Engel, Erich

(1891-1966)

   Director. Engel was the ultimate "Brecht insider," working with Bertolt Brecht at a level that matched the influence of Helene Weigel, Elisabeth Hauptmann, and Caspar Neher. Altogether, Engel staged or closely collaborated with Brecht in the direction of eight significant productions or world premieres of Brecht's plays: Im Dickicht der Städte (In the Jungle of Cities, Munich, 1923), Mann ist Mann (Berlin, 1928), Die Dreigroschenoper (The Threepenny Opera, Berlin, 1928), Happy End (Berlin, 1929), Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder (Mother Courage and Her Children, Berlin, 1949), Das Leben des Galilei (The Life of Galileo, Berlin, 1957), Herr Puntila und sein Knecht Matti (Mr. Puntila and His Servant Matti, Berlin, 1949), and Schweyk im Zweiten Weltkrieg (Schweik in the Second World War, Berlin, 1962).

   Engel had substantial actor training, but he began directing professionally at the Hamburg Kammerspiele after his release from the German army as a medical orderly in 1918. He encountered Brecht and Neher for the first time when he was working as a director at the newly renamed State Theater in Munich. Despite his extensive experience with Brecht, Engel worked steadily under the Third Reich. He was a gifted director of Shakespeare's plays, and Heinz Hilpert hired him to direct Shakespeare almost exclusively at the Deutsches Theater. Engel worked extensively in movies in the 1930s, directing a high-profile version of Pygmalion in 1935 with Gustaf Gründgens as Henry Higgins. In 1945 he became director of the Munich Kammerspiele, and in 1949 he renewed his collaboration with Brecht, with the results noted above.