Theater in der Josefstadt
Encyclopedia
The Theater in der Josefstadt is a theater in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

 in the eighth district of Josefstadt
Josefstadt
Josefstadt is the eighth district of Vienna . It is near the center of Vienna and was established as a district in 1850, but borders changed later. Josefstadt is a heavily populated urban area with many workers and residential homes.It has a population of 22,057 people...

. It was founded in 1788 and is the oldest still performing theater in Vienna. It is often referred to colloquially as simply Die Josefstadt.

Following remodeling and rebuilding in 1822 — celebrated by the performance of the overture Die Weihe des Hauses
Consecration of the House Overture
Consecration of the House , op.124, is a work by Ludwig van Beethoven composed in September 1822. It was commissioned by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the Director of Vienna’s new Theater in der Josefstadt, and was first performed at the theatre's opening on October 3, 1822. It was the first work...

 ('Consecration of the House') by Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

 — opera was staged there including Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer
Giacomo Meyerbeer was a noted German opera composer, and the first great exponent of "grand opera." At his peak in the 1830s and 1840s, he was the most famous and successful composer of opera in Europe, yet he is rarely performed today.-Early years:He was born to a Jewish family in Tasdorf , near...

 and Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

. From 1858 onwards the theatre gave up opera and instead concentrated on straight theatre and comedy.

Major figures in musical and theatrical history connected with the house

  • Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

     and Richard Wagner
    Richard Wagner
    Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...

     conducted there.
  • Johann Nestroy
    Johann Nestroy
    Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath...

     and Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund was an Austrian actor and dramatist.- Life and work :...

     were connected to the theater as actors and poets.
  • Johann Strauss I
    Johann Strauss I
    Johann Strauss I , born in Vienna, was an Austrian Romantic composer famous for his waltzes, and for popularizing them alongside Joseph Lanner, thereby setting the foundations for his sons to carry on his musical dynasty...

     performed in the Sträußelsälen.
  • In 1814, Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund was an Austrian actor and dramatist.- Life and work :...

     had his Vienna debut as Franz Moor in Die Räuber
    Die Räuber
    The Robbers was the first drama by German playwright Friedrich Schiller. The play was published in 1781 and premiered on January 13, 1782 in Mannheim, Germany. It was written towards the end of the German Sturm und Drang movement and has been considered by many critics, such as Peter Brooks, to...

     by Friedrich 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...

    .
  • In 1822, Die Weihe des Hauses
    Consecration of the House Overture
    Consecration of the House , op.124, is a work by Ludwig van Beethoven composed in September 1822. It was commissioned by Carl Friedrich Hensler, the Director of Vienna’s new Theater in der Josefstadt, and was first performed at the theatre's opening on October 3, 1822. It was the first work...

     composed and directed by Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven
    Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...

    .
  • In 1829 Johann Nestroy
    Johann Nestroy
    Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath...

     debuted as an actor with the 'Die Verbannung aus dem Zauberreich oder Dreißig Jahre aus dem Leben eines Lumpen.
  • From 1833 to 1840 Conradin Kreutzer
    Conradin Kreutzer
    Conradin Kreutzer or Kreuzer was a German composer and conductor. His works include the opera for which he is remembered, Das Nachtlager in Granada, and Der Verschwender, both produced in 1834.Kreutzer owes his fame almost exclusively to Das Nachtlager in Granada , which kept the stage for...

     was the theater conductor and on 13 January 1834, his romantic opera Das Nachtlager in Granada
    Das Nachtlager in Granada
    Das Nachtlager in Granada is a romantic opera in two acts by Conradin Kreutzer. The libretto is written by Karl Johann Braun von Braunthal based on Johann Friedrich Kind’s drama Das Nachtlager von Granada....

     was first performed in the theater.
  • On 20 February 1834, Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund was an Austrian actor and dramatist.- Life and work :...

    's Der Verschwender was first performed with the poet in the roll of Valentin (with stage music by Kreutzer).
  • Between around 1840 and 1860, famous dancers Fanny Elssler
    Fanny Elssler
    Fanny Elssler - 27 November 1884), born Franziska Elßler, was an Austrian ballerina of the 'Romantic Period'.- Life :Daughter of Johann Florian Elssler, a second generation employee of Prince Esterhazy in Eisenstadt. Both Johann and his brother Josef were employed as copyists to the Prince's...

     and the Spanish Pepita de Oliva performed in the theater.
  • The first German-language performance of Ferenc Molnár
    Ferenc Molnár
    LanguageFerenc Molnár was a Hungarian dramatist and novelist. His Americanized name was Franz Molnar...

    's Liliom
    Liliom
    Liliom is a 1909 play by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár. It was very famous in its own right during the early to mid-20th century, but is best known today as the basis for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel.- Plot :...

     with Josef Jarno
    Josef Jarno
    Josef Jarno was an Austrian actor and theatre director. He was the older brother of opera composer Georg Jarno.- Life :Jarno made his debut in the Lehártheater in Bad Ischl, Upper Austria...

     in the title role on 28 February 1913 played a key role in the piece's long-lasting appeal.

Directors (with their years of service)

  • 1788 - 1812 Karl Felix Mayer
  • 1812 - 1822 ?
  • 1822 - 1824 Karl Friedrich Hensler
  • 1824 - 1828 J. von Scheidlin
  • 1828 - 1831 Carl Carl
  • 1831 - 1837 Johann August Stöger
  • 1837 - 1848 Franz Pokorny
  • 1848 - 1865 ?
  • 1865 - 1866 Johann Fürst
  • 1866 - 1871 ?
  • 1871 - 1877 Johann Fürst
  • 1877 - 1899 ?
  • 1899 - 1923 Josef Jarno
  • 1924 - 1926 Max Reinhardt
    Max Reinhardt (theatre director)
    ----Max Reinhardt was an Austrian theater and film director and actor.-Biography:...

