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German Theatre Almanacs and
Yearbooks of the 19th Century as Sources for Documenting
Theatrical Activities of Touring Performers
Paul S. Ulrich (Berlin)
Documentation et Art de
l'Acteur
Records and Images of the Art of the Performer
18ème Congrès
International, Stockholm 3-7 septembre 1990 / 18th
International Congress, Stockholm 3-7 September 1990
Editor: Barbro Stribolt (Drottningholms Teatermuseum).
Stockholm : 1992, p. 63-68
The German theatre has
traditionally been characterized by a tremendous mobility
of performers. This is partially a result of a
decentralized political and theatre landscape. At the end
of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century the
numerous courts competed with each other not only
politically but also culturally.
These courts with their intrinsically theatrical
structures were hungry for continuous sources of
entertainment as a means of escaping an otherwise boring
existence. One diversion was the theatre. The members of
the court themselves participated in amateur
performances, the quality of which was generally poor. A
qualitative improvement could be achieved by bringing in
guests to augment the local amateur casts or by arranging
for performances by touring professional troups. These
troups were either decendants of the companies which had
been organized in Germany following the visits by the
English and Italian troups in the 17th century and now
travelled about performing for both the courts and for
the populace or visiting troups from other European
countries.
On occasion these companies would be invited to establish
themselves permanently in the towns. This provided them
with a guaranteed public and a greater degree of
stability and respectability. To augment their
attractiveness, performers from other theatres and
companies (both national and international) would be
invited to give guest performances. Should the performer
find favor, he would be invited to join the company. The
continuous turnover was utilized by the theatres to gain
greater status in the cultural landscape and by the
actors to improve their artistic as well as financial
status. Furthermore, the artists could easily move from
one theatre to another whenever they fell into disfavor
or when conditions became unfavorable.
If we consider the political and social developments at
the middle of the 19th century, numerous events occurred
which had long-reaching consequences for the theatre.
Political unrest in Germany in the 1840's lead to a
massive exodus, particularly to America; the discovery of
gold in California with the lure of quick wealth enticed
even more to leave Germany. Large numbers of
German-speaking emigrants congregated in cities and with
them they brought a desire for the culture they had left
behind. German-language theatres were established here.
These theatres needed performers. Although many actors
also emigrated to America, the number was not sufficient
to satisfy the need for performers, neither was there
enough local talent. By inviting well-known performers
from Germany to give guest performances, the productions
could be performed which the directors wanted, a drawing
card was provided to increase the box-office profits and
the homesickness of the German-speaking populace for the
cultural life they had let behind was satisfied.
In the first three decades of the 19th century the number
of permanent theatres in Germany increased gradually: by
1836 there existed over 50 permanent theatres (in
addition to a considerable number of touring ensembles).
The trend to establish permanent theatres became more
prevalent as a growing, financially secure, middle-class
emerged which was willing and able to support culture and
in particular theatres. Thereafter the number of theatres
increased rapidly, so that in the course of the 19th
century over 900 cities at some time had facilities where
German-language performances were held. These cities were
located not only within the geographical confines of
Germany, they were found throughout the world: from
Moscow to San Francisco, from Stockholm to Trieste.
German-language theatres were active in present-day
Poland, Russia, Rumania, Czechoslowakia, Hungary,
Yugoslawia, Sweden, Italy, USA, England, Holland, France,
etc. Wherever large concentrations of German-speaking
people were located, theatres with productions in German
were founded.
Whereas in the 18th century the mobility of the
performers was essentially within the structure of
travelling troups, the mobility in the 19th century
became increasingly that of individual performers moving
among permanent theatres; these theatres had ensembles
which changed their members with varying degrees of
frequency. With the presence of so many theatres, the
number of individual guest performances increased such
that they became an established part of the theatrical
practice. Almost every theatre would invite guests in the
course of a season. These performances were a way actors
could find new engagements as well as supplementing their
income. For the theatre it was a way of testing whether
an actor fit into an ensemble and whether he was
acceptable for the local audience. Some performers would
give a few performances prior to signing a permanent
contract at a theatre. Others would spend almost the
entire season on the road. Conversely, the presence of so
many theatres with German-language companies scattered
about Europe and America made it easy for actors to
escape situations in Germany which made a further
development of their career difficult.
