Title
Rules, Regulations, and the Reich: Comedy under the Auspices of the Propaganda Ministry
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
2004
Abstract
When the National Socialist regime assumed power in Germany on January
30, 1933, it set about immediately to formulate regulations,
edicts, and policies for a "renewal" of the German theatre. Adolf Hitler
had an interest of long standing in the theatre, and Nazi strategies for controlling,
supporting, and re-generating the theatre went into effect over a period of about
eighteen months. On September 22, 1933 Hitler's cabinet passed the Reich Cultural
Chamber Law (Reichskulturkammergesetz), giving Propaganda Minister Joseph
Goebbels charge of an organization the new Law created, the Reich Cultural
Chamber. The legislation stipulated seven individual chambers subsumed under
the Reich Cultural Chamber, one ofwhich was the Reich Theatre Chamber. It in
turn had seven organizations (the Nazis seem to like the number seven) subsumed
under it.
The Theatre Chamber's presidium retained the right to license productions for
any theatre performance; but like most bureaucracies, it expanded its domain of
authority, increased its budgetary needs, and consolidated its power. The Reich
Theater Act (Reichstheatergesetz) in 1934 sustained those efforts. On September 15,
1935, the "Theatrical Trade Guild (Fachschaft Bühne) was founded in accordance
with the so-called Nuremberg Laws, which redefined the legal status of several
classes of citizens within Germany. Dr. Rainer Schlosser was named Reich Dramaturg,
with authority over all aspects of repertoire selection in the Reich. His Reich
Dramaturgical Bureau considered itself "the intellectual nerve center of German
theatrical season planning," and within this viper's nest of intrigue some of the
most significant occasions of legal circumvention during the Third Reich took
place. The Reich Dramaturgical Bureau (R.D.B.) had published a "List of Abusive
and Undesirable Literature for the Stage" (Liste des schädlichen und
unerwünschten Bühnenschrifttums) and the list was constantly being upgraded
and expanded. Some playwrights, such as Franz Arnold, Bertolt Brecht, Carl
Zuckmayer, and Bruno Frank got on the list at the beginning and stayed there
through the end. Others temporarily got on the list, then got off it, then got back
on it again, and in some cases got hired by the regime which had initially banished
them to write screenplays!
Circumvention of laws regarding repertoire selection was especially curious in
the case of comedy. The idea performing comedy, and performing a lot of comedy,
during one the most systematic reigns of terror the world has ever known may at
first blush seem somewhat degraded; researching comedy during the Third Reich
may appear downright perverse, but even Nazis were capable of innocent laughter.
The perception of most people, especially in the English-speaking world, is that
"German comedy" in the first place is an oxymoron. The fact is that of the more
than 42,000 productions were staged between 1933 and 1944 in the Third Reich,
and the majority were of comedies.
Comments
Published in Essays on Twentieth Century German Drama and Theatre, ed. Helmuth Rennert (Frankfurt: Lang, 2004), pp. 196-201.