After the capitulation in 1945, the "zero hour" began, also for Hamburg's theaters. The British promote the culture industry and Ida Ehre founds the Kammerspiele in the same year.
by Peter Helling
The Second World War ended with the unconditional surrender of the German Wehrmacht on May 8, 1945 in Berlin. The collapse of the Nazi state is also referred to as "Zero Hour". But did it really exist? The word sounds like tabula rasa, like a clean slate. Only:The "before" was still there:old and young Nazi greats, poisoned views and their culture. After the end of the war, Hamburg's theaters had to start all over again. Most of them were destroyed after the war, but above all:The brown monster had to get out. A fresh start was made possible by theater artists who, despite persecution by the Nazis, had the courage to build something new here. And Hamburg was really lucky with the theater legend Ida Ehrlich.
"It was freezing cold, people sat wrapped in blankets and coats and our breath went away, and the breath of the few audience came up to us, there were maybe 25, 30 people there, and after three weeks the theater was full, " the actress recalled 40 years after the end of the war.
1945:Art for Coal
Theater 1945 meant:freezing cold in dilapidated theaters, a charcoal briquette as an admission ticket, as a wage for the actors. "The actors were paid in cash," says actor Peter Maertens. From this one can see how much the people of Hamburg loved their theater, even though they couldn't heat their halls, says the Hamburg historian Nils Steffen.
Deutsches Schauspielhaus largely intact
When the war ended on May 8, 1945, when Hamburg was liberated, the city lay in ruins. Almost all stages in the city too. One of the few largely intact theaters was the Schauspielhaus. The British confiscated the house, dubbed it the Garrison Theater and used it to entertain their own troops in the city. It was not returned to the Germans until 1948. The actual theater ensemble was homeless, so to speak, and played in the union building at Besenbinderhof.
Allies promoted culture
Nils Steffen is the coordinator of the Public History field at the University of Hamburg."The Allies knew about the importance of culture and its effects, so the theaters in many cities in Germany were funded, not least because they saw the possibility of denazification and democratization through culture," says Nils Steffen. The repertoire mainly featured German classics such as "Faust" or "Nathan the Wise". Gradually, directors and actors who had been persecuted by the Nazis returned. And with them, a new spirit came onto the scene. "In this way, the theater gradually changed from being an institution of state-controlled education to a place of social criticism, an art space in which the questions of the time were negotiated," says Nils Steffen.
Post-War Theater:Clearing Debris
But first it was time to clean up and remove debris. Only the front building of the Thalia Theater was left. The State Opera had lost the front building and auditorium. Ida Ehrlich and many of her fellow actors only wanted one thing now:“All this rubble away, the rubble away from yourself, everything around you so that you can breathe again with your mind, with your heart, without anyone interfering when you what says."
Ida Ehrlich was Jewish. She died in Hamburg on February 16, 1989. She had already had an impressive career before 1933 and barely survived the Nazi era in the Fuhlsbüttel concentration camp. Now, in 1945, this opportunity presented itself to her. An English officer with Viennese roots gave it to her. "One day he came to me and said:with the permission of the military government, the theater is free for you. I had a theater and didn't even know what to do," says the actress.
Ida Ehre opens Kammerspiele
It was the former Jewish lodge in Hartungstrasse, today's Kammerspiele. They were opened on December 15, 1945. In a very short time, Ida Honor brought a top ensemble to her house. She could perform the most modern plays. It was supposed to be a "theater of humanity". Instead of Nazi propaganda, she brought in the latest authors from abroad, plays like "We got away again", "The Trojan War will not take place", later Sartre's "The Flies". The house filled up, Ida Ehrlich remembers:"My audience sat in the auditorium with half-incandescent lamps and watched."
1947:World premiere of "Outside the Door"
Unforgotten, of course, in 1947, was the premiere of Wolfgang Borchert's "Outside the Door". But in 1945 it was all about improvising. Peter Maertens, son of Willi Maertens, the long-time artistic director of the Thalia Theater, knows that too. In 1945 he was only supposed to work temporarily as director - that turned out to be 18 years. "This shows that improvised things sometimes last longer than the rules in Hamburg," says Maertens.
Hunger for culture in post-war Hamburg
Of course, the swede was initially more important to the people than the theater ticket, but according to the historian Nils Steffen, the hunger for culture was great. "Since there were hardly any other entertainment options, the theaters were extremely busy in the post-war years, at up to 80 percent." The Hamburger Volksbühne, founded in 1919, also saw a steep increase in membership after the end of the war. "Theatre is something special, you go out, you do something, it's live, it's emotional, it lets us forget everything around it for a little moment, and that's sometimes very valuable. And fortunately that's still the case today still."