!!!Iffland-Ring

Iffland-Ring, legendary ring showing the portrait of the German actor 
A. W. Iffland studded with tiny cut diamonds. The German actor 
Iffland gave the ring to Ludwig Devrient, who passed it on to his 
nephew E. Devrient. This is how bequeathing the ring to who the 
testator felt was the best living German-language actor of his time 
became an established tradition (successors after Devrient were F. 
Doering, F. Haase and A. Bassermann); in 1935, however, A. Bassermann 
decided to donate the Iffland-ring to the Bundestheatermuseum. After 
Bassermann´s death the Federal Minister of Education decided 
that the ring should again be passed on to the best contemporary 
German-speaking actor. Accordingly, W.  Krauss was awarded the Iffland 
ring in 1954; his successor was J.  Meinrad. After Meinrad´s 
death the ring was passed on to B. Ganz in 1996. According to the 
statutes laid down by the Federal Ministry of Education in 1954 the 
ring has to be passed on even if no official successor has been 
determined by the previous owner. "By tradition, a woman cannot wear 
the ring" (W. Krauss). The ring has been the property of the Republic 
of Austria since 1954 and ever since has served exclusively for the 
above-mentioned purpose; at present, the ring is passed on either by 
the Federal Minister of Education or by the Federal Minister of 
Science.

!Literature
Der Iffland-Ring, ed. by V. Reimann, 1962.


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