Berlin’s “First Responder” Artists, 1945–1946: Theatre and Politics from the Rubble

By the time Germany capitulated to the Red Army and the Allied Powers arrived in Berlin later that summer, the physical devastation and the administrative upheaval that accompanied the war had destroyed the city's infrastructure, eradicating all "familiar points of reference-of community,...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Theatre history studies 2016, Vol.35 (1), p.7-38
Main Author:	Rovit, Rebecca
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	1900-1999 1945-1946 20th century Berlin Collaboration Cultural policy Culture Directors Dramatists German drama German literature Germany History Jewish people morality Nazi era Political aspects Politics Reconstruction (1939-1951) Theater Theater history War World War II
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	By the time Germany capitulated to the Red Army and the Allied Powers arrived in Berlin later that summer, the physical devastation and the administrative upheaval that accompanied the war had destroyed the city's infrastructure, eradicating all "familiar points of reference-of community, of social and cultural networks" for disoriented Germans caught in the transition.2 The vi-brant reemergence of culture in the direct wake of war resulted from the way leading theatre directors and performers in Berlin coordinated their artistic endeavors even before Soviet and Anglo-American power put into policy the parameters for a new cultural life.3 Theatre historians have not adequately documented this "zero hour" (Stunde Null) for theatre practice, the moment so aptly described by historian Richard Bessel as when Germans, having experienced "destruction, defeat, disease, death and destitution on an unimaginable scale . . . went to hell and, in 1945, began to come back. Between June and December 1945 in Berlin alone, 121 theatre premieres took place outdoors, in half-ruined theatres, or in taverns, district halls, and school auditoriums.10 Long before it was clear what kind of society would emerge from the rubble of war in the "fifth zone" of Berlin, the newly installed Soviet Military Administration (SMAD) under General Nikolai Bersarin made it a priority to enlist intellectuals, theatre and opera directors, and performers to fill the cultural vacuum.\n Their contribution to theatre history as first responder artists in the aftermath of war remains underdocumented in the West.
ISSN:	0733-2033 2166-9953 2166-9953