Thomas Blubacher

Thomas Blubacher (born November 30, 1967 in Basel ) is a German - Swiss author and director .

Life

Thomas Blubacher studied theater studies, modern German literature and psychology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich as a scholarship holder of the German National Academic Foundation . In 1997 he received his doctorate from the University of Bern .

Until 2001 he worked there as a research assistant and lecturer as well as editor-in-chief of the Theater Lexikon der Schweiz . He also taught as a visiting lecturer at the University of Vienna and at California State University, Long Beach .

At the same time, Blubacher worked in theater practice. After internships - including at the Theater Basel and at the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel - as well as assistant directors in Basel, Berlin and Freiburg, with Hanne Hiob at the Münchner Kammerspiele and with Wolfram Krempel at the Stadttheater Bern , Blubacher has directed productions at various theaters in Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 1990 and the USA. He also directed radio plays, worked as a speaker for radio plays, radio features, audio books and commercials and took on numerous dubbing roles.

Since 2002 he has worked as a freelance writer and director.

From 2002 to 2003 and 2007 he received further training at the Actors Studio West in Los Angeles and at the Actors Studio New York , among others with Mark Rydell and Lyle Kessler (writers / directors unit) as well as with Ellen Burstyn , Martin Landau , Estelle Parsons , Lee Grant and Barbara Bain .

He wrote articles for the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland , the New German Biography , the Theater Lexicon of Switzerland and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Stage Directors and Directing , was for daily and weekly newspapers such as Süddeutsche Zeitung , Die Zeit , Aufbau , Basler Zeitung , Der Bund , Neue Zürcher Zeitung , Kölnische Rundschau , Badische Zeitung , Tages-Anzeiger , St. Galler Tagblatt , active for the Jewish weekly magazine Tachles as well as for literary and cultural magazines such as omende , Exil and Sinn und Form . In 1995 he published a book about the Stadttheater Basel in the years 1933–1945 with the title Liberation from Reality? , followed by biographies of the directors and theater directors Gustaf Gründgens and Oskar Wältgens as well as numerous book contributions on various topics such as the production conditions of the radio feature in Switzerland, the history of the Biel-Solothurn and Bern theaters, the fate of Jewish art collectors and the exile in the Pacific Palisades.

Blubacher, who the Swiss daily called a “specialist for endangered livelihoods, biographical breaks and crashes”, met with positive international feedback, especially with his 2008 double biography of the siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn , as well as his Gustaf Gründgens biography published in 2013 and with his 2015 biography of Ruth Landshoff-Yorck .

Blubacher is also the author of travel reports, a. a. for the journals Crucero , Reisekurier and Kreuzfahrt-Kurier , for the yearbook Koehler's Guide Kreuzfahrt and for the Piper book series Instructions for Use . Its operating instructions for cruises received the ITB Book Award in 2017 .

In 2019/2020 he wrote 24 radio plays for children for the series Dinotastic Adventures.

He presented his books a. a. in Berlin in the Berliner Ensemble (with Hermann Beil ), in the Jewish Museum (with Günter Struve ), in the Literaturhaus and in the Renaissance Theater (with Brigitte Grothum ) as well as in the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, in the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg (with Charles Brauer and Matthias Wegner ), in the Literaturhaus Munich (with Senta Berger and Rachel Salamander ), in the Jewish Museum Vienna (with Michael Heltau ) and in the Schauspielhaus Zurich. He was a guest in various television formats such as MDR at 4 , Zeit im Bild and Kulturzeit as well as in numerous radio broadcasts in Germany and Switzerland and read on cruise ships such as the Allure of the Seas , the Rhein Melodie , the World Explorer , the Berlin , the AIDAvita and the Europa 2 .

Theater direction (selection)

