The poisonous lunacy of pre-war
Germany's racial policies affected every aspect of
German culture, not least of all the theater.

To fully understand the changes that German theater
underwent during World War II, one must first examine
the uniquely German quality of Bildung, which permeated
and influenced every aspect of German culture since the
sixteenth century. At first referring to a concept in
which people might access the innate qualities of God
thought to be imbued in every Christian’s soul, the term
evolved beyond religion to include more “enlightened”
human characteristics. Ironically, it was a Jew, Moses
Mendelssohn, who in the seventeenth century published a
well-received paper, comparing Bildung to Enlightenment
itself.

By the end of eighteenth century,
Johann Gottfried von Herder had expanded the meaning of
Bildung beyond the sense of individual development to
incorporate a sense of national identity and common
destiny. By this time German theater had become
distinctive through its developing focus on nurturing Bildung within its audiences. The
theater provided a
unifying voice at a time when Germany faced political,
economical and social challenges. Building upon a
tradition of realism, German theater “acted out” the
concept of Bildung, illustrating clearly how
nationalistic Germans should behave.

Yet by World War I, another cultural movement had grown.
Expressionism stressed an individualistic, entirely
subjective perspective on life. Expressionistic plays,
later known as “Epic theater,” often dramatized a
struggle against authority, using radical, new methods
to convey radical, new ideas. Unorthodox speech,
sometimes rhapsodic, sometimes clipped and stark,
telegraphed a sense of the a play’s meaning. Staging and
acting techniques were devised, intended to inform
audiences about modern day injustices and inequality. In
the brief period between World War I and II, Epic
theater played counterpart to the more
socially-acceptable nationalistic theater. Although not
extremely popular at the time, the plays would provide
fodder for the Nazi regime.

Expressionism’s emphasis on the personal was anathema to
the rising nationalism. While Herder’s vision had been
for social unity established through a classless
society, German militarism was seizing upon the growing
nationalism to empower the rise of the Third Reich.
Leading figures of the Nazi movement were beginning to
call for censorship and changes in repertoire.
Grand-scaled productions began to appear, such as Hann
Johst’s “Schlageter,” a play about the occupation of the
Ruhr during World War I, which reawakened militaristic
ambitions, and “Thingspiele,” which promoted the notion
of a national “rebirth.” When these productions proved
too costly to maintain, Goebbels used regulations to
impede the development of “ecstatic theater amateurism”
and discouraged plays set in modern day. theater staff
were frequently replaced. New stages were built for
specifically themed venues such as “factory plays” or
“solemnity plays.”

Hitler himself argued that expressionistic art were
“sickly aberrations of the insane and depraved.” Many
historians view his rage against modern art as
reflecting his own artistic tendencies, which were
towards romantic realism, and were generally dismissed
by contemporary critics and galleries. Hitler demanded
that the arts be purged, including the theater, which he
compared to side shows in depravity. In “Volk and Race,”
Hitler blamed the Jews for a declining culture. In a
sense, he saw all Jews as “actors,” since he viewed Jews
as people playing roles within a “host” country.
Therefore, he reasoned, the theater was particularly
prone to a Jewish cultural assault.

The Third Reich worked hard to remove from history all
the contributions of Jews to German theater. Considering
that up to a fourth of the Propaganda Ministry’s budget
went into efforts by the National Socialist regime to
promote and maintain Hitler’s ideas of theater, it was a
dismal failure. Propaganda plays were too pedantic to
enjoy long-term success. Productions costs plagued the
party. Some theater owners began to produce plays with
foreign talent which tarnished the reputation of
National Socialist theater professionals. As the regime
began to founder, more liberal and apolitical plays
increased, continuing to grow in popularity as the war
ended, as a reminder of the brutality and censorship of
the Nazi regime.