Otto Devrient

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Otto Devrient

Otto Eduard Devrient (born October 3, 1838 in Berlin , † June 23, 1894 in Stettin ) was a German actor and playwright .

Life

Devrient was a son of the actor Philipp Eduard Devrient . At the age of 18 Devrient made his debut at the Court Theater in Karlsruhe . Several engagements followed at the stages in Stuttgart , Berlin and Leipzig .

In 1863 Devrient returned to his first place of work, where he was a member of the ensemble until 1873. In that year he was committed to the court theater in Weimar as a character actor ; later he worked there as a director .

In 1876 Devrient caused a sensation in Weimar with his staging of the entire Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and was able to repeat this performance annually for many years. Devrient called his Faust a “mystery in two days' work” and published it the following year under the title Goethe's Faust .

The upper director of the 1876 Court Theater Mannheim appointed Devrient in 1877 became the director of the new Frankfurt city theater called, but found himself in February 1879 led to lay down the place again, and lived on after he also in Berlin , Cologne and Dusseldorf his fist brought to the stage had in Jena .

In addition to his work as an actor and director, Devrient collected the letters of the actors August Wilhelm Iffland and Friedrich Ludwig Schröder to Friedrich Werdy and published them with a comment.

In the autumn of 1883, on the 400th birthday of Martin Luther, the world premiere of Devrient's Luther Festival took place in Jena . Historical character image in seven departments (2nd edition, Leipzig 1884), for the annual repetition of which a society was formed. He was made an honorary doctorate by the University of Jena and on November 9, 1883, an honorary citizen of Jena . In 1884 he took over the management of the court theater in Oldenburg .

During a stay in Stettin, where he wanted to study his play Gustav Adolf , Otto Devrient died of a stroke on June 23, 1894 at the age of 55 .

In 1927 a street in Jena-West was named after him.

family

Otto Devrient was married and had several children including:

  • Hans (1868–1928), Germanist and theater scholar, temporarily editor of the Archive for Theater History
  • Ernst (1873–1948), historian and genealogist

Works

  • Two kings. Historical drama in 5 acts. Hasper, Karlsruhe 1867.
  • Two Shakespeare lectures. Held in favor of the Baden Women's Association. Braun, Karlsruhe 1869.
  • Emperor Rothbart. A fantastic folk drama in 2 acts. Braun, Karlsruhe 1871.
  • Tiberius Gracchus . Historical tragedy in 5 acts. Braun, Karlsruhe 1871.
  • For the moving-in ceremony of the newly weds Her Royal Highnesses the Hereditary Grand Duke Karl August and the Hereditary Grand Duchess Pauline von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach . What we offer. Festival on September 8, 1873 in one act. Kühn, Weimar 1873.
  • Goethe's Faust. For the performance as a mystery in two days' work. Set up for the performance as a mystery in two days. Braun, Karlsruhe 1877.
  • as editor: letters from AW Iffland and FL Schröder to the actor Werdy. Rommel, Frankfurt am Main 1881 ( digitized version )
  • as editor: Games of joy at the court of Duke Ernst the Pious of Saxe-Gotha and Altenburg . Fischer, Jena 1882.
  • Luther. Historical character image in seven sections. A festival for the four hundredth anniversary of Luther's birthday, presented by residents of Jena. Mauke, Jena 1883.
  • Gustav Adolf . Historical character image in five acts . First performance on June 25, 1891 in Jena.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Kilian (1906), p. 111
  2. ^ A friend, Elisabeth Werner from Breslau, wrote to Clara Schumann on July 18, 1894 : "H. Devrient took the blow quite unexpectedly. He had been suffering from a heart attack for a long time and the exciting activity probably didn't do him any good. ”See Clara Schumann's correspondence with correspondents in Berlin 1856 to 1896 , ed. by Klaus Martin Kopitz , Eva Katharina Klein and Thomas Synofzik (= Schumann-Briefedition , Series II, Volume 18), Cologne 2015, p. 746

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Devrient, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Devrient, Otto Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and playwright
DATE OF BIRTH October 3, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH June 23, 1894
Place of death Szczecin