Josef Ferdinand Nesmüller

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Josef Ferdinand Nesmüller on a daguerreotype from 1855

Josef Ferdinand Nesmüller , actually Josef Ferdinand Müller (born March 9, 1818 in Mährisch Trübau , Austrian Empire ; † May 9, 1895 in Hamburg ), was an Austro-German actor, theater director , playwright , musician, composer and director . With him began in Dresden in 1854 the tradition of the public bourgeois folk theater, which is represented there today primarily by the Dresden State Operetta . In the same year his wife Agnes created the world's first so-called “family performance” in a theater. In this context, a family performance is the free entry of children into theater performances that they attend accompanied by their parents, which is still a common practice today. Agnes Nesmüller also founded what was probably the first children's theater in German-speaking countries in 1864 , but it only existed for two years.

Life

Wandering years

Josef Ferdinand Müller was born the son of a shoemaker. After finishing school, he completed his apprenticeship as a shoemaker, but attended the teachers' seminar in Olomouc and at the age of 16 became an assistant teacher and, at the same time, second violinist in the orchestra of the Olomouc City Theater. From November 1, 1835 he was on the stage as a choir player .

After an engagement in Proßnitz he joined the traveling troupe of the actor Eduard Leuchert, whose daughter Agnes (February 1820 - around 1890) he married on October 18, 1841. A little later he added the second syllable of his wife's first name to his last name and from then on called himself Nesmüller with his artificial name .

From 1845 he was committed to the Breslau City Theater , then to Magdeburg , from 1848 as a young comedian to the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. In 1849 he made his debut there with the world premiere of his play “Die Zillertaler” with great success as a dramatist and composer. Between 1850 and 1854 he successfully performed on various larger stages, where he also expanded his dramaturgical knowledge. During an engagement in Leipzig in 1850, the Dresden court actor Emil Devrient saw him and arranged Nesmüller's first appearance in 1850 at the Lincke'schen Bad in Dresden. After his engagement at the Carl Theater in Vienna alongside Johann Nestroy , he appeared again in the summer theater in Reisewitzer Park in 1853 ("Theater on Reisewitz") and there made the decision to settle permanently in Dresden.

Work in Dresden

Nesmüller's summer theater in the Great Garden (around 1870)

After leasing the Stadttheater in Freiberg , he succeeded in taking a first step: in 1854 he made the summer theater “auf Reisewitz” in Dresden-Plauen such a magnet that even King Friedrich August II and his art-loving brother Johann became well aware of this theater. On May 18, 1854, on Friedrich August's birthday, the world's first “family performance” of a theater took place there, where children accompanied by their parents were given free entry.

In the same year Nesmüller succeeded in lifting the competition ban for the Dresden court theater , which had been in force for centuries : In November 1854 he was granted the first “concession to build a second theater for the old and new town in Dresden”. On December 25, 1854, the opening of this popular theater took place on the second floor of the Gewandhaus in Dresden. From April 11, 1855, it was allowed to carry the title of Second Theater with a royal award .

He did not succeed in leasing the Lincke'schen Bad due to resistance from the court theater, but in 1855 he received a further concession for a summer theater in the Great Garden in Dresden (located roughly within the current track loop of the zoo train station of the Dresden Park Railway ) and opened it on July 2, 1856. In the same year he rebuilt the Gewandhaus, had the ceiling between the first and second floors broken through and thus got a theater with 900 seats, which practically took up the northern half of the former Gewandhaus. In 1857 a floorboard was finally laid in the summer theater, high masts were erected to keep out the sun with a canvas stretched between them, and the orchestra room was hollowed out to achieve a better sound. It now comprised 1,200 seats with a balcony, boxes and tiers and was usually used from May to the end of September / beginning of October, with the Gewandhaus Theater remaining fully functional so that performances could be moved there when it was raining.

He directed both stages with great skill and great success: In his theaters a. a. Marie Geistinger from Vienna and Ottilie Genée from Berlin. The Nestroy pieces Tannhäuser and He wants to make a joke were popular , but also the self-composed antics and pranks, as well as folk pieces from Berlin. On February 8, 1861, the Dresden premiere of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld took place in the Gewandhaus Theater (Nesmüller played the god Jupiter). In another Offenbach premiere, that of The Beautiful Helena , Minna Hansel , who was to become one of the greats of Dresden's theater life , appeared for the first time .

In 1864 Agnes Nesmüller also founded what is probably the first theater for children (children's theater) in German-speaking countries in a house on Landhausstrasse, which only existed for two years and was given up for financial reasons.

