Matthias Weißert

Matthias Weißert (born November 20, 1932 in Berlin ) is a German playwright and writer .

Life

Matthias Weißert was born in 1932 as the son of Ernst and Elisabeth Weißert, b. Caspari , born in Berlin. The family came to southern Germany in 1943 because of the bombing war and had lived in Stuttgart since 1946. In his book “We were 13” he vividly described growing up in a family with 13 siblings. He attended the Uhlandshöhe Waldorf School , where his father, Ernst Weißert , was a teacher. There he graduated from high school in 1952 and studied German and history in Tübingen and Kiel. He has been married to Ursula Elisabet Stephani since 1956. They have four children and 14 grandchildren.

He inherited theatrical talent from his father and literary and dramaturgical talent from his mother.

Already during his school and student days he devoted himself to acting and took on his first directing duties. Since 1958 he was in school service and also worked at the game leader seminar in Kiel. For several years he staged at the student stage in Kiel, where he acquired the basics of solid directing in collaboration with actors from the Kiel Theater .

At the Friedrich-Schiller-Gymnasium Preetz (1960–1970) at the comprehensive schools Kierspe (1970–1988) and Fröndenberg (1988–1995) he built up permanent theater working groups. Here new theater pieces were created that were played out of improvisation without a fixed text. In most cases, fairy tales or literary models were reworked.

Services

After his retirement, Matthias Weißert only got the chance to get his pieces ready for printing. Many of them have been re-enacted by other amateur and school theater groups. Only now does he have the time to write radio plays, books for children and young people and his book about memories of his youth.

Works

Radio plays

• Lancelot the Second (Radio Bremen, 2000)
• Peter, the master thief (SRF1, 2002)
• Wrong Santa Claus (SRF1, 2005)
• d'Nina and her granddaughter (edited by Sylvia Jost, SRF1, 2005)
• Elephant Happy B. (edited by Peter Fischli, SRF1, 2012)

Books for children and young readers

• Knight Lancelot the Second and the Speaking Sword, Munich 2004
• Actor life, Halle 2004
• The fairy tale of the elephant looking for an elk, Münster 2013
• The stolen clay, Berlin 2015

Autobiographical

• Matthias Weißert: We were 13th. Muschel Verlag, Cologne 2012

Plays (a selection)

• The secret of the star (musical)
• Noah (musical)

at the Deutsches Theaterverlag:

• The maids' strike (after Gudrun Pausewang)
• Omar, my servant (based on a Swedish fairy tale)
• The ban coin (based on a Beskid fairy tale)
• The young Englishman (after Wilhelm Hauff)
• Puss in Boots (after Perrault)
• The water of life (according to Grimm)
• The Bremen Town Musicians (after Grimm)
• Jolli and the Angel (Christmas Game)

at the theater exchange:

• The Canterville Ghost (after Oscar Wilde)
• Reineke Fuchs (based on medieval sources)
• Woe to the one who zaps
• The master thief (based on a Norwegian fairy tale)
• Princess Arrogance (after Grimm)
• The sorcerer (after Ludwig Hollberg)
• Bolivar Parafuso (after Charles Dickens)
• Caliph Storch (after Wilhelm Hauff)
• An altar for Fröndenberg (based on medieval sources)

Individual evidence

The information available comes from a conversation with Mr Weißert on January 10, 2016

Web links

• Matthias Weißert : I founded theater groups at all of my schools