•

•

By JOSEF FRAENKEL

•

'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''y'""••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••••••• • •••

Theodor Herzl's Love for the Theater

main character. Sonnenthal, once
a Jewish tailor's apprentice, was
HIS FIRST AMBITION
the leading actor of old Austria.
The Burgtheater of Vienna, des- Abraham Goldfaden, the father of
tined to be the National Theater the Yiddish Theater, wanted to
by Joseph II in 1776 was—and re- make his acquaintance. Herzl gave
mained—the highest pinnacle of him a letter of introduction and
Austrian dramatic art. To appear Sonnenthal and Goldfaden met.
on its stage, was the ambition of Almost 80 years later, the Burg-
every actor; to have his play theater visited Israel with an ex-
staged there, was the dream of tensive repertoire, which included
every playwright. To be accepted "Nathan der Weise" with Ernst
by the Burgtheater, was to be part Deutsch in the principal role.
of literary Vienna. ! Among the 40 Viennese actors and
Just after t h e Burgtheater actresses was Helene Thimig,
burned down, Theodor Herzl and Max Reinhardt's widow, and the
Arthur Schnitzler met by chance daughter of Hugo Thimig, whom
in front of the new edifice: "Look! I knew.
I shall arrive there some day," : Before his Italian journey. Herzl
declared Herzl. Years later, both wrote in 3-4 days a comedy,. "Der
Herzl and Schnitzler were to make Fluechtling," and he sent it to the
their entree there. Burgtheater at the beginning of
My first book "Des Schoepfers February 1887, but the opening
erstes Wollen" (1934) was con- ! night of his one-act play did not
cerned mainly with Herzl and the take place until May 4, 1889. For
Burgtheater. I had discovered over 10 years "Der Fluechtling" con-
60 letters written by. or addressed , tinued to be performed at the
to Herzl, in the Vienna Haus-, Hof- ! Burgtheater, the last time on Feb.
and Staatsarchiv, and in the Burg- 17, 1898. The well-known theatre
theater Archives, which I pub- ' critic, Ludwig Speidel wrote: "It
lished in my book. These letters it is triumph to laugh at the end
and other material in the Burg- of a comedy. Herzl's 'Der Fluecht-
theater Archives were destroyed ling' has won the greatest triumph
by fire during the last World War. of all."
I called the book "His First ' The comedy in four acts, "Die
Ambition," to stress that Herzl's Dame in Schwartz" by Herzl and
earliest aspirations—before he pub- Wittmann, was acquired by the
lished the "Jewish State" (1896)— Burgtheater and opened Feb. 21,
were directed towards the theatre. 1891. One of the actors was Hugo
At that time, I hoped to arouse Thimig. Sonnenthal played • the
the interest of the habima theater principal role.
in Herzl, the dramatist; but my
When Herzl was 24 he read a
efforts did not succeed.
sketch of "Tabarin" by Catulle
.Herzl wrote over 20 plays, two IVIendes, a popular French-Jewish
of them together with Hugo Witt- writer. It seemed an ideal play
mann. They were performed, not for Friedrich Mitterwurzer. Vien-
only at the Burgtheater but also na's most beloved actor. Herzl ap-
in New York, Berlin. Frankfurt, proached Catulle Mendes, who per-
Munich, Hamburg, Prague and mitted him to adapt it freely. The
elsewhere. One of his comedies , - youthful Herzl turned the ,..ketch
was acquired by about 50 theaters, "Tabarin" into a three-act and a
between 1889-1901. In Vienna alone, one-act play. As Mitterwurzer had
besides the Burgtheater, his plays undertaken a tour of America, he
were staged in the "Deutsche took Herzl's one-act "Tabarin"
Volkstheater," "Theater an der with him, and in November 1885.