• at various theaters in Basel (including 1993 the Swiss premiere of Michael Heuers Trakl with Markus Amrein, 1997 the Swiss premiere of Simon Moore / Stephen Kings Misery with Kristina Nel and Bernd Seebacher , 1999 Ariel Dorfman 's Death and the Maiden, 2002 Dale Wasserman / Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest with Yves Vaucher, Romeo Meyer and William Cohn )
• at the Stadttheater Bremerhaven (2004 Herbert Achternbusch's The Boot and His Socks )
• at the Schlosstheater Celle (including 2003 Aaron Sorkins A Question of Honor , 2005 Franz Werfels Jacobowsky and the Colonel with Alexander Grill and Wolfgang Gellert, 2006 Martin Walser's Die Zimmerschlacht with Monika Häckermann and Hartmut Fischer, 2007 Stephen Sinclairs / Anthony McCartens Ladies Night , 2007 die World premiere of Rolf Schneider's Fire on Bare Skin with Daniel Brockhaus , 2008 Jordi Galceran's The Grönholm Method , 2009 Abby Mann's The Judgment of Nuremberg with Bert Franzke , 2010 Thomas Vinterberg's Das Fest with Heinz Trixner , 2011 Aki Kaurismäki's The Man Without a Past with Christiane Lemm , 2011 Eugène Labiches The Piggy Bank )
• at the theater at Dornach train station
• at the Feuchtwangen Cloister Games (2002 Jaroslav Hašeks / Robert Gillner's The Story of the Good Soldier Schwejk with Gerhard Fehn and Rudolf Knor , 2005 Max Frisch's Don Juan or The Love of Geometry with Frank Ehrhardt, Christiane Lemm and Christian Pätzold )
• at the Deutsches Theater in Göttingen (2008 Carl Merz / Helmut Qualtinger's Der Herr Karl with Johannes Granzer)
• at the Ingolstadt Theater (2000 Helmut Krausser's Lederfresse with Martin Butzke and Fatma Genc)
• at the Edison Theater Long Beach (2003 the American premiere of Helmut Krausser's Leatherface )
• for CalRep Los Angeles
• at the theater of the state capital Magdeburg (2001 Sarah Kanes bombed )
• at various stages in Munich (including 1990 Rudolf Herfurtner's Geheime Freunde with Miriam Smolka and Silja Lésny , 1992 Jean-Paul Sartre's The Respectful Whore with Beate Wanke and Werner Schulenberg, 1993 Carlo Goldonis Mirandolina with Burkhard Gaffron , Thomas Haydn )
• at the Nordhausen Theater
• at Theater Die Tonne Reutlingen (2007 Marie Brassards Jimmy, dream creature )
• at the Thuringian State Theater Rudolstadt (2009 Carlo Collodi / Max Eipps Pinocchio with Aischa-Lina Löbbert )
• at the Tiroler Volksschauspiele Telfs (2009 Ferdinand Raimund's Der Alpenkönig und der Misfeind with Markus Völlenklee and Guntram Brattia , 2010 Carlo Gozzi's König Hirsch with Markus Völlenklee, Barbara Bauer, Alexander Maria Virgolini , 2017 Anders Lustgartens Lampedusa with Lieko Schulze and Max Urlacher )
• at the State Theater Tübingen
• at Theater Scala Wien (1997 Jürg Amanns Oh, these paths are very dark with Alexander Löffler and Simon Hatzl )
• at the Nibelungen Festival Worms (2019 the world premiere of Max Urlacher's Tailwind )
• at the Schauspielhaus Zürich (2003 Swiss premiere of Marie Brassard's Jimmy, dream creature with Romeo Meyer )
• at the Zurich Festival (1998 Hugo von Hofmannsthal's Jedermann with Bernd Seebacher , Sabine Ehrlich, Martha Marbo ).

Broadcasting work (selection)

• 1996 Director of Thomas Lehner's four-part fantasy radio play The King's Son from the Black Forest , Südwestfunk (with Gunda Aurich, Siemen Rühaak , Peter Lieck and Heinz Siebeneicher )
• 1998 Direction for Christoph Keller's radio play Herbstblätter , SR DRS (with Renate Schroeter , Charles Brauer , Ann Höling )
• 1999 Author and director of the feature Because who can stand the mighty pressure? , on the 100th birthday of Gustaf Gründgens , co-production ORF , MDR , SR DRS (with Katharina Thalbach , Tilo Nest , André Jung , Alexander Tschernek , David Toop )
• 2002 Writer and Director of the Feature Is there anything better than longing? about the siblings Eleonora von Mendelssohn and Francesco von Mendelssohn, SR DRS (with Charles Brauer , Martin Butzke , Desirée Meiser, Patrick Elias )
• 2005 Author and director of the feature The invisible costume: Naked on the stage , SR DRS (with Therese Affolter , Rolf Boysen , Bruno Cathomas , August Diehl , Herbert Fritsch , Romeo Meyer , Barbara Nüsse , Lilo Wanders and others)

