!!!Volkstheater, Altwiener

Volkstheater, Altwiener (Old Vienna folk theatre): The institution 
came into its own in suburban Vienna in the early 18%%sup th/%  
century in the course of efforts to achieve independence from Baroque 
court theatre and to create a local, popular counterpart to bourgeois 
tragedies. Lasting for almost 150 years, the Altwiener Volkstheater 
was an institution which reflected the spirit of Old Vienna and was a 
feature inseparable from it. There were a number of formal factors 
common to all forms of the Altwiener Volkstheater: persons of lower 
middle class background, frequently craftsmen, or from the peasant 
milieu rose from their positions as comic minor figures into that of 
protagonists; use of the Viennese vernacular on the stage; plots 
referring to individual, every-day affairs with comic, conciliatory, 
often moralising outcome; numerous interludes in the form of mimes, 
music, dance or fairy-tale scenes, and extempore play, subjects and 
topics usually drawn from light and popular literature or from 
contemporary Italian operas. There was a close connection between the 
Altwiener Volkstheater and its writers and actors: J. A.  
Stranitzky introduced in the  Haupt- und Staatsaktionen ("chief 
and state plays") based on librettos of Italian operas, the 
rustic stock figure of  Hanswurst, a character drawn from the common 
people and standing in the tradition of the Harlequin in the  Commedia 
dell´arte, the Fool in the medieval  Fastnachtsspiele carnival 
plays, and Pickelherring, a character first introduced by the  English 
Comedians. In 1711, Stranitzky found a permanent home for his troop in 
the Vienna  Kaerntnertortheater. G.  Prehauser and his author of local 
farces and musical comedies, P.  Hafner, ensured that Hanswurst 
continued to live on the suburban stages of Vienna. Attempts by the 
censoring authorities to outlaw these impromptu plays ("Hanswurst 
dispute", 1747-1783) may serve as an indicator of the popularity 
of this new form of folk theatre. Hanswurst was revived by J. F.  
Kurz in the character of Bernardon and was at his best in terms of 
comic quality as  Kasperl, a figure called into life by J. J.  La 
Roche, which typified the popular  Puppet Theatre of the 19%%sup th/%  
century. The success of Kasperl, who sometimes also appeared in the 
variety of "Thaddaedl", marked the end of the heyday of the 
old type of indigenous "fools´ comedy". The rise of a 
more bourgeois mentality in the later 19%%sup th/%  century called for 
a renewal of the Altwiener Volkstheater, which was undertaken by 
J. A.  Gleich, K.  Meisl, and A.  Baeuerle. The theatre moved to 
the 3 suburban houses of Vienna, the  Leopoldstaedter Theater, the  
Theater an der Wien, and the  Theater in der Josefstadt. Typical of 
that period were the parody-like farces and comic local plays by 
Gleich, in which Kasperl was gradually replaced by other popular comic 
figures. The main author of Viennese local farces was K. Meisl, whose 
"Besserungsstuecke ("improvement plays") combined 
qualities of a comedy with the intention to enlighten and uplift the 
audience. A. Baeuerle, author of more than 80 fairytale farces and 
comedies, anticipated a movement that relied heavily on fairy-tale 
magic and whose most prominent representative was F.  Raimund. With 
the figure of  Staberl, a suburban Viennese from the lower middle 
class, in the comedy "Die Buerger in Wien ("The Citizens of 
Vienna", 1813), Baeuerle created a character worthy to follow in 
the tradition of Kasperl. With the plays of F. Raimund and J.  
Nestroy, the Altwiener Volkstheater was at its very best and gained 
literary acclaim as well. While Raimund´s pieces were a 
combination of Baroque fairytale theatre and Viennese popular farce, 
Nestroy did not shy from political and critical writing. The 
socio-economic changes affecting Vienna´s population structure 
at the onset of industrialisation in the late 19%%sup th/%  century 
deprived the Altwiener Volkstheater of both an ideological basis and 
an audience, and the entertainment monopoly slowly passed from popular 
plays to the emerging  Operetta. A revival of popular plays, which is, 
however, not exclusively restricted to Vienna, is associated with the 
names of L.  Anzengruber, Oe. von  Horváth, W.  Bauer, and 
P.  Turrini.

!Literature
O. Rommel, Die Alt-Wiener Volkskomoedie, 1952; M. 
Dietrich, Jupiter in Wien oder Goetter und Helden der Antike im 
Altwiener Volkstheater, 1967; J. Hein, Das Wiener Volkstheater, 1978; 
P. Mertz, Wo die Vaeter herrschten. Volkstheater - nicht nur in Tirol, 
1985; J. Hein (ed.), Parodien des Wiener Volkstheaters, 1986; J.-M. 
Valentin (ed.), Das oesterreichische Volkstheater im europaeischen 
Zusammenhang. 1830-1880, 1988; H. Aust, Volksstueck. Vom 
Hanswurstspiel zum sozialen Drama der Gegenwart, 1989.


%%language
[Back to the Austrian Version|AEIOU/Volkstheater,_Altwiener|class='wikipage austrian']
%%

[{FreezeArticle author='AEIOU' template='Lexikon_1995_englisch'}]
[{ALLOW view All}][{ALLOW comment All}][{ALLOW edit FreezeAdmin}]