Schweikart, Hans

(1895-1975)

   Director, intendant. Schweikart began his career as an actor in 1915 in his native Berlin, but his career is most closely identified with Munich, where he worked for more than half a century. Under Otto Falckenberg, he played a wide variety of leading roles at the Kammerspiele beginning in 1923. By 1926 he was directing there, and in 1934 he moved to the Bavarian State Theater as that institutions's chief director. Beginning in 1938 he divided his time between theater and film, directing 10 films for the Bavaria Studio in Munich. In 1947 Schweikart assumed leadership of the Kammerspiele, which he guided through the 1950s to the top ranks of German theaters, largely by fostering the productions of Fritz Kortner and staging the West German premieres of Friedrich Dürrenmatt. His productions of plays by Arthur Miller were widely praised as well, particularly his Death of a Salesman in 1950. After his retirement from the Kammerspiele in 1963, Schweikart staged several West German premieres of plays by Harold Pinter, Christopher Hampton, Edward Albee, and Peter Shaffer.