Förster, August

(1828-1889)

   Actor, manager. Förster is one of the few actors in German theater history with an earned doctorate— or at least one whose doctoral studies preceded his acting career. Soon after completing his dissertation in 1851 at the University of Jena, Förster joined a touring troupe and played leading-man parts with them for two years. In 1853 he was engaged to play comic tenor roles in Posen. He then returned to spoken drama in Stettin and later Danzig, where he also directed plays. In 1858 Heinrich Laube hired Förster at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and he remained there until 1875, when he assumed directorship of the Leipzig City Theater. He joined Adolph L'Arronge's ill-fated partnership in Berlin to run the Deutsches Theater and remained with L'Arronge until 1888, when he left Berlin to become Burgtheater director. There he encountered difficulty at first, and only when he took over the roles Heinrich Anschütz had played was he able to establish credibility in his short tenure with the Burg company.