August 12, 1922: The Salzburg Great World Theater is premiered | The calendar sheet | Bavaria 2 | radio
12.
August
Friday 12 August 2022
Author: Justina Schreiber
Narrator: Caroline Ebner
Picture: Tobias Kubald
Editor: Bernhard Kastner
The suffering that World War I brought to Europe was immeasurable. All the dead, honored and traumatized, the destroyed cities and landscapes. In addition, the collapse of the monarchies, which was tantamount to a turning point. What could people use for orientation in these times of hardship and mass unemployment?
The magic of bygone times
Well, a few people from the culture industry had an idea: the writer Hugo von Hofmannsthal and the famous theater maker Max Reinhardt: how about founding festivals in Salzburg to convey conservative values against a historical backdrop?! How about, for example, a stage play that presents the magic of a firmly established world order with recourse to bygone times? Uhh, that sounded a bit escapist. But Hugo von Hofmannsthal got down to work right away in the summer of 1919. However, his plan to adapt “The Great World Theater” by the baroque poet Pedro Calderón de la Barca for Salzburg conditions soon faltered. It was certainly not easy to counter the contemporary horror and chaos, to counter one’s own inner emptiness with something substantial. Especially since his creative comrade-in-arms from Berlin also expressed all sorts of concerns and objections. All in all, it took three years until “The Salzburg Great World Theater” was finally ready to be performed for the first time on August 12, 1922. In the meantime, Hofmannsthal’s ten-year-old play “Jedermann” was used as a stopgap for the festival.
Everyone stayed
The premiere of the “World Theater” did not take place on the cathedral square, but at the urgent request of the director Max Reinhardt in the Salzburg Collegiate Church. Was the talented illusionist trying to cover up the physical weaknesses of the new mystery play? The solemn atmosphere of the church and the abundance of dramaturgical ideas that he let herald in his friend’s text did not fail to have an effect on the audience. It has to be said that 200 invited press people from England, France, Germany and even America came to the premiere. No wonder that the Viennese publicist Karl Kraus spat poison and bile because of this filthy “deceit” on humanity “struggling for its bare life”. Not only did the Archbishop of Salzburg receive the proceeds from the proceeds for the renovation of the Collegiate Church, because he reluctantly but finally released it as a theater venue…!
The central scene of the allegorical piece erupts in the worst critical spirits: the beggar, the only one who rebels against the role assigned to him on earth, this In of a revolutionary, with the ax already raised to attack, is thrown out of a blue sky within seconds religiously awakened: O, my God! The battered, frustrated people definitely didn’t allow themselves to be lectured from the stage, especially since they weren’t even present in the auditorium. In any case, “The Salzburg Great World Theater” quickly changes again from the schedule of the festivals that are establishing themselves. And the “Jedermann”, the substitute, stayed.