Falckenberg, Otto

(1873-1947)

   Director, teacher. Falcken-berg began his directing career when Erich Ziegel hired him in 1913 at the Munich Kammerspiele. He directed the world premiere there of August Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata in 1915, a precedent-setting production which had a momentous impact on German directors Jürgen Fehling, Richard Weichert, and Gustav Hartung, who in the next few years emulated Falckenberg's use of abstraction and fragmentation. When Ziegel left the Kammerspiele in 1916, Falckenberg became its director in 1917, the same year he staged the world premiere of Georg Kaiser's Von Morgens bis Mitternachts (From Morn to Midnight). Falckenberg continued to direct numerous world premieres, the most significant of which was his 1922 staging of Bertolt Brecht's Drums in the Night, which created a nationwide sensation and resulted in Brecht winning the Kleist Prize that year. Several actors studied under Falckenberg as his reputation as a teacher as well as a director blossomed in the 1920s; among them were Marianne Hoppe, Heinz Rühmann, Ewald Balser, Elisabeth Flickenschildt, and Käthe Gold. He remained head of the Kammerspiele until 1945. In 1947 the Otto Falckenberg School was founded to carry on his teaching legacy, and it remains one of the foremost theater conservatories in Germany.