Josef Georg Schmalz

Josef Georg Schmalz (* 1804 in Kapfing near Fügen , Tyrol ; † March 16, 1845 in Brixlegg ) was an Austrian , Tyrolean playwright , director and charcoal burner .

Life and meaning

Little is known about the life of the charcoal burner, miner and lumberjack . Josef Georg Schmalz moved to Brixlegg at an early age, as the ironworks there, as the main buyer of his charcoal-burning products, enabled him to work and maintain. Schmalz settled there as a coal burner in the Lower Au. Josef Georg Schmalz gained his first stage experience as a director on the village stage in Brixlegg, which has been proven to have existed since 1775 . He became famous in the Bavarian and Tyrolean Inntal for his portrayal of the passionate villain Golo in the folk play Genoveva . There is evidence that after his debut success Elvira and Almansor , which has long been considered a rural prime example of the genre, he wrote at least 23 knight plays for fabrics, then greedily entwined chivalric novels , German folk books , of which only thirteen original manuscripts have survived. Twelve of these can be found in the archive of the Knight Drama Kiefersfelden. Hartmann also mentions the track titles "Richard and Ida", "Genofeva" and "Hartwella the robber or Das Erbfräulein von Menteblan". After one of his greatest successes, he repeatedly called himself "Author of Elvira and Almansor". He was also the director of the theater from 1830 to 1835 at the new venue in the garden of the "Judenwirt", when his first dramas were written. Probably unemployed, he moved from Brixlegg to Kiefersfelden around 1830 . On the Thierberg he burned coal for the ironworks on the Kiefer. Since he dated his knight play Ulricka (first performed at the knight play in Kiefersfelden in 1932, the tragic end in the 19th century did not correspond to the conventions of the genre derived from the sacred play of the Jesuits) to "Brixlegg 1836", he probably only lived five years at Kiefersfelden. Apparently it was so little present in Kiefersfelden that it was already forgotten twenty years later. The Christmas game "The Merry Shepherds" named by August Hartmann has not survived. The date of his death - March 16, 1845 - is recorded in the Fügen register books with the cause of death as a blow . He was buried two days later.

The father of allegedly ten children was a passionate amateur actor, director and playwright. Narrated by his children are Franz Schmalz (born September 10, 1834), Michael Schmalz (born September 17, 1835), Vincenz Schmalz (born January 10, 1838) and Barbara Schmalz (born December 1, 1843).

Memorial stone next to the comedy hut of the knight theater Kiefersfelden

As an author, Josef Georg Schmalz is one of the most important personalities of folk drama in the 19th century , the folklorist Ludwig Steub called him the "Peasant Shakespeare von Kiefersfelden ". With the exception of Der Kaiser Ocktavianus (1835) (in Rattelmüller , see below ), no knight play by Josef Georg Schmalz has yet been printed. Several of his dramas were transcribed for performances by Martin Hainzl, the archivist of the Ritterschauspiele Kiefersfelden. The Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden only makes them available for proven research projects or substantial media reports.

From the Schmalz family name - aesthetically unfounded - the pejorative rating “greasy” is derived. This describes affective and exalted excesses of emotional states on stage and in film. The plays by Josef Georg Schmalz were probably never performed by the court and national theaters and touring theaters of the 19th century. They form the core of the repertoire of the Bavarian amateur theater Ritterschauspiele Kiefersfelden .

During the author's lifetime, his dramas and his late forms of sacred plays were also performed by the syndicates of the Volkstheater Thiersee (today Passionstheater Thiersee), Flintsbach , Bad Endorf and Oberaudorf . Memorials: Memorial stone next to the Comedihütte (theater house) of the knight plays Kiefersfelden and Josef-Georg-Schmalz-Koje in the local museum of Fügen.

Traditional works

Originals in the archive of the knight shows in Kiefersfelden

• Elvira and Almansor or victory over chains and bonds or from slaves to thrones - knight play with arias and choirs
• Saint Barbara - knight play with arias and choirs
• Valentinus and Ursinus, the two twin brothers or The Diamond Cross - knight play with arias and choirs
• Adellin and Ludmilla or The Six Brothers von Perlenstein - Knight Play with Arias and Choirs
• The Emperor Ocktavianus or Empress Dianora , who was innocently driven into misery with her children - knight play with arias and choirs
• Helena, daughter of the powerful emperor Antonius of Greece or revenge, repentance and reconciliation - knight play with arias and choirs
• Ezzelin the Cruel or The Shepherd's Flute - knight play with arias and choirs
• Ulricka, the unfortunate Countess of Warry - knight play with arias and choirs
• Floribella, Duchess of Burgundy - knight play with arias and choirs
• Richardus, King of England or The Violence of Love - knight play with arias and choirs
• Rudolf von Westerburg or Das Pettermännchen - a ghost story. Knight play with arias and choirs based on the novel Das Petermännchen by Christian Heinrich Spieß
• Erich, the notorious, afterwards well converted robber captain - knight play with arias and choirs

