Wilhelm Reinking

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Wilhelm Reinking (born October 18, 1896 in Aachen , † July 2, 1985 in Berlin ) was a German set designer , theater director and writer .

Live and act

At the time his son was born, Reinking's father had a doctorate in chemistry at the State College for the Textile Industry in Aachen, but moved four years later to the Badische Anilin & Sodafabrik in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen am Rhein through a professional change . Wilhelm Reinking grew up in Mannheim, initially studying architecture in Karlsruhe and Gdansk and then theater studies and art history in Munich. Through Artur Kutscher he came into contact with the director of the Bayerische Landesbühne in Munich, Heinrich Karl Strohm , who had him produce stage designs and costume sketches for a production on a trial basis in 1924. This resulted in the first commission for The Taming of the Shrew .

Heinrich K. Strohm was hired as the artistic director of the Stadttheater Würzburg in 1925, where he brought Reinking into his first position as technical director and stage designer. Here Reinking formed a close working group with the director Arthur Maria Rabenalt , who moved to Würzburg in 1926, and the choreographer Claire Eckstein , which only broke up as a result of the political events of 1933. In 1927 the three moved to the Hessian State Theater in Darmstadt under Carl Ebert . Reinking and Eckstein got married that year. In Darmstadt, Rabenalt, Reinking and Eckstein created exemplary modern performances which were widely recognized by the prominent critics of the Weimar Republic (such as Herbert Ihering or Alfred Kerr ), but which the National Socialist press declared to be “salon Bolshevik asphalt culture”. During this time, Reinking designed a lot of equipment for other theaters, finally moved to Berlin, but remained connected to Darmstadt through a guest contract. In 1932 he worked for the Salzburg Festival for the first time. After Ebert, director of the Städtische Oper in Berlin since 1932, and his successor in Darmstadt, Gustav Hartung , emigrated from Germany, Reinking von Hartung's successor was dismissed in 1933.

Between 1934 and 1937 Reinking worked for the MGM dubbing department as a dubbing director. So he was u. a. Director of the German version of Meuterei auf der Bounty (1936). According to his own information, he worked as a dubbing director for 14 feature films.

Reinking later worked in Hamburg for the opera and the Thalia Theater as well as for the Vienna State Opera. After the war he worked a. a. with Herbert von Karajan , Gustaf Gründgens , Boleslaw Barlog , Oscar Fritz Schuh , Günther Rennert , Gustav Rudolf Sellner , Rudolf Noelte and Hans Lietzau . From 1954 to 1973 he was chief designer at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.

Wilhelm Reinking mastered the most diverse styles between expressionism and naturalism with ease. He created around 450 sets for opera, drama and ballet and also worked as a librettist, translator, essayist and typographer. His archive, comprising more than ten thousand documents, has been in the Schiller National Museum in Marbach since 1977.

Publications (selection)

  • Hans Freund, Wilhelm Reinking: Musical theater in Hamburg. Attempt on the dramaturgy of the opera . Christians, Hamburg 1938.
  • Wilhelm Reinking: Opera in Pictures. A cross-section of German opera since 1945. Hesse, Berlin 1961.
  • Wilhelm Reinking: Directory of my work 1924–1964. Laokoon-Verlag, Munich 1964.
  • Wilhelm Reinking: Play and Form. Workshop report by a set designer on the change in shape of the scene in the twenties and thirties. Hans Christians Verlag, Hamburg 1979, ISBN 3-7672-0628-5 .
  • Wilhelm Reinking: The six theater projects by the architect Joseph Futtenbach 1591–1667. Tende, Frankfurt am Main 1984.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Reinking, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German stage designer, theater director and writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 1985
Place of death Berlin