Jews and the Making of Modern German Theatre

3. How “Jewish” Was Theatre in Imperial Berlin?

3 9 Jews played significant roles in the theatres of imperial Berlin, but the extent to which their involvement was overtly “Jewish” varied considerably. Otto Brahm and Max Reinhardt, the two most important directors of literary and dramatic theatre, were Jewish, as was their core patronage, but few of their productions dealt with Jewish themes. Jewish characters were much more likelytobeseeninthe“lower”reachesofthethespianarts:incabarets,revues, dialect theatre, and film. This chapter attempts to account for these variations in Jews’ involvement across the spectrum of theatrical performance by assessing their perspective on German Bildung (a blend of culture, education, and self-development), their response to exclusion from important cultural realms, and their commitment to diversity in the arts and pluralism among the nation’s citizens.1 In 1878, while studying at the University of Berlin, Otto Brahm (b. Abrahamsohn , 1859–1912) attended a performance of Henrik Ibsen’s Pillars of Society that fired his imagination. In the ensuing decade, as he became a prominent critic, Brahm supported the emergence of realist and naturalist styles in the arts. He was particularly outspoken in favor of Ibsen. Though famous, the Norwegian playwright was also controversial, and few court theatres or commercial stages performed his works. Those that did sometimes insisted on tacking happy endings onto his plays: for example, the conclusion of A Doll’s House invariably was changed, so that Nora, rather than slamming the door as she departs, relents at the last minute and returns to her husband. Ghosts was banned outright by German censors, since its unflinching portrayal of marital hypocrisy and the effects of syphilis was considered too indecent for public performance. Faced with this situation, Otto Brahm founded the Freie Bühne (Free Stage) in 1889, to provide a forum “free of concern for censorship and profitmaking ” that would perform potentially controversial dramas by Ibsen and 3 How “Jewish” Was Theatre in Imperial Berlin? p et e r j e l av ic h p e t e r j e l av ic h 40 other modern playwrights.2 In order to circumvent German censorship, it was organized as a “closed” private association, which only dues-paying members could attend. The fees also helped finance productions that commercial theatres considered too risky or unprofitable. Predictably, the first performance, in September 1889, was of Ibsen’s Ghosts. But it was the second play, staged a month later, that caused a bona fide scandal. Vor Sonnenaufgang (Before Sunrise), written by the young and unknown Gerhart Hauptmann, was a paradigmatic naturalist work, replete with afflictions like poverty, incest , and alcoholism. The production made Hauptmann instantly famous, and in the ensuing years he (along with Ibsen) was the playwright Brahm promoted most. In February 1893 the Freie Bühne hosted the “closed” premiere of Hauptmann’s Die Weber (The Weavers), a hard-hitting and relentlessly depressing work about a revolt by starving Silesian workers in 1844. The Freie Bühne gained a central place in the history of modern German theatre Otto Brahm, Berlin (1902). (Bildnummer 10014909, copyright bpk/Wilhelm Fechner) h ow “j e w i s h ” wa s t h e at r e i n i m p e r i a l b e r l i n ? 41 because it spearheaded the breakthrough of naturalism onto the stage. Indeed , its very success was its undoing: though Brahm’s organization mounted nine performances during its first season (1889–1890), it sponsored productions only sporadically thereafter, as commercial theatres also began to stage naturalist and realist works. In 1894 Brahm himself took over such a venue, the Deutsches Theater. The fact that Brahm was Jewish could be considered unimportant if his whole network of support had not also been overwhelmingly Jewish. The membership lists of the Freie Bühne are replete with Jewish names.3 This patronage continued with Brahm’s commercial venture: a Berlin police report noted that since he did not possess enough capital to rent the Deutsches Theater Brahm received financial backing from twenty individuals, “among whom nineteen are Jews.”4 When the Deutsches Theater performed Hauptmann ’s Weavers publicly in 1894, a police observer who attended the opening night reported that “the considerable preponderance of visitors to the soldout house consisted of Jewish elements.”5 What was “Jewish” about naturalist theatre? Based on a cursory glance, the answer would seem to be: nothing. It hardly could be claimed that realism and...