Karl Friedrich Cerf
Karl Friedrich Cerf (actually Friedrich Hirsch - Cerf [French Hirsch ] was his stage name) (born February 27, 1771 in Unter- Eisenheim , Würzburg district , † November 6, 1845 in Berlin ) was a German theater director. Since 1824 he ran the first private theater in Berlin, the Königsstädtische Theater .
Cerf came from a Jewish family, converted to Christianity at an early age and worked in Dessau in the traditional Jewish profession of horse dealer. He succeeded in advancing to an important military position (senior war commissioner). In the wars of liberation against Napoleon he could under Ludwig Adolph Peter Graf zu Sayn-Wittgenstein prove, so he of Tsar I. Alexander was awarded.
Cerf settled in Berlin. In 1822 he received from the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III. the license to run a theater. After a few months he transferred this to a stock corporation, which, under the de facto management of the lawyer Georg Carl Friedrich Kunowski , opened the first privately owned “ Volkstheater ” in Berlin under the name of Königsstädtische Theater in 1824 . The shareholders included the bankers Jacob Herz Beer, father of the composer Giacomo Meyerbeer , and Joseph Mendelssohn from Bankhaus Mendelssohn & Co. Shortly after it opened, the theater was initially successful. The operation then became deficit. In 1829 the shareholders sold their shares to Friedrich Cerf.
Cerf financed the business through grants from the court, which from then on also bore the company's deficits. The new owner included Italian operas and French comedies in the repertoire, which some people resented. On the other hand, he succeeded in founding a Berlin local posse with stars like the actor Friedrich Beckmann . Critics described him as the front man of the court and one of the managing directors who was incomprehensible to art and artists. Similar judgments are known about the successful Viennese theater producer Carl Carl .
His son Rudolf Cerf inherited the license for the Königsstädtische Theater and transferred it to various other buildings from 1852 onwards. He became known as the dazzling Berlin theater founder and entrepreneur in the second half of the 19th century.
literature
- Jürgen Blunck: Georg Carl Friedrich Kunowski. Lawyer, scientist, theater and railway lawyer; in: Berlin in Geschichte und Gegenwart 1998, pp. 27–56.
- Ludwig Eisenberg : Large biographical lexicon of the German stage in the XIX. Century . Verlag von Paul List , Leipzig 1903, p. 237, ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
- Willi Eylitz: The King's City Theater in Berlin; Diss. Phil. Univ. Rostock 1940.
- Ruth Freydank: This is where Nante was born. The history of the Königstädtisches Theater; in: Berlinische Monatsschrift 1998, issue 10, pp. 4–15.
- Joseph Kürschner: Cerf, Karl Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 4, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, p. 89 f.
- Sebastian Panwitz: "... wanting good, doing the best". Charity and patronage with Joseph Mendelssohn; in: Menora 16 (2006), pp. 137-148, especially pp. 141-143.
- Sebastian Panwitz: Jacob Herz Beer. Entrepreneurs and religious reformers in times of upheaval; in: Jews citizens of Berlin. The memory of the Beer-Meyerbeer-Richter family, Berlin: Henschel 2004, pp. 67–84, especially pp. 79f.
- Karl Richter: Cerf, Raphael Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 183 ( digitized version ).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Cerf, Karl Friedrich |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hirsch, Friedrich (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German theater director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 27, 1771 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Eisenheim |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 6, 1845 |
| Place of death | Berlin |