstrasse 10 .

Awards

• 1988: Johann Heinrich Merck Prize
• 1999: Fritz Kortner Prize
• 2000: Moses Mendelssohn Prize
• 2002: Order of Merit of the State of Berlin
• 2003: Ernst Bloch Prize
• 2003: Federal Cross of Merit, 1st class
• 2005: Heinrich Mann Prize of the Academy of Arts (Berlin)
• 2008: Honorary doctorate from the University of Lüneburg
• 2011: Hermann Sinsheimer Prize of the City of Freinsheim

Works (selection)

• Thoughts as a résumé. Attempts through the 18th century . Hanser, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-446-15036-6 .
• Autonomy and grace. About Mozart's operas . 3rd strongly changed edition. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1988, ISBN 3-446-20688-4 .
• Kortner, Zadek, Stein . Hanser, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-446-15739-5 .
• Johann Heinrich Dannecker, Ariadne on the panther. On the situation of women around 1800 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 3-596-23969-9 .
• Benjamin Henrichs , Ivan Nagel: Love! Love! Love! Is the soul of genius: four directors of world theater. Luc Bondy, Frank Castorf, Peter Sellars, Robert Wilson . 1st edition. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1996, ISBN 3-446-18576-3 .
• The artist as a matchmaker. Goya's naked and clothed Maja . 1st edition. Hanser, Munich / Vienna 1997, ISBN 3-446-19124-0 .
• Roger Willemsen - the stage talk with Ivan Nagel: live from the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg . 1st edition. Hoffmann and Campe, Hamburg 2001, ISBN 3-455-30217-3 (1 CD).
• Polemics. Politics, cultural politics, theater politics . 1st edition. Siedler, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-455-30217-3 .
• The wrong dictionary. War and lies at the beginning of the century . 1st edition. Berliner Taschenbuchverlag, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-8333-0105-8 .
• Drama and theater. From Shakespeare to Jelinek . Hanser, Munich / Vienna 2006, ISBN 3-446-20724-4 .
• Shakespeare's double play. "The Merchant of Venice" reread . Insel, Frankfurt am Main 2012, ISBN 978-3-458-17507-0 .

Font output

• Paintings and drama. Giotto Masaccio Leonardo. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-518-42126-0 .
• Writings on drama. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42217-5 .
• Writings on art. Goya - thank you. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42193-2 .
• Writings on the theater. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-518-42267-0 .
• Writings on Politics. Suhrkamp Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-518-42310-3 .

literature

• Werner Sillescu: Ivan Nagel. The man who loves to ride a bicycle. In: Hamburger like nobody knows. Portraits from a cosmopolitan city. Publishing company R. Glöss & Co, Hamburg 1975, ISBN 3-87261-007-4 .

Web links

Commons : Ivan Nagel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Ivan Nagel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Works by and about Ivan Nagel  in the German Digital Library
• Günther Rühle : The human being at the center of the theater. Appreciation on Deutschlandfunk on April 10, 2010
• Ivan-Nagel-Archive in the archive of the Academy of Arts, Berlin

Individual evidence

1. ↑ With moral impulse. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung . April 11, 2012, p. 49 ( suhrkamp.de Retrieved April 18, 2012. Press release from Suhrkamp-Verlag on the death of Ivan Nagel).
2. ↑ see wiko-berlin.de two years Fellow
3. ^ "I belonged to three minorities" (see 4th conversation on April 11), Deutschlandradio Kultur , April 8, 2012 (with audio links)
4. ^ Theater legend Ivan Nagel buried in Berlin
5. ↑ Press release of the State of Berlin on the upcoming award of the Federal Cross of Merit 2003 ( berlin.de accessed on April 11, 2012).
6. ↑ Landesarchiv Berlin: Wowereit presented the Federal Cross of Merit. ( berlin.de ( Memento of the original from September 29, 2007 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. Accessed April 11, 2012) .