Wien," "Josefstaedtertheater," it was launched with great success.
"Carltheater" "Johann Strauss
Two years later Catulle Mendes
Theater," and the "Raimundthea- himself dramatized "Tabarin" and
ter."
it was put on at the Theater Libre
When Herzl became president of in 1887. In the meantime Herzl had
the Zionist Organization, he began left for Paris as correspondent for
to neglect his literary work, and it the 'Neue Freie Presse.' There he
was only when he sought relax- received a letter from Max Burch-
ation and rest that he took up his hardt, director of the Burgtheater,
pen again. He planned to write a to say that Mitterwurzer had given
biblical drama, "Moses;" to por- him his "Tabarin" to be staged.'
tray, dramatically, the plight of Herzl replied on May 4, 1894, that
the Jews in Egypt: the Egyptian he would send on the Catulle Men-
ghetto; Korah; the preparation of ! des' dramatized version, so that
the Jews through their Wanderings, the Burgtheater could decide be-
Miriam, and, finally, the tragedy tween that of Mendes and his own.
and the death of Moses. In The Burgtheater chose Herzl's
"Moses." Herzl probably intended version and the premiere took
to mirror himself. place May 2, 1895, with Mitter-
On Feb. 4, 1899, there were dem- wurzer in the role of Tabarin and
onstrations during one of his plays. I Adele Sandrock as Francisquine.
Some of the audience applauded: I In 1899 the Burgtheater received
others — the anti-Semites—hissed. three one-act plays by Herzl: "I
Directors of theaters began to fear Love You," "Die Causa Hirsch-
staging his works and they were korn." and "Die Glosse."
seen less frequently until, finnally.
"Die Causa Hirschkorn" belongs
Herzl disappeared from the scene. to the early plays of Herzl. In 1882
II
it was presented by an amateur
THE BURGTHEATER
society with Herzl, still a student
Herzl offered the Burgtheater 11 at the Vienna University, as the
of his plays "Causa Hirschkorn," leading chraacter. "Die Glosse," a
"Muttersoehnchen," "H oh e i t," comedy in verse, was written by
"Was wird man sagen," "Unser .Herzl in Paris (1894) in eight days.
Kaethchen," "Gloss," "Der Flue- As the Josefsstaedter theater
chtling," "Die Dame in Schwarz" wished to have it, the Burgtheater
(Herzl and Wittmann), "Wild- gave its consent. Herzl hoped that
diebe" (Herzl and Wittmann), "Die Glosse" would often be put
"Tabarin" and "I Love You," of on in future.
which the last five were per-
"I Love You" was the last play
formed.
accepted by the Burgtheater and
Herzl and Wittmann were col- was staged on Jan. 12, 1900,
leagues on the "Neue Freie with Hugo Thimig in the role of
Press," and after they finished Dr. Muehlrad.
"Die Wilddiebe," A Comedy in
In his novel "Althneuland"
Four Acts, it was acquired by the (1902) Herzl dreamed of a Jewish
Burgtheater. The authors requested National, Theater where a biblical
that their names be kept secret. drama—his drama "Moses" would
Thus, the play was launched be presented. Could he ever have
March 19, 1889, in the Burgtheater, dreamt that the Burgtheater would
filled to capacity with enthusiastic visit his Jewish State? In Israel
audiences, practically every thea- the Burgtheater was quite a suc-
ter season for the following 15 cess, but how much greater the
years until Oct. 24, 1904. applause of the Tel Aviv audience
Anonymity could not be pre- would have been had the Burg-
served for long. Journalists soon theater performed one of Theodor
discovered the names of the au- Herzl's plays.
thors and the Burgtheater was
HI
compelled to announce them on the
THE DEMONSTRATION
playbills.
"Unser Kaethchen," a comedy in
Adolf von Sonnenthal played the four acts by Herzl, was accepted