The development of modern transportation connections
between the cities within Europe made travel easier, a
greater flexibility in movement was now possible; this
certainly was also a factor in the increased mobility of
the performers. The extensive number of theatres in
Germany located relatively close to each other made it
possible to keep travel between the individual
performances at a minimum.
All this produced a market which could only be satisfied
by the specialized services of the theatre agent, a
profession which was fully developed in the 1830's.
Initially the agent was generally a prompter at one of
the major theatres (usually in Vienna and Berlin, where
the largest number of theatres were found and thus where
also the largest number of performers were found). For
the performance of this job he needed and cultivated
contacts not only to other theatres (he knew who was
engaged where and who was seeking a new contract), but
also to playwrights. This knowledge was commercialized:
he charged actors for getting them engagements
(interestingly enough the theatres were not charged tor
this service). Similar services were also provided for
the playwright.
The number of theatres and the number of actors seeking
engagements put agents (who had extensive contacts with
the theatres and contracts with a large number of
performers) in a position where they could make demands
without suffering any major consequences for often
whimsical behavior. The interests of the agents
(financial and otherwise) played a major role in the
theatrical activity in the German theatre. They could
make or break the career of a performer; they could
seriously hamper the activities and repertoire of a
theater by encouraging actors to break a contract without
giving notice or by refusing to let plays be performed.
Influential agencies grew so powerful that within the
course of the 19th century several agencies controlled
virtually all the practical aspects of the contemporary
theatre.
Agents received fees not only for finding an engagement
for an actor; these fees continued throughout the
engagement of the actor at the theatre. Additional fees
were charged for each guest performance the actor gave.
This additional source of income was encouraged by the
agents: the number of guest performances increased
rapidly; in some cases actors were on the road more than
they were at the theatre where they had a permanent
engagement.
Conversely, performers in other countries seeking to
augment their incomes or to "prove themselves"
in Europe, made contacts with the agents to arrange and
manage European tours. The large numbers of theatres in
Germany made possible an extended tour with appearances
in many cities; such tours were lucrative both
financially and professionally.
Although they played such a crucial role, the importance
of the agents remains almost undocumented. Without a
doubt their activities were decisive in who was engaged,
where and what plays would be performed. To combat their
power and to protect themselves against some of the
distasteful practises of the theatres, the actors
established a union in 1871 to defend their rights.
The problem for documenting all these performances is
locating where actors appeared and when. Appearances of
famous personalities at the major cities and theatres are
often documented in biographies or in local theatre
histories; the movement of lesser known performers and
the activities in other cities and theatres are generally
neglected. There is, however, a source of information
which can help in locating and identifying these guest
performances.
At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th
century a publication form emerged which enjoyed great
popularity: the almanac. In a small format informative
literary material was published for the edification of a
growing bourgeois public. These publications appeared
annually and contained material aimed at specific social
classes or interest groups. Particularly for the theatre
we find an abundance of German-language almanacs.
There are basically two types of almanacs associated with
the theatre. Initially the distinctions between them were
not clearly defined, but in the early years of the 19th
century the differences became quite clear, since they
had totally different goals and audiences.
What eventually became known as the dramatic pocketbook
was closely related to the almanacs with
"literary" character; they contained dramatic
pieces for reading and also for amateur performance. They
were aimed at a large bourgeois audience mainly
interested in reading for edification. The titles were
often flowery in nature; their content reflected a
non-critical audience primarily interested in light
entertainment. They were not specifically interested in
providing anything more than at most gossip about the
theatre; little detailed information about the
contemporary theatre practice itself was included.
Generally speaking, the dramatic pocketbook ceased to
exist after the 1840's; their function was incorporated
in the program of the magazines, which became extremely
popular and appeared on a more frequent basis.
