Barnay, Ludwig

(1842-1924)

   Actor. Barnay was one of the few Jewish actors to enter the upper social echelons of Wilhelmine society, ultimately gaining official recognition from Kaiser Wilhelm II himself. Born in Budapest, he joined a German-language touring troupe when he was 18 under the name Ludwig Lacroix. He worked with several other touring troupes in the Habsburg Empire and began using his real name in 1864 when he got his first engagement at the Burgtheater in Vienna. There he caught the attention of several critics in heroic parts, for example, as Marc Antony in Julius Caesar and

   Rochester in Birch-Pfeiffer's adaptation of Jane Eyre, titled Die Waise von Lowood (The Orphan of Lowood). He was much in demand as a guest artist throughout the remainder of the decade, though he appeared in Leipzig and Frankfurt am Main on a regular basis as the eponymous actor-hero in his own play, Kean. His fame rose to new heights as a member of the Meininger troupe in the 1870s, though he often violated the company's policy of not accepting applause after famous speeches. London critics in particular noted his long bows as Antony over the body of Caesar during the Meininger tours to Great Britain in 1881. Barnay was instrumental in founding the Genossenschaft deutscher Bühnen-Angehörigier, the German actors' benevolent association, whose goal was to counter the influence of the Deutscher Bühneverein (German League of Theaters), founded in 1846 to promote the interests of managers, producers, and owners.

   Barnay tried his hand at co-managing a theater in 1883 when he agreed to join fellow actors Fredrich Haase, Ernst Possart, August Förster, Siegwart Friedmann, and playwright Adolph L'Arronge at Berlin's Friedrich-Wilhelmstädtisches Theater in 1883. The leader of that venture was L'Arronge, who changed the theater's name to Deutsches Theater, intending to imitate French management styles by featuring sociétaires in leading roles. Barnay was a sociétaire, but he departed after only one year. He became a manager in his own right when he leased the Walhalla Theater (for many years associated with operetta productions) in 1888 and renamed it the Berliner Theater. Barnay's goal was to do classics, with himself in the leading roles, at low prices to attract a less affluent clientele. He had some success with his venture, but gave it up in 1893. Barnay ran the Wiesbaden City Theater until 1906, though he was frequently on tour. His American tours were particularly lucrative. At the Germania Theater in New York, he played leading roles in Hamlet, King Lear, Friedrich Schiller's Wallenstein's Death, Karl Gutzkow's Uriel Acosta, and his own Kean. In 1906 Barnay was named principal director at the Royal Theater in Berlin, and in 1908 he was appointed director of the Royal Theater in Hannover, where he remained until his retirement in 1911.