Peter Klaus Steinmann

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Peter Klaus Steinmann (born July 19, 1935 ; † October 31, 2004 in Berlin ) was a German puppeteer who had a significant influence on puppetry in Germany and gave new impetus to puppet theater.

Life

Peter Klaus Steinmann learned the basics of puppetry from 1950 to 1953 in courses with Friedrich Arndt , who also inspired him to found his first small puppet theater after graduating from school. After successfully completing his professional training as a bricklayer, Steinmann began studying at the master school for arts and crafts in Berlin with a focus on puppet theater and puppet making. From 1959 on, he devoted himself exclusively and professionally to puppetry. As early as 1961, he was awarded the Brothers Grimm Prize by the city of Berlin. In 1962 Peter Klaus Steinmann and Benita Richter married, and in this way he made the graphic designer his partner in puppetry.

Together with Benita Steinmann he founded in 1964 in Berlin , "the stage" - Literary Figure Theater Steinmann, which by the year 1984 his seat in the House of Urania had. For a long time, the stage was the only stationary puppet theater in the western part of the city. In evening events, the Steinmanns played literary pieces for adults with hand puppets and figures above the play bar. In doing so, Steinmann tried to counteract the cliché of puppet shows as amateurish amusement for children and to raise awareness of puppet theater as a "small form" with equal rights to personal theater with its own interpretation possibilities.

In the children's game, Steinmann did without the figure of Kaspers because he considered his role behavior to be too fixed. A lengthy, public controversy arose with his former teacher and director of the Hamburg Hohnsteiner Puppet Play , Friedrich Arndt, about his negative attitude towards the puppet figure . In Steinmann's plays, the acting puppets were not immediately recognizable as “good” or “bad”. The children were encouraged to think for themselves and to develop differentiated opinions on the behavior of the acting characters. In doing so, he increasingly included the open game in front of the stage, in which the players can be seen in addition to the figure. He was also looking for new forms, which - as in the play The Big Red Teapot - could lead to the complete abandonment of a conventional stage.

The Steinmanns performed with a mobile stage in schools and youth homes or were on tour with their travel stage. Steinmann worked as a theater director, puppeteer and puppeteer. He wrote plays and also directed - mostly in his own theater, often with colleagues he was friends with, but also in character and puppet films for television ( SDR ), such as B. in the play Der Gulp from 1974, for which Albrecht Roser created the figures.

Steinmann was a founding member of the Association of German Puppet Theaters in 1968 and was heavily involved in the association's work. There he initiated a. a. Community productions that he also directed. So z. B. in 1973 for the 6th week of the International Puppet Show in Braunschweig The visit of the old lady by Friedrich Dürrenmatt . Puppeteers from six stages took part in this production. Comprehensive knowledge, theoretical considerations and analytical skills, combined with his practical abilities and skills in relation to puppet theater, made him a sought-after, sometimes feared, interlocutor.

For many years Steinmann taught at the University of Education in Berlin , where he taught prospective teachers from 1968 to 1977 criteria and basics of puppet play. He also took care of the organization of festivals, took part in exhibitions on puppet theater and was, not least, the author of many books and specialist articles on puppet and puppetry. From 1968 to 1973, Steinmann was responsible for the association's magazine Puppenspiel-Information and from 1996 to 2004 for the editorial of the association's magazine, Puppen, Menschen, and Objects .

In 1996 Benita Steinmann died after a serious illness in a Berlin hospital. Two years later, Peter Klaus Steinmann gave up gaming. In 2004 he died in Berlin, also after a long illness.

His last book Die Theaterfigur auf der Hand , published shortly after Steinmann's death by Verlag Puppen und Masken , Frankfurt am Main in 2005, appears almost like a legacy . It passes on the extraordinary diversity of its knowledge and practical experience - for professionals as well as amateurs. In the foreword Kristiane Balsevicius writes : “… Reflecting, bundling, differentiating, philosophizing, analyzing, Steinmann postulates the flood of thoughts and experiences from countless perspectives. The book is pragmatic, anecdotal, and challenging. It arouses curiosity, contradiction, desire and discussion. With great openness and seriousness, Steinmann also communicates the work attitude of his passionately lived profession. "

Productions

  • Legend:
    • A = author, I = staging, R = direction, F = character design, K = costumes, B = stage design, SP = player and speaker, M = music, T / B = technology / lighting

