Drama

Drama in Germany has always been of general lifestyle, as in any country. However, no two country's drama styles are exactly the same. So here is the German drama...

The first real recorded drama in Germany was in the 1500's or 1600's, when it became popular in the court to have a court theatre, under the influence of Italian opera. However, only opera and not not plays were performed there.

The first plays came from English travelling theatres which came over in 1590. Gradually, the Germans took onto the idea of spoken work by touring performers, and the English travelling theatres were gradually replaced by Germans. The storyline in touring theatres had to change all the time to keep people interested. It was usually violent and with very exaggerated characters. 'Hanswurt' was a common character based on 'Harlequin' in 'commedia dell'arte' but could be a serious or evil character as well.

However, it was all touring until about 1725. The touring theatres were costly and took time and the actors had no proper homes and were not paid well (as actors were considered very low class jobs), so started getting replaced by the public fixed theatres.

The drama then took its own unique course. Germany developed a 'romantic' drama which was copied by many other countries. The style stayed on the stage for over 150 years.

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