Theater Studies Institute

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The Theater Studies Institute was founded in Berlin on November 10, 1923 and was the first of its kind in the world.

history

founding

The establishment of the institute goes back to the Germanist Max Herrmann , who in 1900 gave the first theater studies lectures within the Germanic Institute at Berlin University . Herrmann advocated the emancipation of theater studies from German studies .

With the establishment of the “Society of Friends and Sponsors of the Theater Studies Institute at the University of Berlin” by Bruno Satori-Neumann in 1920, to which Max Reinhardt and Gerhart Hauptmann belong, the discussion about the establishment of the institute was pushed forward. The Theater Studies Institute was opened in 1923, with Max Herrmann and Julius Petersen as alternating directors. From 1925 it was an independent university institute.

time of the nationalsocialism

As early as 1933, theater studies were subordinated to Nazi ideology. As a Jew, Max Herrmann was banned from working and was murdered in Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 . In 1944, Herrmann's former assistant, Hans Knudsen, was appointed Associate Professor of Theater Studies, while at the same time taking over the management of the Theater Studies Institute.

1945 to 2006

West Berlin

After the end of the Second World War , the tradition of the Theater Studies Institute at the Free University (FU Berlin) was continued. "In 1947", writes the East Berlin theater scholar Ernst Schumacher with a critical undertone, "Knudsen went to West Berlin with the library holdings and was appointed oridius of the theater studies institute of the newly founded Free University in 1948". Henning Rischbieter , founder of the monthly theater magazine Theater heute , held a professorship from 1977 to 1995 . In 1996 Erika Fischer-Lichte became director of the institute.

East Berlin

After a break of fifteen years, the Humboldt University (HU Berlin) resumed the old tradition in 1960 and opened the Institute for Theater Studies in East Berlin with Leopold Magon as director . (An application to rename the Max Hermann Institute was rejected.) After Magon's retirement, Rudolf Münz followed in 1962 and Ernst Schumacher as directors of the institute in 1966 .

In 1969 the institute was founded as part of the III. GDR university reform renamed in the area of ​​theater studies . After Schumacher's retirement and Münz's appointment as rector of the Leipzig Theater School, Joachim Fiebach took over the division management in 1987 .

In 1990 theater studies were restructured as an institute within the cultural and artistic studies department. 1994 Wolfgang Mühl-Benninghaus executive director of the seminar s for Theater Studies / Cultural Communication . In 1996, after a C3 professorship was cut, a professorship for theater theory and history (Joachim Fiebach) and one for theory and history of film (Wolfgang Mühl-Benninghaus) remained at the seminar. Students criticized the “persistent isolationist tendencies” of the seminar, in which many speech manuscripts only have antiquarian value.

As part of the austerity measures in 1998, the continuation of which was exotic subjects at the Humboldt University questioned and merging with the same services at the Free University recommended. Since the 2001/2002 winter semester, it has no longer been possible to matriculate at the HU for the master’s degree in theater studies. The course was finally discontinued at the end of the 2006 summer semester.

today

The Institute for Theater Studies at the Free University of Berlin is headed today by Hermann Kappelhoff. Today it includes the seminars for theater and dance studies, for film studies and for musicology.

Professorial members of the institute are:

  • Gabriele Brandstetter (dance studies)
  • Erika Fischer-Lichte (no longer actively teaching)
  • Hermann Kappelhoff (film studies)
  • Gertrud Koch (film studies)
  • Doris Kolesch (theater studies)
  • Jan Lazardzig (theater studies)
  • Annette-Jael Lehmann-Kolesch (theater studies)
  • Jürgen Maehder (musicology)
  • Thomas Morsch (film studies)
  • Albrecht Riethmüller (musicology)
  • Matthias Warstat (theater studies)
  • Gert-Matthias Wegner (Comparative Musicology)

In addition, the following third-party funded projects are located at the Institute for Theater Studies:

  • The Aestetics of Applied Theater (ERC project)
  • Collaborative Research Center 1171 "Affective Societies"
  • Collaborative Research Center 980 “Epistems in Motion. Knowledge transfer from the old world to the early modern era "
  • Collaborative Research Center 626: Aesthetic experience under the sign of the dissolution of boundaries between the arts
  • Int. Research College "Interweaving of Theater Cultures" - International Research Center "Interweaving Performance Cultures"
  • Cluster of Excellence “Languages ​​of Emotion”
  • International Research Training Group "InterArt" - International Research Training Group "Interart Studies"

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ralph-Günther Patocka:  Satori-Neumann, Bruno Thomas. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 443 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ Ernst Schumacher: The broken monopoly of the stage . A contribution to the debate on theater studies at the Humboldt University. In: Berliner Zeitung , June 28, 2000.
  3. ↑ Ute Bergien, Miriam M. Beul: Braising in your own juice . A contribution from former students to the debate about theater studies. In: Berliner Zeitung , July 10, 2000.