The second, for us far more important, type of
publication was what we today would call a yearbook.
These works focused on documenting in some form or other
the past season of one or more theatres. The literary
sections were replaced with dramaturgical articles,
journalistic reports on theatres and theatrical matters,
obituaries and biographical articles; the sections with
information on the companies themselves (listings of the
members of the companies, listings of plays performed,
listings of guest performers who appeared at the theatre,
biographical information on the movement of company
mergbers) and chronologies of the preceeding year became
more prevalent, often taking up more than 2/3 of the
space. lllustrations of productions and pictures of
performers were frequently included.
Unfortunately, relatively little study has been done on
this form of publication. This is surprising, since these
works contain much important documentary material on the
German-language theatre. In contrast to other, better
documented areas (for example, the literary and the
genealogical almanacs), there were probably more almanacs
published for the theatre than in any other area. The
exact number of titles which were published is not known.
There exists to my knowledge no comprehensive
bibliography of these works. Theatre bibliographies as a
rule do not include such literature.
The bibliographies of theatre almanacs which do exist are
limited in scope: either they are comprehensive for a
geographical area (for example, Hungary) or they only
list titles found in a selected number of libraries;
nevertheless, even these inadequate sources give some
indication of how many almanacs probably exist: adding
together all the titles in these bibliographies as well
as doing a limited search in the German serials database,
one quickly discovers over 200 different titles, with in
some instances over 100 volumes for each title!
It should be noted here that there are major problems in
identifying almanacs or almanac-like works, whereby the
problems referred to here involve almanacs with a local
character: the almanacs which were intended for a large,
geographically diverse audience are relatively easy to
identify.
The titles themselves do not always indicate that an
almanac is involved. The most frequent terms appearing in
the titles are: Almanach, Jahrbuch (yearbook), Kalender,
Tagebuch (diary), Taschenbuch (pocketbook), Repertorium,
Handbuch, Statistischer Rückblick (statistical
retrospective), Album and Journal. Works containing such
terms in the title are relatively easy to identify when
they are encountered. Other publications are more
difficult to identify since their titles are often
innocuous or misleading. Since many of the works were
published by a member of the company (director, prompter,
etc.), it is not unusual that libraries or other
collections have catalogued them as books and not as
serials. Furthermore, in the 19th century libraries as a
rule did not initially purchase almanacs for their
collections; only relatively late in the century did
extensive collecting by libraries begin.
By definition an almanac is a work which is conceived to
appear on an annual basis. Many of the works, however,
were only published once and then stopped publication. As
such they do not appear in the national serials
bibliographies. They are also generally not included in
the normal theatre bibliographies.
Most important for locating theatres where guest
performances were held are the almanacs of universal
nature which tried to cover all the German-language
theatres. Many of these works had runs of over 50
volumes; consequently they provide extensive information
about the activity of a large number of theatres.
Not all the theatres are to be found in the almanacs,
however; there are breaks in the coverage of some of the
theatres. Garden theatres and establishments without
permanent theatre facilities (for example restaurants)
were generally excluded. It must also be assumed that the
touring theatre companies were not totally represented.
The editors were dependent on material being sent to them
by the theatres, and not all of the theatres consistently
sent this material on time to be included in each volume.
Appendixes with late submissions were utilized to make
the coverage as full as possible. Little editing was done
to the material sent. Frequently the manuscripts were
incomplete or illegible. The number of mistakes is great.
Typographical errors are found everywhere.
The amount of material available in the almanacs and the
lack of extensive indexes creates problems in locating
guest performers. The almanacs generally had indexes of
the permanent members of the companies, they did not,
however, index anything else. This means that it is
necessary to comb all the almanacs page by page to find
out whether the person one is looking for appeared at the
different theatres.
The problems don't stop here, however. There are all
sorts of inconsistencies in the spellings of names.
Generally only the family names are used. It is thus not
always easy to identify persons with certainty.
