Reinhardt, Max b. September 9, 1873; Baden,Austria d. October 31, 1943; New York City
Austrian stage director who emigrated to the United States in 1934; perhaps the most influential theatrical figure in Germany before Bertolt Brecht. Born Maximilian Goldmann, he grew up in a modest Jewish family.
After a debut as an actor in Vienna and Salzburg, Reinhardt became the director of the famous Deutsche Theater (German Theater) in Berlin, from 1905 until 1933. Through his productive career, Reinhardt managed or owned some thirty theater companies.
Reinhardt did not write plays, although he wrote scripts for the few films he directed. With one exception, he directed only silent movies: Sumurun (1910), Das Mirakel, (The Miracle, 1912), Die Insel der Seligen (The Island of the Blessed, 1913), Eine Venezianische Nacht (A Night in Venice, 1913). His Deutsche Theater in Berlin was like an acting school for the most important actors, directors, and set designers in Germany, from Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau to Arthur von Gerlach, from Emil Jannings to Paul Wegener and Werner Krauss.
Although Reinhardt was never an expressionist director, he influenced and inspired some expressionist directors, on stage and in their films, from the late 1910s. In 1917 he opened a new avant- garde theater for young authors: Das junge Deutschland (The young Germany) in Berlin. Among the plays created onstage by Reinhardt were Georg Kaiser’s Die Koralle (The Coral), and Walter Hasenclever’s Der Sohn (The Son).
In 1920 he co founded the Salzburg Festival with Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. There he presented shows in unusual places: the medieval play Everyman was staged on the steps of the Salzburg Cathedral, a concept that he used again in California (in the California Festival). Reinhardt went to the United States for the first time in 1924 with a pantomime, The Miracle, which was a success on tour.
With the Nazi seizure of power, Reinhardt was forced to leave Germany and returned to Austria, along with Otto Preminger.
The many theaters Reinhardt owned in Germany were expropriated by the Nazis. Back in Vienna, Reinhardt worked for a short while at the Josefstadt Theater. But in 1934 he emigrated to the United States with his wife Helene Thimig and two sons. Among many projects, he created a gigantic stage version of A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Hollywood Bowl. He also codirected, with William Dieterle, a feature film titled A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935), from the famous Shakespeare play that he had so often brought to stage since 1905. Some other film projects were prepared but never materialized.Yves Laberge
See also Brecht, Bertolt; Dieterle, William; Jannings, Emil; Korngold, Erich Wolfgang; Murnau, Friedrich Wilhelm; Preminger, Otto Ludwig
References and Further Reading
Eisner, Lotte H., TEcran demoniaque. Les Influences de Max Reinhardt et de l’Expressionnisme. Paris: Eric Losfeld, 1981.
The German-Hollywood Connection. At http://www.germanhollywood.com/abc_in dex2.html (accessed May 11, 2005).
Max Reinhardt: The Man and His Work. The State University of New York at Binghamton. University Library. At http://library.lib.binghamton.edu/special/re inhardtwork.html (May 11, 2005).
Richard, Lionel, ed. Encyclopedie de l,expressionnisme. Paris: Somogy, 1978.