This successful period ended with the fire in the court theater on September 21, 1869. This - according to Schwarze, probably also quarrels within the city - led to the extraordinary termination of the Gewandhaus theater in order to be able to offer it as a substitute for the court theater, which was never realized. But the lease did not go back to Nesmüller either. From 1870 he had to be content with running his summer theater in the Great Garden, for which he was able to assert himself for another ten seasons, despite competition from the new Herminia Theater (later Residenz Theater ) from 1872 and the Albert Theater from 1873 . This also included further premieres in Dresden a. a. Franz von Suppés The beautiful Galathée , Offenbach's Knight Bluebeard and on May 20, 1877 the Carnival in Rome by Johann Strauss .

However, he could not invest anything in a possible upgrade of this theater, the recruitment of high-quality artists for the exclusive summer months turned out to be more and more difficult and he did not succeed in renting a winter theater (e.g. the Trianon-Saal Dresden or the Stadttheater Stettin). The short lease period for the Herminia Theater from January to March 1873 also turned into a disaster. Although his audience remained loyal to him, Nesmüller had to file for bankruptcy in May 1881.

After his theater license was withdrawn in June 1881, the last curtain fell on Nesmüller's summer theater on July 18 of the same year. Despite objections from the creditors, it was demolished in 1883 and the area was included in the redesign of the Great Garden by Friedrich Bouché .

Finale

From 1881 on, Nesmüller had to make a guest appearance with his wife. a. at the Residenz Theater Dresden, where he celebrated his 50th stage anniversary in 1885. In 1886 and 1887 he was engaged as a dramaturge at the Thalia Theater in Hamburg, where he also took up residence. After 1887 Nesmüller was only active as a writer and died in Hamburg on May 9, 1895. His grave is currently (as of 2016) no longer known, the same applies to the further life of his wife Agnes.

Appreciation

He wrote a large number of theater plays that were much staged at the time, most of them pranks and comedies with singing. As an actor, he was primarily interested in comical roles. He played in Ferdinand Raimund's pieces e.g. E.g. Valentin in Der Verschwender , the Wurzel in Der Bauer als Millionär and the Rappelkopf in Der Alpenkönig und der Misfeind . In Nestroy's Lumpacivagabundus he gave the Knieriem, in Roderich Benedix 's Die Pasquillanten the Hofrat Hänlein. He also took on the leading roles in his own plays, just as he embodied serious roles, such as Miller in Friedrich Schiller's Kabale und Liebe . In the Dresden premiere of Offenbach's Parisian Life , he played the Baron Gondremark, in Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus he played the frog.

Works (selection)

  • Die Zillertaler , Liederspiel, world premiere (premiere) 1849,
  • City and country, or: The cattle dealer from Upper Austria , singing sticks, premiere unknown (Dresden, before 1864)
  • The shoemaker in Floribus, or: Six weeks of reindeer , singing sticks, premiere unknown (Dresden, before 1864)
  • The Marienhof , comedy, premier 1872,
  • Six Hours of Your Highness , WP 1873,
  • On Friday , drama, premiere 1882,
  • Die Plattmönche , comedy , premier 1883,
  • Acquitted , Schwank, UA 1883,
  • Achmüller's right , Volksstück, UA 1888,
  • The Guardian Spirit of Oberammergau , Volksstück, UA 1891,
  • The beautiful witch of Virlanden , comedy , premier 1893,
  • My father-in-law , comedy, premiere 1894,
  • Die wilde Toni , comedy, premiere unknown, newly published by Otto Teich 1926,
  • The Tyrolean and his child (composition of stage music), premiere unknown.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eduard Leuchert (senior) was also the father of the later castle actor of the same name .
  2. ↑ Schwarze, p. 14.
  3. ^ The Societaetstheater in Dresden Neustadt, closed in 1832, was a non-public amateur and amateur theater, so it was not subject to the prohibition of competition. Until then, other venues were only allowed to be used seasonally by professional traveling theaters, if such venues existed at all. The theaters in Lincke'schen Bad as well as the “Theater auf Reisewitz” were outside Dresden's city limits. The non-competition clause did not apply to these theaters, but there were strict regulations for the actors at the court theater as to whether and when they were allowed to appear there.
  4. ↑ With the premiere of this piece, the new building of the Dresden State Operetta, which is its direct successor, was opened on December 17, 2016.
  5. ↑ The documents sent to him on loan for the Carnival in Rome are part of the Vienna Library and were also the basis for the re-performance at the Dresden State Operetta in 2004.
  6. ↑ a b Gunold, p. 17
personal data
SURNAME Nesmüller, Josef Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Josef Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian-German actor, playwright, theater director, composer and musician
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1818
PLACE OF BIRTH Moravian Trübau
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1895
Place of death Hamburg