Kalisch, David

(1820-1872)

   Playwright. Kalisch is best known as the founder and editor of the satirical weekly Kladderadatsch, though his comedies in Berlin from the 1850s to the late 1860s were among the most popular theatrical fare anywhere on the German stage. He was closely associated with Franz Wallner during those two decades, while continuing to publish Kladderadatsch; at one point, Kalisch spent time in prison when the weekly's satire angered Prussian authorities. Kalisch made his debut in the 1840s as a performer of "couplets" at the Schwarzer Adler in Berlin, a bistro that featured vaudeville-style entertainments. He began writing material for comic actors in Berlin, which led to his relationship with Wallner. Wallner had booked actor Philipp Grobecker (1815-1883) in a comedy titled Münchhausen, for which Kalisch had written some dialogue. The comedy's success encouraged Kalisch to write full-length comedies for Wallner, including Der Aktienbudiker (The Stock Market Hero), Ein gebildeterHausknecht (An Educated Houseboy), Berlin bei Nacht (Berlin by Night), and several others. Their success in Berlin and throughout the German-speaking world (though their subject matter was nearly always Berlin and its denizens) made Kalisch one of the first comic playwrights in the German theater to attain substantial wealth.