“Running with the Hounds”: The Nazi Pygmalion

The 1941 Berlin-based Prussian State Theater production of Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion sheds light on the popularity of Shaw in Third Reich Germany, the playwright’s conflicted politics, and the complex and often-contradictory forces at work in National Socialist cultural policy. Providing background on Pygmalion’s long-standing popularity among German audiences, this essay’s analysis of the lavish 1941 production draws on contemporary press coverage as well as on the director’s hand-annotated script in order to examine Shaw’s complicated relationship with the Third Reich.