Immigrant of the Day: Max Reinhardt (Austria-Hungary)

Max Reinhardt (1873-1943) was an influential theatre and film director and actor. He was born Maximilian Goldmann in Baden bei Wien, Austria-Hungary. From 1902 until the beginning of Nazi rule in 1933, he worked as a director at various theaters in Berlin. From 1905 to 1930, he managed the Deutsches Theater ("German Theatre") in Berlin and, in addition, the Theater in der Josefstadt in Vienna from 1924 to 1933.

By employing powerful staging techniques, and harmonising stage design, language, music and choreography, Reinhardt introduced new dimensions into German theatre. The Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, which is arguably the most important German-language acting school, was installed implementing his ideas.

Siegfried Jacobsen wrote Max Reinhardt in 1910. In 1920, Reinhardt established the Salzburg Festival with Richard Strauss and Hugo von Hofmannsthal. He directed an annual production of the morality play Everyman about God. In 1938, he immigrated first to England, then to the United States, where he had already successfully directed his own play The Miracle in 1924, and a popular stage version of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1927.

Reinhardt also opened the Reinhardt School of the Theatre on Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood Several notable stars of the day received classical theater training, including Nanette Fabray. Reinhardt followed that success by directing a film version of Everyman About God in 1935 with a different cast, including James Cagney, Mickey Rooney, Joe E. Brown and Olivia de Havilland. The Nazis banned the film because of the Jewish ancestry of both Reinhardt and Felix Mendelssohn, whose music (arranged by Erich Korngold) was used throughout the film.

In 1940, Max Reinhardt became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He died in New York City in 1943. His son Gottfried Reinhardt was a well-regarded film producer. His grandson, Stephen Reinhardt, once a labor lawyer and nows one of the more liberal judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

KJ