Lindau, Paul

(1839-1919)

   Playwright, intendant. Lindau was a pastor's son who began a journalistic career after completing a dissertation on Molière at the Sorbonne in Paris. He edited newspapers in Düsseldorf, Leipzig, and Berlin, becoming concomitantly well known for his witty, well-structured essays on theater and his comedies such as Ein Erfolg (A Success) and Die beiden Leonoren (The Two Leonores). In 1895 Lindau became intendant of the Meiningen Court Theater; four years later he assumed leadership of the Berliner Theater, and in 1904 he was named director of the Deutsches Theater. In 1909 Lindau became chief dramaturg of the Berlin Royal Theater, at which post he remained for the rest of his long and productive life.