Max Reinhardt [Maximilian Goldman, 1873-1943]

Max Reinhardt

Short Biography

Max Reinhardt [Maximilian Goldman, 1873-1943]

Austrian theatrical producer and director, originally named Max Goldmann. Reinhardt was born in Baden, Austria (near Vienna) on Sept. 8, 1873 and he was a director who experimented successfully with both realism and antirealism.

After acting under Otto Brahm at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, he managed (1902-5) his own theater, where he produced more than 50 plays. Reinhardt owned and operated theaters in Austria and Germany, the most famous being Berlin's Deutsches Theater. He was director of the Deutsches Theater after 1905 and of the smaller Kammerspiele, which he built in 1906.

Noted for his extravagant productions, he tried to remove the barrier between actors and audience by projecting the stage into the audience and scattering actors among the spectators. Reinhardt often used the entire auditorium for a production, seeking to bridge the gap between actor and audience by placing the spectator within the action.

He staged gigantic productions, full of pageantry and color, and was especially noted for his direction of mob scenes. His settings, which incorporated the ideas of Appia and Craig, were masterfully executed. Among his world-famous productions were The Lower Depths, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Faust,Oedipus Rex, and The Miracle.

He was also one of the first to stage the plays of the expressionists after World War I. In 1919 he opened an enormous arena theater, the Grosses Schauspielhaus (Theatre of the Five Thousand), and in 1920 he was among the founders of the Salzburg Festival, where he annually staged Everyman with the Austrian Alps as his backdrop. In 1933 he was forced by the Nazis to flee Germany.

In the United States he directed a movie version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1935) and a stage pageant with music by Kurt Weill, The Eternal Road (1934, produced 1937). His expressionist style was widely influential in German theatre and film during 1920s and 1930s. Directors such as Murnau, Lubitsch and Preminger, and actors such as Dietrich worked with him.

He became a U.S. citizen in 1940. Reinhardt's sons, Gottfried and Wolfgang, both worked as Hollywood producers. Died on October 30, 1943.

[Bibliography: See H. Carter, The Theatre of Max Reinhardt (1914, repr. 1964); J. L. Styan, Max Reinhardt (1982).]

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