Actors

Theater in Vienna 1900

MAX BURCKHARD (1890-1898)

Lawyer and Writer

*July 14, 1854 Korneuburg, +March 16, 1912 Vienna

Burckhard was the artistic director of the Burgtheater when it just had opened in 1988 as the “Neue Haus am Ring”. Managing this house from 1890-1898 this role was new to the man who was actually a lawyer and not familiar with theater at all. However his unfamiliarity with the stage privileged him with objectivity, necessary for a successful businessman. Burckhard supported mostly contemporary plays of naturalism, shocking the conservative Viennese audience with the social drama of Ibsen, Hauptmann, Schnitzler and Hoffmannsthal, but also introduced popular culture plays like the national Anzengruber. Interested in altering classic drama, he confronted the audience with contemporary themes of normal daily life. Some of his unique and most successful plays on the program were:

  • Grillparzer cycle: featuring multiple plays in honor of the playwright’s 100th birthday.
  • Ibsen: Die Wildente (1896), Nora and Die Frau vom Meere (1898)
  • Hauptmann:
    • Einsame Menschen (1898), and Die versunkene Glocke (1898), which became Hauptmann’s biggest success on stage during his lifetime.
    • Fuhrmann Henschel (1909) shows the changing from naturalism to symbolism, a duality of fairy tale symbolism and tough survival struggle. Hauptmann’s famous play, Die Weber however was never presented in the Burgtheater during his life.
  • Anzengruber: Meineidbauer (1893), the Austrian playwright similar to the “Stuermer und Draenger” in Germany but even more accelerating in dramatic structure.
  • 90’s “Junge Wiener Schule”:
    • Schnitzler’s Liebelei (1895) set a strong mark on Burgtheater history, mixing sensitive character study with harsh social critique.
    • Hoffmansthal’s Der Abenteurer and Die Saengerin (1899)
    • Bahr’s Der Apostel (1901) and Der arme Narr (1906)

Throughout his term period Burckhard presented over one hundred and forty five plays, of which sixty-two were old repertoire numbers but eighty-three premieres. Another of his great accomplishments leading this house was offering cheap matinees in order to draw a new audience. Henceforth on Sunday afternoon, the normally upper class theater became a theater for the public.

Burckhard hired some of the most famous actors of the Burgtheater, i.e. Friedrich Mitterwurzer, Adele Sandrock (Schnitzler’s lover), Hedwig Bleibtreu. In 1898 Burckhard was laid of by an internal “palace revolution”, however managed to finish negotiations to contract the legendary actor Josef Kainz.