Karl Pempelfort

Karl Pempelfort (born February 22, 1901 in Düsseldorf , † December 16, 1975 in Bonn ) was a German art historian , writer , dramaturge and from 1951 to 1970 senior director at the city theaters in Bonn.

Live and act

In the 1920s, Pempelfort studied philosophy, art and literary history at the University of Cologne , where he also received his doctorate. phil. received his doctorate. He began his theater career as a dramaturge . Later he was also a director at the theaters in Koblenz and Bremen. In 1929 he became head of the Silesian State Theater and four years later the Wroclaw National Socialists dismissed him for political reasons. He moved further east, to the theaters in Riga and Konigsberg . There he worked as an actor and as an author of music, literature and art studies. In 1942 he was called up for military service.

After the Second World War he went back to his home in the Rhineland and was appointed chief dramaturge there in 1946 with a five-year contract at the Cologne theaters. There he convinced in 1947 with his staging of the play Mord im Dom .

In the post-war period, Hans Böckler , the chairman of the resurrected German Trade Union Federation ( DGB ), organized the Recklinghausen Ruhr Festival in 1947 (“Art against Coal”). His motto was: Recklinghausen instead of Salzburg , because "Culture is more important for the buddies than for the chosen ones ". Böckler gave Pempelfort the artistic direction from 1947 to 1951.

After the years of barbarism from 1933 to 1945 and the blood and soil productions, a return to classics such as Goethe, Schiller and Shakespeare was the order of the day. Due to his reputation, Karl Pempelfort was appointed senior director to the city theaters of the new federal capital, Bonn, in 1951 . The venue was housed in the large hall of the Bonn Citizens' Association until 1965 . Two street corners away was the meeting point of Bonn's cultural scene in the artist bar and gallery Zur Kerze , where Pempelfort was a regular.

In 1965 the new building of the Bonn City Theater on the banks of the Rhine was ready for occupancy. Pempelfort opened with the world premiere of the play Die Schwätzer by Dieter Waldmann . The director was Hans-Joachim Heyse , who then succeeded Pempelfort in the theater management from 1970 to 1981.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Karl Pempelfort , Munzinger.
2. ↑ My farewell to Königsberg , Wissen48.net - The German knowledge almanac.
3. ↑ certainty astonishment , Der Spiegel, 21/1965.