Originals in the archive of the Passion Play Theater in Thiersee

• Wendelin von Höllenstein or Die Totenglocke - knight play with arias and choirs
• Mangold von Rottenburg or The Battle of Midnight - knight play with arias and choirs
• Simon von Trient - knight play with arias and choirs

Original in the archives of the Volkstheater Brixlegg

• Such a cap belongs to love without hope or a donkey - posse in one act

Original in the archive of the Flintsbach Volkstheater

• King Douglas von Morni or Rinold and Albina or hope can never be shamed - knight play with arias and choirs

literature

• SP Scheichl:  Schmalz Josef. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 227.
• August Hartmann: Popular Drama. Collected in Bavaria and Austria-Hungary. With many popular tunes recorded by Hyacinth Abele; Leipzig 1880 (Breitkopf and Härtel)
• Paul Ernst Rattelmüller: The peasant shakespeare. The Kiefersfeldener Volkstheater and its knight plays; Munich 1973 (contains the pieces Der Kaiser Ocktavianus and Ubald von Sternenburg )
• Frido Will: The Volkstheater Kiefersfelden - Dissertation; Munich 1977 (Munich university publications / Munich contributions to theater studies - commission publisher J. Kitzinger)
• Hans Moser: Chronicle of Kiefersfelden (sources and representations on the history of the city and the district of Rosenheim, ed. Von Albert Aschl, Bd. 3); Rosenheim 1959
• Hans Moser: People's play in the mirror of archival materials. A contribution to the cultural history of Old Bavaria (Bayerische Schriften zur Volkskunde), edited by Commission for Bayer. State history / Bayer. Academy of Sciences / Institute for Folklore; Munich 1991
• 375 years of the Volkstheater Ritterspiele Kiefersfelden / 200 years of Josef Schmalz; Published on the occasion of the 375th anniversary of the Volkstheater Kiefersfelden; Kiefersfelden 1993 (texts by Martin Hainzl jun. And Hans Stimpfl)
• Ekkehard Schönwiese: Kiefersfelden and his knight games (sic); Oberaudorf o. J. (Print: Helmut Meißner, approx. 2000)
• Martin Hainzl: Kiefersfelden and his knight spectacles - episode 5 in Kieferer Nachrichten No. 21 / August 1991 (municipality newspaper of the municipality of Kiefersfelden)
• Festschrift of the knight shows Kiefersfelden 2007: Siegfried and Ludmilla (Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden - texts by Roland Dippel)
• Festschrift der Ritterschauspiele Kiefersfelden 2008: Richardus, King of England (Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden - texts by Roland Dippel)
• Festschrift der Ritterschauspiele Kiefersfelden 2009: Adellin and Ludmilla or The Six Brothers von Perlenstein (Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden - texts by Roland Dippel)
• Festschrift der Ritterschauspiele Kiefersfelden 2011: Ezzelin the Cruel or The Shepherd's Flute (Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden - texts by Roland Dippel)
• Festschrift der Ritterschauspiele Kiefersfelden 2012: Helena, daughter of the powerful emperor Antonius of Greece or revenge, repentance and reconciliation (Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden - texts by Roland Dippel)
• Festschrift of the knight drama Kiefersfelden 2013: Rudolf von Westerburg or Das Pet (t) ermännchen . Texts by Roland Dippel. Theatergesellschaft Kiefersfelden, Kiefersfelden 2013
• Sepp Landmann: Brixlegg, a Tyrolean community through the ages; self-published by the municipality of Brixlegg in 1988
• Martin Hainzl: Kiefersfelden and his jousting games. The history of Germany's oldest popular theater: series in Kieferer Nachrichten. News bulletin of the community of Kiefersfelden with the district Mühlbach - Part 5: Josef Georg Schmalz, the farmer's shakespeare from Kiefersfelden - Kieferer Nachrichten No. 21; August 1991 - pp. 15-22