Dalberg, Wolfgang Heribert von

(1750-1806)

   Director, manager. Dalberg was among the most significant managers of the late 18th century, training such artists as August Wilhelm Iffland and Friedrich Schiller and creating what came to be an auspicious theatrical enterprise in Mannheim. As a court minister in the duchy of Würrtemberg, he received his appointment as "honorary director" of the Mannheim theater as a kind of hobby. He invited the Gotha company to reside in Mannheim in 1778, and one year later the Mannheim National Theater came into existence. From 1779 to 1796 (when the theater was temporarily closed due to the Napoleonic wars), Dalberg engaged numerous outstanding performers as part of his ensemble; many of them (like Iffland and Ferdinand Fleck) established their careers under Dalberg, while others (like Abel Seyler) saw their careers rescued and even extended. Dalberg not only premiered Schiller's Die Räuber (The Robbers), Fiesko, and Kabale und Liebe (Intrigue and Love) but even named Schiller his theater's resident playwright. Dalberg also staged several new translations of William Shakespeare's works. The best of them was Julius Caesar, which he premiered in 1785; Timon of Athens in 1789 was not so successful. Dalberg's own plays were even less successful, though several troupes continued to perform them periodically throughout the 18th century.