An additional problem is the use of pseudonyms. The
number of actors who broke their contracts was not small;
in fact, it was a regular practice for performers to
break their contracts. In order to help combat this
practice, many of the theatres banded together in 1846 in
an association (Deutscher Bühnenverein) which sought to
protect the interests of the theatres: member theatres
agreed to bar performers who had broken contracts at one
of the theatres from appearing at other theatres who
belonged to this association. This ban could be
circumvented, however, by either accepting engagements at
theatres not belonging to the association, by touring
theatres abroad (particularly in America), or by using
pseudonyms. The extent to which these pseudonyms became
public is difficult to assess.
Among the numerous universal almanacs, there are three
which appeared for an extended length of time
(particularly for the period 1836 to 1894) and thus are
particularly important in locating where guest
performances took place:
Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst (1836 -
1894, from 1861 with the title Deutscher
Buhnen-Almanach),
Ferdinand Röders Theater-Kalender (1858 - 1979),
Almanach der Genossenschaft Deutscher
Bähnenangehöriger (1873 - 1889, from 1889 to 1915
with the title Neuer Theateralmanach, and since
1915 with the title Deutsches Buhnenjahrbuch).
The three works cover much of the same period, but their
goals were to a certain extent different. Differences in
sources of information and layout provide complimentary
and often auxiliary information. For a comprehensive
examination of the period all three need to be consulted.
The Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst was
begun by Ludwig Wolff, the prompter of the Royal Theatre
in Berlin, who established what eventually became the
most powerful agency for the German theatre. His almanac
was both a handbook of the German theatre and a public
relations publication for his agency. From the initial 52
theatres covered, the almanac grew to include 490 in its
final edition. The entire staffs of all German-language
theatres from the owners, actors, directors, dancers, and
scene designers to the theatre doctors and cleaning women
are listed. Furthermore there are lists of those who left
the theatre (when known with the theatre to which they
went) and of those who gave guest performances
(frequently with roles). Unfortunately the almanac does
not have an index of the guest performances.
Especially after 1860 the almanac includes additional
information which is a help in documenting the guest
performances: lists of newpapers which cover the theatre;
also included here are the names of the persons on the
newspaper who did the reporting. Furthermore there is an
annual chronology of the German theatre which includes
references to many guest performances.
Similar in content is the Almanach der Genossenschaft
Deutscher Buhnenangehöriger. This is an almanac of
the professional theatre union, which was founded in 1871
and which as the Deutscher Bühnenjahrbuch
continues to exist to the present. Initially its main
purpose was to document where the union members were
employed and to provide a practical handbook for the
daily theatre practice (among them, recommending hotels
in the various cities with theatres and listing the local
papers covering the activities of the theatre). Several
sections, however, are relevant for locating guest
performances. The chronology of the preceeding year
includes information on important guest performances,
often with cast listings and commentary on the
performances. The list of union members who gave guest
performances provides additional material of interest.
Like the Almanach für Freunde der Schauspielkunst,
Ferdinand Röders Theater-Kalender was a
publication of a theatre agency. The Kalender
consisted primarily of five listings, each with various
indexes. Among these is a list of the performers who gave
guest performances with their domicile and an
alphabetical list of the stages where they performed with
their roles, furthermore there was an alphabetical list
of the stages with the names of the performers who gave
guest performances there. On the basis of these listings
it is possible to locate where performers appeared.
Once theatres have been located where performers
appeared, the next step is identifying and locating local
theatre almanacs and yearbooks for more precise data. It
is at this point that the lack of a comprehensive
bibliography of almanacs and yearbooks becomes
disturbingly evident. There is no way at the moment of
saying for certain whether or not an almanac was
published for the theatre in question, or conversely
whether information on a specific theatre is available in
an almanac.
In view of the considerable information which almanacs
and yearbooks provide, it is imperative that a major
effort be made to document the existence and the location
of such material, not only for the German-language
theatre, but also the international theatre. The few
attempts which have been made up to now for the 18th and
19th century are a start, but are far from satisfactory.
18th Congress
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