Leonie Dotzler

Leonie Dotzler-Möllering (born June 9, 1899 in Dresden , † May 18, 1984 in Florence ) was a German critic and columnist .

Live and act

The daughter of a Dresden merchant had the desire to become a dancer as a child through her mother's daily gymnastics exercises and the dance performances she attended (and later by herself). As a teenager she received gymnastics and grace lessons from the now almost unknown Marita Polscher and then attended Valeria Kratina's lessons in rhythmic-dance gymnastics. A guest performance by Mary Wigman and her intention to establish a dance school in Dresden led the young woman, who was enthusiastic about the dances shown, to Mary Wigman's first Dresden dance class at the same time as Gret Palucca and others in early 1920 . Since the artistic talent was available, but the technical prerequisites for her own performance as a dancer were not yet sufficient and a foot injury prevented practical participation for a long time, her father did not continue to pay the school fees, which ended her training as a dancer.

In November 1922 Leonie Dotzler was able to start as an editorial volunteer with the Dresdner Neuesten Nachrichten and very quickly - in spring 1923 at the latest - became the first dance critic of this well-known newspaper. For two years she was trained in all sections of the editorial team, then, in addition to dance criticism, she initially took on the processing of the apolitical news section of the newspaper, for which she was also responsible. From 1928 on she worked as an editor in the features section with operettas, film and dance reviews as well as concert and theater reviews and took over the editing of the entertainment novels. She was part of the editorial team in a leading position until the newspaper ceased to appear in 1943 and over the years has often been in charge of the feature section independently for months.

In the 1920s and 1930s Leonie Dotzler reported competently about the Dresden dance performances, often about Mary Wigman and her group and her students, again and again about Gret Palucca, but also about the Triadic Ballet , Rudolf von Laban , Harald Kreutzberg , Vera Skoronel , Valeska Gert , Sent M'Ahesa , Anna Pawlowa , La Argentina , Isadora Duncan (in an obituary), Dore Hoyer , Marianne Vogelsang and many other dancers and even about gymnastics demonstrations at the Bodeschule Berlin under the direction of Hinrich Medau.

After the Second World War, she wrote, now under the name Leonie Dotzler-Möllering, occasional reviews for various newspapers and magazines such as Die Welt or Das Tanzarchiv by Kurt Peters . For almost 30 years she was a regular dance, pantomime, opera and operetta critic for the Lübecker Nachrichten , which sometimes z. B. reported from Paris and also wrote features, for which she took part in 1964 in Oskar Kokoschka's painting class at the International Summer Academy for Fine Arts in Salzburg . In addition, she reported in various articles from her youth in Dresden and on her encounters with prominent contemporaries such as the theologian and religious philosopher Paul Tillich .

From today's perspective, Leonie Dotzler is considered the most important woman among the German dance critics of the 1920s and 1930s.

Appreciation and evaluation

"With her versatile knowledge in the field of art and literature, her fine journalistic feeling for topicality and liveliness, her confident judgment and her excellent style, she was a valuable member of our editorial team." Wolfgang Huck, the former DNN publisher, on July 12, 1947.

literature

• Leonie Dotzler-Möllering: My parents' house was in Dresden. Memories of the years before the First World War . (98 pp., Undated, published privately).
• Leonie Dotzler-Möllering: My parents' house and Dresden theater life before 1914 . In: Saxon homeland . 27. Vol. H. 2, February 1981, pp. 45-53.
• Ralf Stabel: Leonie Dotzler - reread the first dance critic of the Dresdner Neusten Nachrichten . In: DNN No. 243 v. October 18, 2017, p. 10. (Reprinted in: Kultur Report , Stiftung Mitteldeutscher Kulturrat, H. 4/2017, pp. 6-7.).

Web links

• Leonie Dotzler Archive in the German Dance Archive Cologne .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Leonie Dotzler-Möllering: Tillich's encounter with expressive dance . In: Paul Tillich, Works, Vol. 13: Impressions and reflections. A picture of life in essays, speeches and statements . Stuttgart 1972, pp. 559-562.
2. ^ Frank-Manuel Peter : Leonie Dotzler-Möllering (1899-1984). , last accessed on October 31, 2018.
3. ↑ Quoted from: Frank-Manuel Peter: Leonie Dotzler-Möllering (1899–1984). Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed November 4, 2017.