LUDWIG

See also:

• DEVRIENT

DEVRIENT (1784-1832)  , born in Berlin on the 15th of December 1784, was the son of a silk merchant . He was apprenticed to an upholsterer, but, suddenly leaving his employment, joined a travelling theatrical company, and made his first appearance on the stage at Gera in 1804 as the messenger in Schiller's Braut von Messina . By the interest of Count Briihl, he appeared at Rudolstadt as Franz Moor in Schiller's Ri uber, so successfully that he obtained a permanent engagement at the ducal theatre in Dessau, where he played until 18o9 . He then received a call to Breslau, where he remained for six years . So brilliant was his success in the title-parts of several of Shakespeare's plays, that If land began to fear for his own reputation; yet that great artist was generous enough to recommend the young actor as his only possible successor . On If land's death Devrient was summoned to Berlin, where he was for fifteen years the popular idol . He died there on the 3oth of December 1832 . Ludwig Devrient was equally great in comedy and tragedy . Falstaff, Franz Moor, Shylock, King Lear and Richard II. were among his best parts . Karl von Holtei in his Reminiscences has given a graphic picture of him and the " demoniac fascination " of his acting . See Z . Funck, Aus dem Leben zweier Schauspieter, Ifflands and Devrients (Leipzig, 1838) ; H .

Smidt in Devrient-Novellen (3rd ed., Berlin, 1882); R .

Springer in the novel Devrient and Hoffmann (Berlin, 1873), and Eduard Devrient's Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (Leipzig, 1861) . Three of the nephews of Ludwig Devrient, sons of his brother, a merchant, were also connected with the stage . KARL AUGUST DEVRIENT (1797-1872) was born at Berlin on the 5th of April 1797 . After being for a short time in business, he entered a cavalry regiment as volunteer and fought at Waterloo . He then joined the stage, making his first appearance on the stage in 1819 at Brunswick . In 1821 he received an engagement at the court theatre in Dresden, where, in 1823, he married Wilhelmine Schroder (see SCHRODER-DEVRIENT) . In 1835 he joined the company at Karlsruhe, and in 1839 that at Hanover . His best parts were Wallenstein and King Lear . He died on the 5th of April 1872 . His brother PHILIPP EDUARD DEVRIENT (1801-1877), born at Berlin on the Iith of August 18o1, was for a time an opera singer . Turning his attention to theatrical management, he was from 1844 to 1846 director of the court theatre in Dresden .

Appointed to Karlsruhe in 1852, he began a thorough reorganization of the theatre, and in the course of seventeen years of assiduous labour, not only raised it to a high position, but enriched its repertory by many noteworthy librettos, among which

Die Gunst des Augenblicks and Verirrungen are the best known . But his chief work is his history of theGerman stage—Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (Leipzig, 1848-1874) . He died on the 4th of October 1877 . A complete edition of his works—Dramatische and dramaturgische Schriften—was published in ten volumes (Leipzig, 1846-1873) . The youngest and the most famous of the three nephews of Ludwig Devrient was GUSTAV ESUL DEVRIENT (1803-1872), born in Berlin on the 4th of September 18o3 . He made his first appearance on the stage in 1821, at Brunswick, as Raoul in Schiller's Jungfrau von Orleans . After a short engagement in Leipzig, he received in 1829 a call to Hamburg, but after two years accepted a permanent appointment at the court theatre in Dresden, to which he belonged until his retirement in 1868 . His chief characters were Hamlet, Uriel Acosta (in Karl Gutzkow's play), Marquis Posa (in Schiller's Don Carlos), and Goethe's Torquato Tasso . He acted several times in London, where his Hamlet was considered finer than Kemble's or Edmund Kean's . He died on the 7th of August 1872 .