Activity as a speaker

Blubacher has acted as a speaker in numerous radio plays, including Poll in Klaus Hoggenmüller's Hinter Milano (SWF 1993), as Rohner in Lorenz Lotmar's The Sacrifice (SWF 1993) and as Manfred in the audio CD series Die Kaminski-Kids (2006) , spoke radio features, audio books and around 200 commercials (cinema, TV, radio) and took on around 100 dubbing roles, including

• Richard in Law & Order
• Lo Betrayed in Rage
• George in Terminal Angels
• Graham in Body Chemistry II
• Stan (Paul Cira) in Melrose Place
• Johnny (Alberto Gimignani) in Friends and Rivals (Impiegati)
• Gustave Monchanin in Catherine Courage
• André in Little Sarah (Un été à l'envers)
• Raffaello in Zeffirelli's Sparrow (Storia di una Capinera)
• various roles in the cartoon series Cobi , Die kleine Zwurze , Speed ​​Racer and Christoph Columbus
• Various roles in the series Top Secret - from the poison cabinets of the FBI (FBI - The Untold Stories) , Berlin Break , An American Dream (Homefront) , Winspector , Back to the Past (Quantum Leap) , Reich und Schön (The Bold and the Beautiful)

Awards and honorary positions

Among other things, Thomas Blubacher received a scholarship from the German National Academic Foundation , received an Erasmus scholarship for lecturers and was Writer-in-Residence in 2002 at Villa Aurora in Pacific Palisades, California. Its operating instructions for cruises won the ITB Book Award 2017 .

From 2000 to 2007 he was President of the Basel Theater Association , from 2001 to 2015 board member of the Swiss Society for Theater Culture , since 2007 he has been a member of the jury for awarding the Friedl Wald Foundation's drama grants, and from 2010 to 2016 he was a member of the jury for the award the feature price of the Radio Basel Foundation , 2013 to 2015 member of the Board of Trustees of the Swiss Theater Collection Foundation .

Publications (selection)

