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JOHN LONDON (ed.), Theatre under the Nazis (Manchester: Manchester
University Press, 2000), xii + 356 pp. Hardback ISBN 0 7190 5912
7. £49.99 Paperback ISBN 0 7190 5991 7. £17.99
Research into the history of the Third Reich has grown exponentially
over recent decades, and even specialized aspects of the field have
received extensive scholarly attention. In the light of this, it is perhaps
surprising that no detailed study of theatre under the Nazis has
been written in English until now. Two volumes published in recent
years cover only limited periods or special aspects. Glen Gadberry, in
Theatre in the Third Reich (1995), concentrates on the pre-war years,
and Günter Berghaus’s compilation, �ascism and Theatre (1996), contains
only three articles on German theatre. The topic has also long
been neglected in Germany, and it is only since the 1980s that the
research situation has become considerably better. Studies by, among
others, Ketelsen (1970), �ischli (1976), Drewniak (1983), Wardetzky
(1983), and Dussel (1988) have established the subject as an important
research topic. The recently published massive work Theater im
Dritten Reich, edited by Henning Rischbieter (2001), illustrates that
the topic is still very much on the agenda in Germany. One of the
problems of the research so far has been either the tendency to
assume that theatrical life in Germany survived largely untouched by
the Nazis, or the supposition that every single theatre was completely
supportive of the regime. Another problem has arisen from the
various methodological approaches taken. Scholars like the
Germanist Uwe-Karsten Ketelsen concentrate on the literary quality
and special characteristics of the dramatic output more than on the
question of a particular drama’s success. Historians such as Konrad
Dussel, on the other hand, leave aesthetic questions aside and concentrate
on how far individual theatres were drawn into the political
system. As a result, important issues of performance and interpretation
tend to be overlooked. Dussel’s approach, however, seems much
more appropriate for dealing with one of the crucial aspects concerning
not only theatre but cultural life in Nazi Germany in general:
the discrepancy between high expectations and actual artistic output.
Research concerned mainly with the politics of Nazi theatre and the
measures taken, general theoretical positions, and favoured production
formats (Drewniak, Wardetzky, and Rischbieter) finds it difficult
to answer the question of whether these measures and official pro-
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