Devrient, Ludwig

(1784-1832)

   Actor. Among the first German actors to earn the sobriquet "demonic," Devrient was an emblem of Romanticism on the German stage. He began his career in 1804 as "Ludwig Herzberg," whom audiences found utterly unconvincing.

   When he began to play character roles and comedy in Breslau by 1807, however, he discovered his métier. In 1814 he joined the Berlin Royal Theater, and there he achieved his greatest renown. Many described him on stage as a riveting presence; his facial features were distinctively attractive, with eyes that could often transfix the onlooker. Devrient's chronic alcoholism contributed to his reputation as wild and unpredictable. As a character actor, he likewise baffled audiences when he played more than one character in the same play. As a guest artist in 1828 at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Devrient created a sensation as Shylock, as critics recognized in him "the manifestation of primeval Nature." He had abandoned completely any attempt at rhetorical delivery, concentrating instead on the bizarre, the extraordinary, and at times the repulsive. He became close friends with E. T. A. Hoffmann, who influenced Devrient's work substantially.

   Devrient was "demonic" in the sense that he made an artistic virtue of being possessed, rather than having all his faculties under full control. Composer Richard Wagner was one audience member who came under Devrient's spell; after the performance Wagner said nobody would dare even whisper or make any movement because everyone was held by "a magic force no one had the power to withstand." Devrient is the subject of Hoffmann's 1817 essay "Strange Sorrows of a Theater Director" and was the main figure in Karl von Holtei's 1852 novel Die Vagabunden (The Vagabonds). Ludwig Devrient was the uncle of Carl Devrient, Eduard Devrient, and Emil Devrient.