by director Paul Schlenther of the
Burgtheater. Katharina Schratt,
close friend of Kaiser Franz Josef,
was to have played the dual role
of Sofie Heidinger and of her
daughter Kaethcher. The Burg-
theater censor gave permission for
the performance which should have
taken place Jan. 25, 1899, but Herzl
asked Schlenther to arrange the
premiere for the Jan. 23 or 24 be-
cause "my friend Nordau" would
be addressing a meeting on that
evening.

The rehearsal started and the
premiere was announced in the
press. Suddenly, after the third
rehearsal, Katharina Schratt, de-
manded that a few lines be
omitted. Herzl refused. Katharina
Schratt exerted great influence at
the palace of Schaenbrunn and the
play at the Burgtheater was soon
vetoed.
The ban on the play was a sen-
sation. Anti-Semitic papers at-
tacked the "Zionist" Herzl, whom
they considered to be "socialistic-
ally inspired" and a "socialist
Utopian." But the ban made an
impression on a number of thea-
ters, among them the Deutsche
Volks-theater, which decided to put
on the play. On Feb. 4, 1899, the
premiere of "Unser Kaetchen"
took place at the Deutsche Volks-
theater under the direction -of pro-
ducer Emerich von Bukovics.

In the audience were anti-Sem-
ites who had come to demonstrate.
The great majority applauded with
enthusiasm. Herzl was persuaded
by director Bukovics to appear on
the stage where he was welcomed
with prolonged clapping accom-
panied by boos. This led to an up-
roar and even to arrests. But when
in the fourth act the words "We
are no beggars, we are workers"
were spoken, the audience ap-
plauded loudly and the anti-Semitic
demonstrators no longer dared to
interrupt the play.

Papers in Vienna and abroad
published favorable reviews. But
the directors of the theaters were

afraid of demonstrations and
Herzl's plays gradually disappear-
ed from the stage.
Hermann Bahr, too reviewed
"Unser Kaethchen". "In the pre-
mieres" he wrote, "we learn only
how strong the author is, he him-
self, not in his play; if he had
friends and who his opponents are
and what attractive power his
name has."
Bahr and Herzl were fellow stu-
dents and both belonged to the
same students association "Albia."
On March 5, 1883, Bahr delivered
an anti-Semitic speech because of
which Herzl resigned from the
"Albia." From that time the Jew-
ish question gave Herzl no peace
and 13 years later, in 1896, he pub-
lished the historic booklet "The
Jewish State."
Later Hermann Bahr—the G.B.
Shaw of Vienna—became a friend
of the Jews and of Zionism. Herzl
and Bahr often met and Bahr pub-
lished favorable reviews of Herzl's
plays produced in various theaters.
Bahr's comedies and dramas were
often performed—also in the Burg-
theater. "Das Konzert" is Jne of
his best comedies.
In his article on the demonstra-
tion he praised Herzl who "wanted
to liberate his people from mis-
ery." For Bahr it was understand-
able that the audience admired
Herzl and that his followers wel-
comed him with "enthusiasm" but,
he added, even if this was the

READY-MIX
CONCRETE

Residential and Commercial

LARGE OR SMALL ORDERS
PROMPT DELIVERY INCLUDING
EVENINGS ,& SATURDAYS

CALL VI 14200

prerogative of his admirers, "one
has to ask if this must take place
specially in a German theater.
"Das Konzert" by Hermann
Bahr, included in the Burgtheater
repertoire, was greeted with ac-
clamation in Israel. The actors of
the Burgtheater were applauded
warmly by the audience in the
Jewish State. This was certainly
in the spirit of Herzl, despite the
fact that not one of his plays was
given by the Burgtheater in Israel.

Alphabetical Psychoanalysis
A disturbed lady was describing
to her analyst the horrible night-
mares to which she was subject. "I
dream regularly," she moaned,
"that I'm a demon, a ghoul, a
monster, a vampire, or a zombie."
"That's fabulous," agreed the ana-
lyst, "but tell me: do you always
dream in alphabetical order?"

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
14—Friday, June 21, 1968

Israel:

For your very special
visit, a very special
place...

The Sheraton-Tel Aviv Hotel.
Overlooking the blue Mediterra-
nean and only minutes away from
the downtown business district.
220 beautiful guest rooms, all air-
conditioned, many with balconies.
Enjoy the swimming pool, Health
Club, fine restaurants and color-
ful Magic Carpet nightclub right
in the hotel.

For Insured Reservations at
Guaranteed Rates, see your travel
agent. Or call Detroit — 961-8000.

Sheraton-
Tel Aviv%t,.

Sheraton Hotels and Motor Inns throughout
the world. A World Wide Service of

1350 NORTH WOODWARD AVENUE • SIRMINGHAM, MICH.

t

Dm