Velten, Johann

(1640-1697)

   Actor, manager. Velten was the first significant Prinzipal (actor-manager) among the German touring troupes, and his remarkable education enabled his troupe to perform his translations of plays from the English, French, and even Spanish repertoire long before any other troupe did. He had studied theology in Wittenberg and later received a master's degree from the University of Leipzig. It is not entirely clear how or why a man with his education should have become an actor in the 1660s as he did, but he appears as a member of Paulsen's troupe in Hamburg in the early part of that decade. He had married Paulsen's daughter Catharina Elisabeth sometime earlier, and with the Paulsen troupe, he toured several northern German cities as well as some Scandinavian ones, particularly in Denmark. In 1678 he and his wife left the Paulsen troupe to reside at the Saxon Court in Dresden at the invitation of Johann Georg III, king of Saxony and Imperial Elector. The troupe Velten assembled in Dresden was known officially as the "Saxon Elector's Court Comedians," and with Dresden as their base of operations, the troupe appeared in several venues, most notably Frankfurt am Main, Leipzig, Nuremberg, and eventually the Imperial Court of Emperor Leopold I in Worms. Predominant in the repertoire of Velten's troupe were adaptations from the Englische Komödianten (English Comedians) who had first appeared in German venues a century earlier and the comedies of Molière. Velten's troupe prospered until the death of their patron Johann Georg III in 1691; the troupe was then forced out of Dresden and its attempts to tour successfully or to find another home court proved futile.