• “Liberation from reality?” The play at the Stadttheater Basel 1933–1945. Edition Theaterkultur, Basel 1995, ISBN 3-908145-27-9 .
• "A solid castle of native and German culture". National Socialist theater policy in the first years of the “Third Reich”. In: Allmende , 56/57, 1998, ISBN 3-86142-101-1 , pp. 222-237.
• Gustaf Gründgens. Edition Colloquium, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-89166-984-4 .
• The three-country corner stage. In: Yearbook Lörrach 1999. Verlag Waldemar Lutz, Lörrach 1999, ISBN 3-922107-47-8 .
• “Where do we go from here?” The siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn. In: Exil, 2/2002.
• "Imagine having a being that you love." The siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn. In: Mendelssohn Studies. Contributions to recent German cultural and economic history. Volume 13. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11161-3 .
• “ Turn worry into joy and sorrow into oblivion!” In: Simone Gojan & Elke Krafka (eds.): Theater Biel Solothurn - Théâtre Bienne Soleure. History and stories of the smallest city theater in Switzerland. Chronos, Zurich 2004, ISBN 3-0340-0697-7 .
• The radio feature in German-speaking Switzerland. In: Udo Zindel & Wolfgang Rein (eds.): The radio feature. A workshop book. UVK, Konstanz 2007, ISBN 978-3-89669-499-7 .
• Is there anything better than longing? The siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn. Henschel, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89487-623-4 ; Insel Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-458-35813-8 .
• Collaboration with Melissa Müller & Monika Tatzkow: Lost Pictures, Lost Lives. Jewish collectors and what became of their works of art. Sandmann, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-938045-30-5 . Lost Lives, Lost Art: Jewish Collectors, Nazi Art Theft, and the Quest for Justice. The Vendome Press, New York 2010, ISBN 978-0-86565-263-7 ; Frontline Books, Barnsley 2010, ISBN 978-1-84832-577-7 . Oeuvres volées, destins brisés. L'histoire des collections juives pillées par les nazis . Beaux-arts éditions, Issy-les-Moulineaux 2013, ISBN 979-10-204-0008-6 .
• “Holbeinstrasse, that is the Europe I love.” Eighteen biographical miniatures from Basel in the 20th century. Schwabe, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-7965-2703-6 .
• Oskar Wolderlin and his theater of humanity. Henschel, Leipzig 2011, ISBN 978-3-89487-662-3 .
• Gustaf Gründgens. Ellert & Richter, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-8319-0431-0 .
• Paradise in difficult times. Artists and thinkers in exile in the Pacific Palisades. Sandmann, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-938045-57-2 .
• Gustaf Gründgens. Biography. Henschel, Leipzig 2013, ISBN 978-3-89487-702-6 .
• Free and inspired. Places of longing for poets, thinkers, artists and dropouts. Ascona, Attersee, Capri, Bali, St. Moritz, Hiddensee. Sandmann, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-938045-80-0 .
• Francesco von Mendelssohn - the glamorous boy of Berlin. In: Joachim H. Knoll , Anna-Dorothea Ludewig & Julius H. Schoeps (eds.): Der Dandy. A cultural-historical phenomenon in the 19th and early 20th centuries. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2013, ISBN 978-3-11-030552-4 .
• How it used to be. Nice and worth knowing from grandmother's time. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-458-35972-2 .
• ABC of stage language. 333 Terms You Should Know. Henschel, Leipzig 2014, ISBN 978-3-89487-769-9 .
• "Drive the non-Aryan and semi-ararian lambs safely across a meadow [...] whose grass we didn't want to taste". Gustaf Gründgens and the Jews. In: Aschkenas , Volume 24, Issue 2, De Gruyter, Berlin / Munich / Boston 2014, ISSN  1016-4987 , e- ISSN  1865-9438 .
• "Don't bring everyday life to me on stage!" Gustaf Gründgens as director of the Deutsches Schauspielhaus. In: Flandziu, Jg. 6, Heft 2, Shoebox House, Hamburg 2014, ISSN  1614-7170 , ISBN 978-3-941120-18-1 .
• The many lives of Ruth Landshoff-Yorck. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-458-17643-5 .
• Instructions for use for Bali. Piper, Munich 2015, ISBN 978-3-492-27665-8 .
• Instructions for use for cruises. Piper, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-492-27681-8 .
• "Alien and alien elements". Emigrants at the Stadttheater Bern 1933–1945. In: Heidy Greco-Kaufmann (Ed.): Stadtnarren, Festspiele, basement theaters. Insights into Bern's theater history from the Middle Ages to the present. Chronos Verlag, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-0340-1374-1 .
• In the footsteps of an avant-garde. In: Jan Bürger : In the shadowy realm of the roaring twenties. Photographs by Karl Vollmoeller from the estate of Ruth Landshoff-Yorck. German Schiller Society, Marbach 2018, ISBN 978-3-944469-29-4 .
• “I don't complain, I scold”. Ruth Hellberg. A century of theater. Wallstein Verlag, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3254-6 .
• Instructions for use for Ticino. Piper, Munich 2019, ISBN 978-3-492-27723-5 .
• "The shock was huge." Carson McCullers writes Ruth Landshoff-Yorck about Annemarie Schwarzenbach. In: Sinn und Form , Heft 5/2019, pp. 585-590, ISBN 978-3-943297-49-2 .
• The house on the Waldsängerpfad. How Fritz Wisten's family survived the Nazi era in Berlin . Berenberg Verlag, Berlin 2020, ISBN 978-3-946334-79-8 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Thomas Blubacher in the catalog of the German National Library
• Short biography and reviews of works by Thomas Blubacher at perlentaucher.de
• One-hour interview in the program "Music for a Guest" (SRF2 Kultur, 2019): https://www.srf.ch/play/radio/popupaudioplayer?id=1faa0229-8af6-4b40-8019-7e857952735a

