Ludwig Devrient was a German

Germans

The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....

 actor, noted for his playing in the works of Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

 and Schiller

Friedrich Schiller

Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, historian, and playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life , Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe...

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Devrient, who was born in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, left a commercial career for the stage in 1804. He was a member of a notable theatrical family. His three nephews were actors. Karl August Devrient

Karl August Devrient

Karl August Devrient was a German stage actor best known for performances of Schiller and Shakespeare. He was related to other notable German actors, including:* his uncle Ludwig;* his brothers Philipp Eduard and Gustav Emil;...

 (1797–1872) was popular in heroic and character roles such as Lear, Shylock, and Faust. Another nephew, Philipp Eduard Devrient

Eduard Devrient

Eduard Devrient was a German baritone, librettist, playwright, actor, theatre director and theatre reformer and historian.Devrient came from a theatrical family...

 (1801–1877), directed the Court Theater, Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 (1844–46), and the Karlsruhe

Karlsruhe

The City of Karlsruhe is a city in the southwest of Germany, in the state of Baden-Württemberg, located near the French-German border.Karlsruhe was founded in 1715 as Karlsruhe Palace, when Germany was a series of principalities and city states...

 Theater (1852–70).

He wrote several plays and also a history of the German stage (1848–74) in five volumes. With his son, Otto

Otto Devrient

Otto Devrient was a German actor and playwright.Devrient was the son of Philipp Eduard Devrient. He first went on stage in 1856, training in Stuttgart, Berlin and Leipzig...

, he published translations of Shakespeare's plays. Gustav Emil Devrient

Emil Devrient

Gustav Emil Devrient was a German actor and an occasional operatic bass.-Life:Gustav Emil Devrient was the youngest son of the six children of the silk merchant Tobias Philipp Devrient and his wife Marie Charlotte...

 (1803–1872), was the youngest and most gifted of all three nephews of Ludwig Devrient. He excelled in young heroic parts. When he gave Hamlet in London, his portrayal was said to equal that of Edmund Kean

Edmund Kean

Edmund Kean was an English actor, regarded in his time as the greatest ever.-Early life:Kean was born in London. His father was probably Edmund Kean, an architect’s clerk, and his mother was an actress, Anne Carey, daughter of the 18th century composer and playwright Henry Carey...

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