Rolf Trexler
Rolf Trexler (born May 6, 1907 in Zwickau ; † June 15, 1985 in Rothenburg ob der Tauber ) was a German puppeteer who was more inclined to puppet cabaret for adults than to Punch and Judy theater. He described himself as a fun-maker . His contribution to puppet theater lay in the development of a style from Sergej Obraszow's work and the Javanese stick puppet technique .
Life
Rolf Trexler came to see the puppet show through Max Jacob , whom he met at the Wandervogel . From 1922 he drew stages and advertising posters for the Hartensteiner hand puppet shows and later the Hohnsteiner puppet theater . From 1926 to 1930 Trexler studied at the State Academy for Graphic Arts and Book Industry in Leipzig, graduating as an academic painter and graphic artist. He made music with Gert Fröbe in the streets of Zwickau. Jacob encouraged him to found the Erzgebirge Puppet Theater in Hartenstein in 1935 in order to relieve Jacobs Hohnsteiner stage.
As a driver during World War II, Trexler came across Sergei Obraszow's book The Actor and the Puppet in the Poltava City Library , in which he describes the union of the hand puppet with the gestures of the puppet . After the end of the war, Trexler developed new puppets, stages and stories from this world of ideas. The first piece in its own style was Das Goldene Herz in Wittmund, East Frisia, in March 1946. At the end of 1946, he moved to Lippstadt and renamed his Erzgebirge puppet shows into Romantic Puppet Shows . After 1949 Trexler worked again as a graphic artist until he became keeper of Freusburg Castle in Kirchen / Sieg in 1950.
In order to survive with the puppet theater , as he called it, Trexler also made industrial advertising with it from 1952, e.g. for the Dralon fiber from Bayer AG. Trexler was of the opinion that art and business are mutually beneficial. The summer theater in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the puppet theater at the White Tower was created from the short exhibition pieces in 1954 . From the work of Obraszow and with his own snap-mouth figures and the playing technique of the Javanese stick puppet mechanism , which is still unknown in the country , Trexler created a style that did justice to his sense of language. He immortalized Kurt Tucholsky and Karl Valentin on the puppet stage, which became a puppet cabaret .
In 1962 Trexler moved to Lindau on Lake Constance. His cabaret of puppets played in the alleys of Lindau , where Pablo Picasso thanked him in the guest book. At the world congress of the Union Internationale des Marionettes (UNIMA) in Munich, he finally met his role model Obraszow. After a stopover in Bad Wörishofen, he returned to Rothenburg in 1969. In a converted barn at the castle gate, he opened Rolf Trexler's puppet theater , which still exists today. In the meantime he almost only played puppet cabaret for an - increasingly international - adult audience. In 1983 Trexler sold the theater to Heinz Köhler.
Rolf Trexler is said to have been very idiosyncratic: “outside the norm”. With such a certificate, the mayor thwarted the award of the Federal Cross of Merit in 1982. Trexler died on June 15, 1985 at the age of 78 in Rothenburg.
literature
- Windisch, Nicole and Leukefeld, Timo : Rolf Trexler, Lustigmacher , Claus Verlag, Chemnitz 2006, ISBN 3-935842-10-4 .
Web links
- Literature by and about Rolf Trexler in the catalog of the German National Library
- Trexler research
- Press release as PDF
- 15min documentation and interview with Rolf Trexler
- Trexler and his grandson
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Trexler, Rolf |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German puppeteer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 6, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Zwickau-Schedewitz |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 15, 1985 |
| Place of death | Rothenburg ob der Tauber |