Munich Marionette Theater

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The Munich Marionette Theater

The Münchner Marionettentheater is a privately run puppet theater in Munich . It is considered the oldest, non-mobile puppet theater in German-speaking countries. The theater has been directed by the puppeteer Siegfried Böhmke since 2000 .

history

At the end of the 18th century , the puppet theater developed as an integral part of annual fairs , which was used to entertain adults and children. These puppet theaters were mobile, so they moved from place to place with the showmen. The main themes of the performances were legends, fairy tales and well-known operas such as Die Zauberflöte or theatrical subjects such as " Faust ".

Joseph Schmid around 1900

In the middle of the 19th century , Josef Leonhard Schmid (1822–1912), later lovingly called "Papa Schmid", had the idea of ​​using the puppet theater for educational purposes. In a letter dated September 10, 1858 , Papa Schmid submitted his plan to the “ High School Commission ” of the royal capital and residence of Munich for the “ establishment of a permanent puppet theater ”. His idea: a puppet theater for children, in which adults are also welcome. The repertoire should only contain plays that children should “ not just entertain ” but also educate them in “ morality and religiosity ”. His goal was to prevent children and young people from wandering senselessly at annual fairs, which Papa Schmid was very critical of. He wanted to “get children and young people off the streets”. Therefore intended Papa Schmid that " the mission of all the coming from me for the performance pieces [...] remain quite removed from those only the rawness of youth conveyed Hanswurstiaden as we u sufficiently dahier on Dulten. the like in the Polcinell stalls surrounded by children have the opportunity and the trouble. "

At the same time Papa Schmid was able to win a congenial colleague for his idea in Franz Graf von Pocci . On November 18, 1858, Papa Schmid received his license to play. The Munich Marionette Theater was opened on December 5, 1858 with the romantic spectacle “ Prince Rosenroth and Princess Lilienweiss or the enchanted Lily ”. After a hesitant initial phase, success came. Before it finally found its permanent home on Blumenstraße, the puppet theater often moved: “From Prannerstraße to Odeon, from there to Arcostraße, into the valley to the 'Goldenen Stern', then to the Glasgarten, to Müllerstraße, then to the Klenzegarten and on the Maffeianger in Marsstrasse. "

Papa Schmid led the puppet theater until his death in 1912 , then his daughter Babette Klinger-Schmid took over the management. She ensured its continued existence in the spirit of the father, so that the well-known and popular doll figures, for example the Punch and Judy Larifari, remained the main characters. Even if the audience's expectations had changed after the First World War, Klinger-Schmid continued to stage plays by Franz von Pocci, her father, and of his own pen. Despite artistic success, the puppet theater got into financial distress over the years. Still, no dolls were sold.

After Klinger-Schmid's death in 1930, her colleague Karl Winkler ran the theater business alone, but was fired by the city in 1933. The new director was Hilmar Binter, who ran the theater until 1951. After his death, his widow ran the house until 1957. Franz Leonhard Schadt , who had already been artistic director of the Munich Marionette Theater from 1951 to 1954, became its director in 1957 and ran it for 43 years. His wife Elga Blumhoff-Schadt († 1990) rewrote well-known fairy tales for the puppet theater and built in the Punch and Judy Larifari - as a friend of the children - to whom Schadt gave his incomparably Munich-sounding voice and Bavarian humor. In the summer of 2000, after being named by the cultural department of the state capital Munich , the former long-time employee and now freelance puppeteer, builder and spokesman Siegfried Böhmke took over the management of the theater.

Theater building

Marionette theater around 1890
The theater around 1910, archived in the Ida-Seele archive

In the area of ​​the former city fortifications near Sendlinger Tor , today Blumenstrasse, Papa Schmid had his own puppet theater (Blumenstrasse 32) built according to plans by Theodor Fischer , which opened on November 4th, 1900. The outside classicistic column-gable muse temple for children is not only an architectural curiosity, but also the world's first permanent theater for puppet theater. Inside, the stage and auditorium are based on baroque models.

Conception

In contrast to other puppet stages that primarily stage productions for adults, such as B. the Bamberg Marionette Theater , the Munich Marionette Theater wants to offer performances for children. It has a high standard of content and staging that comes close to that of an ordinary theater stage, but this is also necessary if the adults are to be reached through the children. This is not just an educational idea: children cannot make the decision to go to the puppet theater on their own, as adults have the final decision on the one hand and are usually the only ones who can buy a theater ticket on the other.

So both adults and children had to be addressed equally. The children should be reached through the emotion and the protagonist, Punch and Judy Larifari, the interests of the adults through the intellect. Pocci's plays therefore made enough allusions to court life, turned parodying against the professional civil service and interwoven many a daily news that could create air in laughter. Franz von Pocci achieved that children and adults alike felt addressed and included in the Munich Marionette Theater.

Kasperl Larifari as an educational figure

Pocci created the figure of Kasperl Larifari for the Munich Marionette Theater . Papa Schmid and Franz von Pocci wanted to develop a character who was supposed to play for children, but was not a mean, filthy and obscene fairground rascal, but a civilized rascal with whom educational goals could be pursued. The intended connection of a rather clumsy Kasper, who becomes the target of ridicule, but still conveys something educationally valuable, was a novelty and previously unknown.

Poccis Kasperl Larifari has all the characteristics of his coarse predecessors, but presents all of this in a moderate-moderate tone. Like his predecessors, Kasperl Larifari can hardly hide his love for the elemental, but he lives everything in a very subdued manner: Kasperl Larifari likes to eat and constantly talks about food, but he doesn't eat; Kasperl Larifari likes to drink, but he's never drunk; he likes to sleep, but not as a form of mere laziness, but as a cultivated laziness in which he always remains personable and lovable.

Effects

Papa Schmid had great success with his puppet theater. Many foundings had his stage as a model and performed Pocci's pieces:

  • The St. Gallen Marionette Theater (founded by Hermann Scherrer in 1903), which is the first permanent marionette theater in Switzerland , was set up by Papa Schmid using an old, discarded marionette stage.
  • The Tölzer Marionetten in Bad Tölz , founded in 1905 by Georg Pacher.
  • Marionette theater of Munich artists , founded in 1906 by Paul Brann .
  • Ivo Puhonny's artist Marionette Theater in Baden-Baden , founded in 1911 by Ivo Puhonny .
  • Artist marionette theater (today the Salzburg Marionette Theater ) in Salzburg , founded in 1913 by Anton Aicher .

repertoire

In addition to the traditional play with marionettes, pieces with stick and hand puppets are also offered in the children's and adult programs.

In addition to classic fairy tales and contemporary plays for children and adults, classical opera productions such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's “Magic Flute” are also regularly performed.

Productions (selection)

Web links

Commons : Münchner Marionettentheater  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Schmid took over a puppet theater that Karl Wilhelm von Heideck had set up for his and the children of the court society ( Deutscher Hausschatz 1900, p. 222)
  2. ↑ Over the waters: bi-monthly publication for beautiful literature and its border areas , Volume 6, 1913, p. 150
  3. ↑ Adelheid Schmid-Thomé: Forgotten Munich women - 30 images of life . Ed .: Allitera Verlag. Allitera Verlag, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-86906-923-4 , p. 137-142 .
  4. ↑ Munich Marionette Theater - a tradition. Munich Marionette Theater. Retrieved January 14, 2018.


Coordinates: 48 ° 7 ′ 55.5 ″  N , 11 ° 34 ′ 12.7 ″  E