Figure 1.--Here is a photograph taken in Germany (perhaps 1920s or early-30s) of some sort of theatrical performance, presumably a play performed at a secondary school. The boys wear fancy Renaissance dress. The boys seem to be relaxing off stage either after the performance or during a part of it in which they are not involved. The two boys seated are wearing tights and what look like fancy jackets with unusual collars. One of them is holding one of the props, a silver cup or goblet. But they continue to wear their street shoes, low-cut black Oxfords. The figure standing looks somewhat older and may be their teacher or the director of the play. Curiously, he is wearing tights like the two others but with a modern shirt and pullover sweater. He seems to be half in and half out of costume. Tights were worn in Germany for normal wear only after 1957 or later, but these figures are obviously wearing theatrical tights as part of their stage costumes. It's not easy to explain why the standing figure is wearing tights but also a modern sweater above the waist. Notice that he too is holding a silver or pewter cup, probably another prop.

We also see more sophisticated plays staged by secondary-age students. Interestingly, the plays done by German schools (if they were from the 16th century) were probably English plays. There are no great Renaissance German plays from the same period. We have quite a bit of evidence that in Shakespeare's time, English actors toured Germany and performed there in English. Shakespeare has continued into modern times to be studied and performed often in Germany (in translations of course). While in Shakespeare's time there were no comparable German playwrights and dramatists. Although Shakespeare always has been popular in the German theater. A century or so later Germany started to produce some towering literary figures like Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Hölderlin and numerous others, whose works were read and played on the stage. So the popularity of Shakespeare may be a kind of continuation of that tradition with German kids doing English plays. It may have been one of the ways that schools encouraged German boys to learn English, or, perhaps more likely, they were playing Shakespeare or Marlowe in German translations. There is great interest in Germany in English Renaissance drama, and a huge amount of German scholarship on Shakespeare. One of the well-known scholarly journals in Germany is called Shakespeare Jahrbuch to which scholars all over the world contribute. When Germany was divided between East and West, there were actually two versions of the journal. And Germany still does professional as well as academic productions of Shakespeare's plays. Bertold Brecht, one of the most famous German dramatists, did politically charged adaptations of plays by both Marlowe and Shakespeare. He was forced to flee Germany because of his Marxist orientation when the NAZIs seized power (1933) and during the Cold War became a controversial figure. Shakespeare was not "verboten" by the NAZIs during World War II. I am not entirely sure why. Perhaps "The Merchant of Venice" was part of the reason. Or the fact that Hitler actually did not want a war with England seein them as a part of Aryan Europe.

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Created: 3:15 AM 7/16/2010
Last updated: 3:15 AM 7/16/2010