Stanislaus Fuchs

Stanislaus Fuchs

Stanislaus K. Fuchs (* 13. November 1864 in Poznan , † 11. March 1942 in Essen ) was a German actor and director ..

career

Since his parents moved to Berlin in his early childhood , Fuchs received his education there . He attended the Askanische Gymnasium and wanted to devote himself to the marine engineering subject . As a year old volunteer with the foot artillery regiment “General-Feldzeugmeister” (Brandenburgisches) No. 3 in Brandenburg an der Havel , a foot injury suffered during his year of service forced him to choose another profession.

According to his own remarks, it was more chance than inclination that brought him to the theater . His love for the stage would only develop during his job. He made his acting debut in September 1887 as Baron Zinnow in “Havemanns Töchter” with a small but efficient management team . From his point of view it did not go well, but a talent was recognized and Fuchs was able to wipe out the notch a few weeks later. Successful engagements in Bromberg and Königsberg followed .

Fuchs was engaged at the Lobe Theater in Breslau in 1890 . This was at its heyday under Fritz Witte-Wild at that time. In addition to Müller-Hanno and other famous stars, he should play first roles . Even here he had developed a keen interest in directing and the art of staging . He went to Elberfeld as a director , first independently directed the summer theater in Bad Cudowa and later the "Landscape Theater on Helgoland". Georg Kurtscholz , director of the court theater , brought him to Gera as senior director in 1895 . In the thirteen years that followed, Fuchs was in charge of all the important productions on the stage in addition to the director.

He has received several medals over the years.

When the new theater in Lübeck opened on October 1, 1908, Fuchs came along from Gera as chief director and actor when the director became the theater's first director. In the following three years the Lübeck public gained a great overview of his art. He earned many laurels in his Molière representations .

The constant criticism, intrigues, all kinds of hiccups and the deficient theater attacked Kurtscholz's health to such an extent that he resigned after three years and died shortly afterwards.

The Lübeck theater authority, which watched over the weal and woe of the temple of the Muses, insisted that Fuchs was familiar with the conditions there and hired him as the theater manager of the new house until 1920. In those years, to his chagrin, the actor took a back seat, apart from a few guest appearances.

In mid-September 1911, Fuchs began his management tour with a massive performance of Henrik Ibsen's “ Crown Pretenders ”. As a pragmatist he wanted to avoid the mistakes of his predecessor and put on entertainment with classics, comedies , farces and steered clear of tragedies away. In his first year there were twelve novelties and five brand new operettas . He covered his audience with at least 21 operas . Among these are still today were repertoire forming Fidelio , Carmen , Aida , masked ball and La traviata . Since the orchestra did not have a summer break, the Verein der Musikfreunde had it play as its employer as a spa orchestra in Travemünde in the summer , and it was overloaded.

But still Fuchs made a deficit of 35,400 marks in his first season . The Senate bore this loss in the amount of 32,000 marks, but he had to pay the difference, which was about a tenth of Fuchs' annual income. In order to be able to compare this today, reference is made to the figures for the same period for the theater in Kiel . The Kiel-based company subsidized their theater with 180,000 marks this season.

Not only because the wages of the stage workers increased to 105 marks a month and their daily working hours had to be reduced to eleven hours, the financial remained more than the artistic the contentious point in Lübeck.

In order to be able to maintain operations, Fuchs presented an austerity program to which the theater authority "grudgingly" approved:

1. only a seven-month season from October to April.
2. The theater was closed on Mondays
3. the fees from 150 to 399 marks were reduced in a ratio of 40:60 and from 400 marks by half
4. A standard subscription of 50 pfennigs to 50 marks and the drama of 30 pfennigs to 2 marks were introduced for the opera
5. the deficit grant was limited to 6,000 marks
6. the director waived profits

The conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler left the Hanseatic city for Mannheim after only four years in 1915 .

Fuchs only made a profit once in Lübeck. When in 1916 he played the summer stage of the Lübeck Stadthallen Theater , which is now in the city , a surplus was generated, of which he was allowed to keep half.

In May 1917, the opera company gave eleven guest appearances at the front in France .

August Strindberg , Heinrich Mann , Frank Wedekind , Eduard Stucken , Ernst Hardt , Herbert Eulenberg , Anton Wildgans , the rarer Hauptmann works and others were played for the first time in Lübeck under Fuchs.

Under Fuchs, the classics were freed from their operatic disguise for the first time in the staging and converted to a comprehensive stylization. Among his directorial acts in Lübeck were “ Der Rosenkavalier ” (1911/12), “ Hamlet ” (1913/14), the comedy “ As You Like It ” (1916/17) and the world premiere of Heinrich Mann's “Madame Legros” (1916 / 17), in memory.

With their not unselfish petition to close the theater at 10 o'clock in the evening, the Lübeck innkeepers were not listened to, and received support from an unexpected source in the hard war winter of 1917/18. The police department wrote that they. in order to be able to meet the general savings targets for light and heating, would recently have to insist on a 10 o'clock end.

During the First World War, Fuchs adapted his game schedules to entertainment needs. The fact that these were subsequently publicly described by him as “poor” was displeasing. When the city called him accountable for his statements and denied him an annual income guarantee of 6,000 marks, Fuchs wanted to hand over responsibility.

For the gold buying week in May 1918, the profit went to the war campaign “ I gave gold for iron ”, Fuchs brought Max von Schillings , who conducted his successful opera Mona Lisa , to Lübeck.

At the beginning of the new season, Fuchs left the Hanseatic city on September 1, 1918 to, as it was said, to lead the city theater there as a pioneer of German art in Riga ( Baltic States ).

When August Bassermann resigned from his position as director at the court and national theater in Karlsruhe with the season ending in 1919, Fuchs was his successor in the theater, which was renamed "Badisches Landestheater" shortly afterwards.

From 1921 he became director of the city theater, which was once donated to the city of Essen by Friedrich Grillo , today known as the Grillo Theater .

Web links

Commons : Stanislaus Fuchs  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• 100 years city theater - connoisseurs of the scene. and in the Lübeck city newspaper. February 5, 2008.

literature

• Stanislaus Fuchs. In: From Lübeck's towers . Volume 21, No. 37, September 16, 1911, p. 295.
• Stanislaus Fuchs. On his departure from Lübeck. In: Father-city sheets . Year 1917/18, No. 27, September 1, 1918, pp. 105-107.
• Senior Pastor Alfred Haensel †. In: Lübeckische Blätter . 64th vol., Number 18, April 30, 1922, pp. 140-141.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Georg Kurtscholz was selected from over 70 applications for the position of director, who was still the director at the time.
2. ↑ The Verein für Musikfreunde , as sponsor of the concert orchestra made available to the opera, ensured that its conductor, Hermann Abendroth , also found employment in the opera. Because of his little opera experience, Kurtscholz resisted.
3. ↑ Up to the early 1920s, the directors were tenants at the same time and had to bear the risk of possible losses themselves.
4. ↑ The conductor of the Verein der Musikfreunde changed almost at the same time . Furtwängler received his first managerial position there.
5. ↑ Meinrad Schaab , Hansmartin Schwarzmaier (ed.) U. a .: Handbook of Baden-Württemberg History . Volume 4: Die Länder since 1918. Edited on behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg . Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-608-91468-4 , p. 65.