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.theaterwissenschaft.unibe.ch/content/forschung/dissertationen/index_ger.html
2. ↑ http://www.theaterwissenschaft.unibe.ch/forschung/projekte/laufende_projekte/theaterlexikon_der_schweiz/mitarbeiterinnen_und_mitarbeiter_des_theaterlexikon/index_ger.html
3. ↑ http://www.jmberlin.de/main/EN/02-Events/Events_2011/2011_10_17_blubacher.php
4. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O84LGcS-8BY
5. ↑ http://www.tageswoche.ch/de/2012_21/kultur/424922
6. ↑ The Best New Books . Star from October 25, 2008
7. ↑ Jacques Schuster: Double biography: Life is (not) a carnival. In: welt.de . August 23, 2008. Retrieved October 7, 2018 . 
8. ↑ http://forward.com/the-assimilator/160912/those-scandalous-mendelssohn-siblings/
9. ↑ http://www.qwien.at/?p=1762
10. ↑ http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/das-glamouroeseste-geschwisterpaar-der-weimarer- Republik.950.de.html?dram:article_id= 136660
11. ↑ http://www.schwaebische.de/home_artikel,-_arid,2569480.html
12. ↑ - ( Memento from January 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Online marker
14. ^ Haaretz , April 26, 2013
15. ↑ Gustaf Gründgens: Mephisto biografieportaal.nl, February 28, 2013
16. ↑ http://www.jc-klassisk.dk/art.aspx?id=80
17. ↑ Theater as a sacred space . Die Welt , February 16, 2013
18. ↑ Learn to live shortly before the end . Courier , March 10, 2013
19. ↑ DPA-Starline: Literature: Thomas Blubacher on the "Myth of Gründgens". In: Focus Online . February 19, 2013, accessed October 14, 2018 . 
20. ↑ http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/ein-erstaunlich-unsicherheiter-zutiefst-einsamer-mensch.1396.de.html?dram:article_id=237039
21. ↑ http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/boheme-der-20er-jahre-ihre-buehne-war-berlin.1270.de.html?dram:article_id=327498
22. ↑ https://www.freitag.de/autoren/der-freitag/eine-echte-dandy
23. ↑ http://das-blaettchen.de/2015/11/wessen-weg-kreuzte-sie-nicht-34447.html
24. ↑ http://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/bezirke/bayerisches-viertel/ruth-landshoff-yorck-das-leben-als-kunstwerk/12289376.html
25. ↑ http://www.neues-deutschland.de/artikel/991820.atemlos- Zwischen-berlin-und-new- york.html
26. ↑ http://www.opernnetz.de/Alt/seiten/buch/Buch_Landshoff-Yorck_Zerban_150928.html
27. ↑ http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/biografie-sie-ENNe-alle-1.2798097?reduced=true
28. ↑ http://www.tachles.ch/magazine/1027/artikel/poetin-garconne-und-glitzergirl
29. ↑ https://www.piper.de/buecher/ablebnis-reiseberichte/gebrauchsanweisung
30. ↑ http://www.itb-berlin.de/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/News_37250.html?referrer=/de/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/
31. ^ Europa-Park GmbH & Co Mack KG: CD radio play Madame Freudenreich ,, Dinotastic Adventures '' - Europa-Park online shop. Retrieved May 2, 2020 . 
32. ↑ http://www.hugendubel.de/de/category/80089/die_kreuzfahrt.html
33. ↑ http://www.schiffsjournal.de/autor-thomas-blubacher-liest-auf-nicko-cruises-flussschiff-aus-gebrauchsanweisung-fuer-kreuzfahrten/
34. ↑ http://www.taz.de/1/archiv/print-archiv/printressorts/digi-artikel/?ressort=ku&dig=2004/04/15/a0356&cHash=6e6bf073ab
35. ↑ - ( Memento from January 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
36. ↑ - ( Memento from January 17, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
37. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/07/entertainment/et-stage7/2
38. ↑ http://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/archiv/73536_Das-Maengelwesen-Mensch-in-Tirol.html
39. ↑ http://www.hoerdat.in-berlin.de/select.php?S=0&col1=ti&a=Der+K%F6nigssohn+vom+Schwarzwald
40. ↑ http://www.hoerdat.in-berlin.de/select.php?S=0&col1=au.av&a=Christoph&bool1=and&col2=au.an&b=Keller
41. ↑ http://www.deutschlandradio.de/archiv/dlr/sendung/hoerspiel_dlr/170661/index.html
42. ↑ http://www.deutschlandradiokultur.de/das-unsichtbare-kostuem-nackt-auf-der-buehne.958.de.html?dram:article_id=147323
43. ↑ ARD audio game database. In: hoerspiele.dra.de. Retrieved July 31, 2016 . 
44. ↑ ARD audio game database. In: hoerspiele.dra.de. Retrieved July 31, 2016 . 
45. ↑ http://old.synchronkartei.de/stimmen_af.html
46. ↑ http://www.villa-aurora.org/de/stipendiaten-details/grant/319-thomas-blubacher.html
47. ^ Basler Zeitung , February 17, 2001
48. ↑ https://www.srgd.ch/media/filer_public/83/f7/83f77726-74a0-4378-978d-4be52adbf74c/jury_featurepreis_15.pdf
49. ↑ http://www.moneyhouse.ch/u/stiftung_schweizerische_theatersammlung_CH-035.7.016.078-5.htm?eid=3485899