Victor Barnowsky

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Victor Barnowsky, 1908.

Victor Barnowsky (born September 10, 1875 in Berlin , † August 9, 1952 in New York City ; born Isidor Abrahamowsky ; also spelled Barnowski ) was a German actor , theater director and important theater director . The Berlin theaters that he temporarily directed include the Kleine Theater Unter den Linden, the Lessing Theater , the German Art Theater , the Theater in Königgrätzer Straße (Hebbel Theater) , the Komödienhaus on Schiffbauerdamm and the grandstand .

Life

Barnowsky received his artistic training from Arthur Kraussneck . He made his debut in 1893 at the Berlin Residenztheater as a young character actor . There followed years of traveling in the provinces, then he returned to Berlin, where he often played the elegant bon vivant on stage .

In September 1905 he took over the management of the small theater Unter den Linden from Max Reinhardt . He brought pieces by Frank Wedekind , George Bernhard Shaw , Maxim Gorki ( Children of the Sun , Enemies ), Arthur Schnitzler ( Professor Bernhardi ), Gerhart Hauptmann ( Michael Kramer , with Albert Steinrück in the title role) and Lew Tolstoy ( And the light shines in the darkness , with Friedrich Kayßler ) for the performance.

In 1913 he succeeded Otto Brahm as director of the Lessing Theater . Here he made his debut with Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt with Kayßler in the title role. Other pieces played here were Shaw's Pygmalion , which he directed himself as well as the performances of Leonce and Lena , as well as Woyzeck , Simson von Wedekind, Liliom , Iphigenie auf Tauris and August Strindberg's Nach Damascus .

In 1915 Barnowsky also took over the management of the German Art Theater. His first performance on this stage was Egmont with Albert Bassermann . Then he changed the character of the stage by mainly realizing comedies with comedians like Max Adalbert and Curt Goetz .

In the Lessing Theater, on the other hand, he continued to offer ambitious dramas such as Georg Kaisers Hölle Weg Erde (1920) and his From morning to midnight (1921), Strindberg's Queen Christine (1922, with Elisabeth Bergner ) and his Rausch (1923, with Fritz Kortner ), Was ihr want and as you like it (1923, both with Bergner), as well as captain Michael Kramer (1923, with Eugen Klöpfer ).

In 1924 Barnowsky gave up the management of the two theaters and in 1925 took over the theater in Königgrätzer Strasse . Here he himself staged Don Juan and Faust von Grabbe (with Rudolf Forster , Kayßler and Kortner), Shaw's Back to Methuselah (with Tilla Durieux , Forster and Theodor Loos ) and Georg Kaiser's Twice Olivier (1926, with Alexander Moissi ). In 1930 the house was renamed “Theater in Stresemannstrasse”. Barnowsky temporarily controlled the Komödienhaus on Schiffbauerdamm, the grandstand and, from 1928, the “Young Actors Group”, so that his stages were collectively called “Barnowsky Theaters”.

In a commemorative publication on Barnowsky's 25th stage anniversary, the dramaturge and editor Julius Berstl emphasized in the spring of 1930 that Barnowsky, as a "private entrepreneur to whom material support was never available, had created a cultural work of lasting value and value through his own efforts".

The " seizure of power " by the National Socialists led to the abrupt end of his work. He emigrated in 1933 and finally came to the USA in 1937 via Austria and various European countries, where he taught dramaturgy and drama studies.

Self-image and game plan

Günther Rühle summed up that Barnowsky's talent grew with the goals he set himself: “He staged more than half of his schedules himself. He was proud to be the real Otto Brahm , felt himself and acted that way. He made sure that Ibsen was always present in his theater. ' Nora ', ' Master Builder Solneß ', ' When we dead awake '. [...] Barnowsky mixed his repertoire incomparably more broadly than Brahm. “With his instinct for literary piquancy, Barnowsky also liked to choose popular pieces or those that he could make popular, such as George Bernard Shaw's Pygmalion or Franz Molnar's Liliom . An overview of the most important productions under Barnowsky's direction at the Kleiner Theater (1905–1913), at the Lessingtheater (1913–1924) and at the Theater in Königgrätzer Straße (1925–1930) contains: Julius Berstl (ed.): 25 Years of Berlin Theater and Victor Barnowsky. Gustav Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1930, pp. 85-104.

literature

  • Julius Berstl (ed.): 25 years of Berlin theater and Victor Barnowsky. Gustav Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1930.
  • Margot Berthold:  Barnowsky, Viktor. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 596 ( digitized version ).
  • Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 1: A-K. German business publisher, Berlin 1930, DNB 453960286 .
  • Sándor Gulyás: The Small Theater in Berlin under the direction of Victor Barnowsky. With special consideration of his work as a director. Berlin 1961 (Berlin, Free University, phil. Dissertation, 1961).
  • Renate Richter: The German artist theater under Victor Barnowsky (1915-1924). An investigation taking into account contemporary criticism (= Theater and Drama. Vol. 33, ISSN  0172-8024 ). Colloquium-Verlag, Berlin 1970 (at the same time: Berlin, Free University, dissertation, 1969).
  • Kay Less : 'In life, more is taken from you than given ...'. Lexicon of filmmakers who emigrated from Germany and Austria between 1933 and 1945. A general overview. P. 82 f., ACABUS-Verlag, Hamburg 2011, ISBN 978-3-86282-049-8

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Date of death according to dtv Theaterlexikon. The Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein cites May 9, 1952 as the date of death.
  2. ↑ Not to be confused with the nearby theater on Schiffbauerdamm .
  3. ↑ Julius Berstl (ed.): 25 years Berliner Theater and Victor Barnowsky. Gustav Kiepenheuer, Berlin 1930, p. 5.
  4. ^ Günther Rühle: Theater in Germany. 1887-1945. Its events - its people . S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main ² 2007, pp. 205f.
personal data
SURNAME Barnowsky, Victor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abrahamowsky, Isidor (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor, theater director and theater director
DATE OF BIRTH September 10, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1952
Place of death New York City