Fleck, Ferdinand

(1757-1801)

   Actor. Fleck was the prototype of the "Romantic actor" in Germany, a performer whose work was thoroughly unpredictable but alternately inspired by the workings of a gigantic and mysterious, unfathomable talent. He became one of August Wilhelm Iffland's most important collaborators as a character actor, though he began his career as a comic singer and juvenile. He worked with Friedrich Ludwig Schröder in Hamburg during the 1779-1780 season, and in 1783 he began working with Carl Theophil Döbbelin in Berlin. Iffland hired him in 1786 for the Mannheim Nationaltheater, where in 1790 Fleck began directing plays, remaining there until he departed with Iffland for Berlin in 1796.

   Fleck won critical and popular acclaim as Odoardo in Emilia Ga-lotti by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing and Karl von Moor in Friedrich Schiller's Die Räuber (The Robbers), but it was in the title role of Schiller's Wallenstein (for the Berlin premiere, which Iffland staged) that he created a sensation. Fleck was so convincing as the doomed, superstitious Bohemian general that many mistakenly assumed Schiller had written the part specifically for him. Fleck continued to receive fulsome praise for his good looks, abundant acting talent, and "superb organ," his voice. Ludwig Tieck in particular was extravagant in his praise of Fleck; he said the actor had a voice that "rang with the clarity of a bell" and a "soft" fire in his eyes. But when he appeared in Shakespearean roles, he stood "in an unearthly light, which seemed to follow him about the stage, as every utterance and every look went through our hearts" (Gross, Johann Friedrich Ferdinand Fleck [Berlin: Selbstverlag der Gesellschaft für Theatergeschichte, 1914], 4). Such a powerful stage presence marked Fleck as an authentic representative of the heroic tradition, a genius whose lack of discipline relied for veracity upon the spontaneous arousal of passion. He often played Shylock, for example, with an aristocratic air, but as the play progressed he became a man possessed of a mania for revenge. As a result, Fleck did not do well in contemporary plays. When he did appear in plays by Iffland, he too often relied on predictable mannerisms and vocal patterns.