Theater censorship

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Theater censorship is a form of censorship and an attempt to regulate theater .

history

The theater censorship arose together with the theater. Plato already reported, concerning the theater of ancient Greece , that pieces were subjected to an official examination before their first performance. The Lycurgus legislation provided for the punishment of actors who deviated from the classical text during the performance.

The Christian mystery plays took place under the supervision of the church. The surveillance of the emerging secular theater was often not initially carried out in the form of direct censorship, but by granting or withdrawing privileges . In France, for example, as early as 1477, the parliament made performances dependent on its approval.

It was only under Maria Theresa in 1751 that a separate censorship authority was set up with the task of keeping “nonsense and meanness” off the stage. An influential censor in this sense was Joseph von Sonnenfels . In Germany, the control of theaters was the responsibility of the police until the circular rescript of March 16, 1820 expressly introduced theater censorship. The German Revolution of 1848/49 led to its temporary abolition, but in 1851 it was reintroduced by the Berlin Theater Ordinance, which was soon being copied everywhere.

These ordinances, which did not apply to court theaters, required the theater entrepreneur to submit the text book for approval in good time. A violation of this submission requirement as well as deviations from the approved submission during the performance was punished with a fine or the withdrawal of the theater license. The procedure was justified with the defense of possible dangers and the maintenance of custom and order. For example, Kleist's Prince Friedrich von Homburg or the Battle of Fehrbellin could only be performed ten years after the poet's death, because the depicted desperation of a Prussian general was considered unmanly. At the Burgtheater was The Maid of Orleans only playable, was made as the mistress of the king to his legally wedded wife.

These ordinances remained in force until the Weimar Constitution came into effect. The National Socialist regime reintroduced theater censorship in 1934 with the Reich Theater Act. With the institution of the Reich Dramaturge , a censorship authority was created to which all fixtures had to be submitted for approval. In addition, the Reich Dramaturge had to decide on the “harmlessness” of plays.

According to Article 5, Paragraph 1, Clause 3, the Basic Law does not provide for censorship. This also applied to the constitution of the GDR , but Article 18 of the constitution of 1974, which provided for the promotion and protection of socialist national culture and the fight against imperialist culture, formed the handle for the - officially not mentioned by name - censorship in the GDR . The Ministry of Culture and its subordinate directorate for the stage repertoire examined all theater schedules. World premieres and GDR premieres generally required the approval of the Minister of Culture.

Indirect censorship

Even without express censorship, the state has various ways of influencing the theater. There is a legal difference between pre-censorship and post-censorship. For example, the Basic Law only prohibits prior censorship, i.e. the dependence on state approval, but not post-censorship or subsequent sanctions on the basis of Art. 5 (2). Independently of this, government agencies can use the financial dependence on theaters to exert influence through subsidies. In fact, censorship can also be exercised through the means of appointment, contract extension or dismissal of the artistic director .

literature

  • Roswitha Körner: theater censorship . In: Manfred Brauneck , Gérard Schneilin (ed.): Theater Lexikon 1. Terms and epochs, stages and ensembles. rowohlt's encyclopedia published by Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1986, 5th completely revised new edition August 2007, ISBN 978-3-499-55673-9 .
  • Reinhard Eisendle: The lonely censor. On the state control of the theater under Maria Theresia and Joseph II. Hollitzer Verlag, Vienna 2020, ISBN 978-3-99012-585-4 (Specula Spectacula 8).