  • 1926 - 1933 Max Reinhardt and Emil Geyer

  • 1933 - 1935 Max Reinhardt and Otto Preminger
    Otto Preminger
    Otto Ludwig Preminger was an Austro–Hungarian-American theatre and film director.After moving from the theatre to Hollywood, he directed over 35 feature films in a five-decade career. He rose to prominence for stylish film noir mysteries such as Laura and Fallen Angel...

  • 1935 - 1938 Max Reinhardt and Ernst Lothar
    Ernst Lothar
    Ernst Lothar was a Moravian-Austrian writer, theatre director/manager and producer.He was born Ernst Lothar Müller, and as Müller is common German surname, he dropped it. His brother, Hans Müller-Einigen, went the other way and added a surname.-Biography:...

  • 1938 Robert Valberg
  • 1938 - 1945 Heinz Hilpert
  • 1945 - 1953 Rudolf Steinboeck
  • 1953 - 1958 Franz Stoß and Ernst Haeussermann
  • 1958 - 1977 Franz Stoß
  • 1977 - 1984 Ernst Haeussermann
  • 1984 - 1988 Heinrich Kraus (in September 1986 Boy Gobert was to become director, but died only a few months before)
  • 1988 - 1997 Otto Schenk
    Otto Schenk
    Otto Schenk is an Austrian actor, and theater and opera director.-Life and career:Schenk was born to Catholic parents. His father, a lawyer, had Jewish roots and therefore lost his job after the Anschluss in 1938...

     and Robert Jungbluth
  • 1997 - 1999 Helmuth Lohner
    Helmuth Lohner
    Helmuth Lohner is an Austrian actor, theatre director, and from 2004 to 2006 director of the Theater in der Josefstadt....

     and Robert Jungbluth
  • 1999 - 2003 Alexander Götz and Robert Jungbluth
  • 2003 - 2004 Hans Gratzer
  • 2004 - 2006 Helmuth Lohner
    Helmuth Lohner
    Helmuth Lohner is an Austrian actor, theatre director, and from 2004 to 2006 director of the Theater in der Josefstadt....

  • 2006 - Herbert Föttinger


Famous ensemble members

  • Albert Bassermann
    Albert Bassermann
    Albert Bassermann was a German stage and screen actor.-Career:Bassermann began his acting career in 1887 in his birthplace, Mannheim. He then spent four years at the Hoftheater in Meiningen. He then moved to Berlin. From 1899, he worked for Otto Brahm. He began work at the Deutsches Theater...

  • Klaus Maria Brandauer
    Klaus Maria Brandauer
    Klaus Maria Brandauer is an Austrian actor, film director, and professor at the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.-Personal life:...

  • Attila Hörbiger
    Attila Hörbiger
    Attila Hörbiger was an Austrian stage and movie actor.Hörbiger was born in Budapest, then Austria–Hungary, the son of engineer Hanns Hörbiger and younger brother of actor Paul Hörbiger...

  • Curd Jürgens
    Curd Jürgens
    Curd Gustav Andreas Gottlieb Franz Jürgens was a German-Austrian stage and film actor. He was usually billed in English-speaking films as Curt Jurgens.-Early life:...

  • Fritz Kortner
    Fritz Kortner
    Fritz Kortner was an Austrian-born stage and film actor and theatre director.Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn. He studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. After graduating, he joined Max Reinhardt in Berlin in 1911 and then Leopold Jessner in 1916. Also in that year...


  • Werner Krauß
  • Wolfgang Liebeneiner
    Wolfgang Liebeneiner
    Wolfgang Georg Louis Liebeneiner was a German actor, film director and theater director.He was born in Liebau in Prussian Silesia. In 1928, he was taught by Otto Falckenberg, the director of the Munich Kammerspiele, in acting and directing...

  • Helmuth Lohner
    Helmuth Lohner
    Helmuth Lohner is an Austrian actor, theatre director, and from 2004 to 2006 director of the Theater in der Josefstadt....

  • Karl Merkatz
    Karl Merkatz
    Karl Merkatz is a well-known Austrian actor. He participated in numerous Austrian film productions and plays....


  • Fritz Muliar
    Fritz Muliar
    Fritz Muliar, born as Friedrich Ludwig Stand , was an Austrian actor who, due to his huge popularity, is often referred to by his countrymen as Volksschauspieler.- Biography :...

  • Johann Nestroy
    Johann Nestroy
    Johann Nepomuk Eduard Ambrosius Nestroy was a singer, actor and playwright in the popular Austrian tradition of the Biedermeier period and its immediate aftermath...

  • Susi Nicoletti
    Susi Nicoletti
    Susi Nicoletti was a Bavarian-born actress best remembered today for over 100 supporting roles mostly in comedy films....

  • Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund
    Ferdinand Raimund was an Austrian actor and dramatist.- Life and work :...


  • Otto Schenk
    Otto Schenk
    Otto Schenk is an Austrian actor, and theater and opera director.-Life and career:Schenk was born to Catholic parents. His father, a lawyer, had Jewish roots and therefore lost his job after the Anschluss in 1938...

  • Hans Thimig
    Hans Thimig
    Hans Emil Thimig, pseudonym: Hans Werner was an Austrian actor, film director and stage director.- Life :...

  • Paula Wessely
    Paula Wessely
    Paula Anna Maria Wessely was an Austrian theatre and film actress. Die Wessely , as she was affectionately called by her admirers and fans, was Austria's foremost popular postwar actress....

  • Bernhard Wicki


External links

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