For adults

  • 1959
    • Commedia dell'Jazz
    • Hands, puppets and music - a scene program (version 1)
    • Madame is mistaken - a humoresque with dolls
  • 1960
    • Orpheus - a dramatic attempt
  • 1962
    • Clear the stage, the puppets come
  • 1964
    • Faust - a puppet show
    • Murder - a criminal piece
  • 1965
  • 1966
  • 1967
  • 1968
    • How can you just play with dolls?
    • Atlantis by Dieter Waldmann
    • Ballad from the great macabre - A : Michel de Ghelderode , I and F : Steinmann, B : Karl Heinz Buller, SP : Benita Steinmann, Steinmann, Alexander Kretschmar, M : HOTorst, T / B : Till Willsdorf
  • 1969
    • Jaufie Rudel de Blaia based on The Princess of Tripoli - A : Alfred Döblin , I : Steinmann, F and B : Peter Hübel, SP : Benita Steinmann, Steinmann, Alexander Kretschmar, Klaus-Peter Zulla, M : HOTorst, T / B : Till Willsdorf
    • Thief and King - A : Rolf Schneider , I and F : Steinmann, SP : Benita Steinmann, Steinmann, Ulrich Staps, B : Alex Feinrich, T / B : Till Willsdorf
  • 1970 The Metamorphoses of Till Eulenspiegel - A : Steinmann, R : Friedrich Arndt , F : Peter Hübel, Alf Trenk, Siegurd Kuschnerus, Karl Heinz Buller, Rainer Hachfeld , SP : Benita Steinmann, Steinmann, Ulrich Staps, M : HOTorst, T / B : Klaus Zulla,
    • Romulus the Great - A : Friedrich Dürrenmatt, I : Ulrich Staps, F : Rita and Christoph Brändli, SP : Rita Brändli, Christoph Brändli, Ulrich Staps, B : Theodor Werner Schröder, T / B : Klaus Zulla
  • 1978
    • Hands, puppets and music - a scene program (version 3)
  • 1980
    • The fisherman and his wife - a fairy tale for adults by Steinmann
  • 1983
    • Theatrum Nostalgicum - (Two fairy tales, A : Steinmann / Max Jakob)

For children

  • 1957
    • The treasure
  • 1958
    • The cold
    • What now?
  • 1959
    • The ghost
    • Alois Schuh is looking for his brother
    • A fairy tale
  • 1960
    • The story of Eric
    • The broom ghost
  • 1961
    • Kalle intervenes
    • The robber ballad
  • 1962
    • The Japanese legend
    • The flower
  • 1963
    • In the land of the yellow spring
    • The prize puzzle
    • The Christmas owl
  • 1964
    • The treasure in the sea
    • The small muck
  • 1965
    • The Bremen Town Musicians
    • Ignatz the tiger
  • 1966
    • The wrong aunt (later title: Karlchen und der Kakadu )
    • Princess Pimpi after Gunhild Paehr
  • 1967
    • posy
    • The stone dragon
    • The magic flower
  • 1968
    • The raisin without cake
    • Little Thumbnail
  • 1970
    • The fisherman and his wife (fairy tale)
  • 1971
    • Grandma Sabella
    • One, two, three, there comes the police (performance for the International Children's and Youth Theater Festival Berlin in the Akademie der Künste . First attempt at open play in front of the stage and in the audience) A : Benita and Steinmann, SP : Benita and Steinmann, Alexander Kretschmar, Ulrich Staps
  • 1972
    • Ufo, Mingi and the spot by Benita Steinmann
    • The hickewaks
    • Birsel and Nursel
  • 1973
    • Yuck, Yuck (in open play)
  • 1975
    • The mighty Milan (in open style)
    • The big red teapot (in open play)
  • 1977
    • Grandpa Hickewak and the Monster (in open play)
  • 1979

Publications

author
  • Puppet Theater: Reflections on a Medium , Puppen & Masken, Frankfurt am Main 1983, out of print
  • Puppets for "the stage" , Puppen & Masken, Frankfurt am Main 1984, ISBN 978-3-922220-29-9
  • Sketches - in search of dolls , dolls & masks, Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 978-3-922220-32-9
  • Theater Puppets - A Handbook in Pictures , Puppets & Masks, Frankfurt am Main 1992, ISBN 978-3922220-61-9
  • The theater figure on the hand , puppets & masks, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-935011-55-6
  • The small form - scenes for puppet theater , puppets & masks, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 978-3-935011-09-9
  • Igitt-Igitt - A piece about prejudices , dolls & masks, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-935011-22-8
  • Article in: Handbuch der Spielpädagogik, Vol. 3, Vlg. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1984, (pp. 417–431)
  • Article in: Wolfgang Schneider / Dieter Brunner (eds.), Figurentheater - Das Theater für Kinder? Puppen & Masken, Frankfurt am Main 1993, ISBN 978-3-922220-64-0
Editing

literature

  • Christoph Lepschy: Puppets for the stage - 40 years of Steinmann's literary puppet theater, catalog for the exhibition in the Puppentheater-Museum Berlin and the Puppet Theater Museum of the Munich City Museum 1999/2000, ISBN 3-934609-02-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Steinmann, Peter Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Steinmann, Peter K .; Steinmann, P.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German puppeteer
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1935
DATE OF DEATH October 31, 2004
Place of death Berlin