Josef Gielen

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Josef Gielen (born December 20, 1890 in Cologne , † October 19, 1968 in Vienna ) was an Austrian actor , director and director of the Vienna Burgtheater of German origin.

Life

Josef Gielen, son of Johann Gielen and his wife Maria, b. Kring, studied art history , literature and theater studies at the universities in Bonn and Munich and made his debut as an actor in Königsberg (Prussia) in 1913 and was then engaged at the Landestheater Darmstadt .

During the First World War he served as a soldier in the German Army . In 1921 he began to work as a director and was appointed head director to Dresden. Here he worked at the Staatliches Schauspielhaus from 1924 to 1934 and then at the State Opera until 1936 , where Richard Strauss directed the world premieres of Arabella (1933) and Die Schweigsame Frau (1935).

In 1936, when Gielen was denounced by the Nazis in Dresden , Clemens Krauss took him to the Berlin State Opera for the 1936/37 season . The Staatstheater Dresden was under Goebbels , the Berlin State Opera Goering , whose wife Emmy knew the Gielens from the stage and could offer a certain protection. As a precaution, however, they left Nazi Germany in 1937 and went to Vienna, where Gielen worked at the Vienna Burgtheater until 1939 . Gielen himself was not of Jewish origin, but married to a Jewish woman: Rosa (1891 Sambor - 1972 Vienna; 1922 marriage to Josef Gielen), a born helmsman and sister of Salka Viertel , the pianist Eduard Steuermann and the Polish national soccer player Zygmunt Steuermann . As a Jew , the couple evaded the danger that had threatened her since the “Anschluss” of Austria by emigrating to South America. From 1939 Gielen worked at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

In 1948 he returned to Vienna and was director of the Vienna Burgtheater until 1954. He enriched its repertoire with modern French and American pieces, such as Claudel's The Silk Shoe , Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral or Miller's witch hunt . With celebrated performances of Was ihr wollt , Don Karlos (with Werner Krauss and Oskar Werner ) he also stuck to the tradition of the house.

From 1957 to 1960 Gielen was senior director of the Vienna State Opera and also staged the operas Der Raub der Lucretia (1950), Idomeneo (1951), Der Rosenkavalier (1953) and Ariadne auf Naxos (1954 and 1959) as well as at the Salzburg Festival Opera houses in Amsterdam, London, Paris, Milan and Florence.

His son was the conductor and composer Michael Gielen .

Josef Gielen's honorary grave is located near the Simmering fire hall (urn grave; Dept. 1, Ring 1, Group 5, No. 8).

Theater (direction)

Awards

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Interview with Michael Gielen on August 4, 2002
  2. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)

Remarks

  1. ↑ "State Councilor Tietjen named the director Gielen the only Mozart director who , however, has resigned as a permanent member of the State Opera because of his non-Aryan wife and because he entered an opposing list during the armored cross vote ..." Schlösser dated December 29, 1937, Federal Archives R 55/20459, pages 6–7. Quoting from Fred K. Prieberg : Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 Kiel, 2004, CD-ROM Lexicon, p. 2214.
  2. ↑ "The director Josef Gielen is Aryan, but married to a Jew." Report from the German Embassy in Buenos Aires of February 26, 1941 on the German opera season in 1940, Federal Archives R 55/20553, pages 357–361. Quoting from Fred K. Prieberg: Handbook of German Musicians 1933–1945 Kiel, 2004, CD-ROM Lexicon, p. 2308.
personal data
SURNAME Gielen, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian actor, director and director of the Vienna Burgtheater of German origin
DATE OF BIRTH December 20, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH 19th October 1968
Place of death Vienna