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Gustav Kadelburg

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Gustav Kadelburg (26 January 1851, in Pest – 11 September 1925, in Berlin) was a Hungarian-German actor and dramatist. His greatest success came posthumously, the operetta version of his play The White Horse Inn.

Gustav Kadelburg, 1904

Biography

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Kadelburg was born into a Jewish family from Budapest, his parents were Moritz Kadelburg and Johanna née Hasenfeld. He had a younger sister, a younger brother and several half–siblings from the first marriage of his father. In the 1860s or 1870s the family moved to Vienna. He became an actor against the will of his father, just like his brother Heinrich (1856-1910). His acting teacher was Alexander Strakosch. He debuted in Halle an der Saale and made his first appearance at Leipzig in 1869. Two years later he performed at the Wallnertheater in Berlin. From 1878 to 1880 he was engaged at the Vienna Stadttheater, where he played Bonvivant roles. Thereafter he moved to Berlin. From 1884 on he was performing at Deutsches Theater in Berlin. In 1889 he could be seen as Ingenieur Hoffmann in the world premiere of Gerhart Hauptmann’s drama Vor Sonnenaufgang at the Lessing Theater in Berlin.[1] He was also very successful in comedy parts, but abandoned the stage in 1894 to write comedies and farces.

As a playwright

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He became one of the most prolific and successful dramatists in German language at the turn of the century, often partnering with collegues such as Franz von Schönthan (1849-1913), the co-author (with his brother) of the highly successful German comedy Der Raub der Sabinerinnen.[2] A long-lasting partnership existed with Oscar Blumenthal, a former theatre critic, later director of the Lessing Theater. His plays were seen all over Germany, in the Habsburg monarchy and abroad. Many of them were translated into other languages such as English and Hungarian. In 1908, The Manchester Guardian reviewed Der Weg zur Hölle ("The Road to Hell"), his farce over three acts, then playing at the Midland Theatre. While chiding the lack of originality, the reviewer praised the pace - neither too quick to exhaust nor too slow to see the chinks.[3]

Following the example of Wiener Blut, a potpourri of late Joseph Lanner’s most famous melodies was put together and brought to the stage in 1911 as an operetta, called Alt-Wien. Kadelburg was involved in the textbook, but the work did not achieve a lasting success. In 1912 he created the plot for a musical comedy by Jean Gilbert, who later-on had to go into exile. Victor Hollaender [de] (1866-1940) wrote the score for Blumenthal's and Kadelburg's play Hans Huckebein which premiered with the new title Die Schöne vom Strande in 1915. Also Hollaender was later-on forced to emigrate.

He was married to Julie née Strelow. He was buried at Stahnsdorf South-Western Cemetery.

Posthumous reception

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During his lifetime Gustav Kadelburg became a well respected dramatist and a wealthy man — due to the royalties from his long running plays. However, he did not witness his rise to international fame nor his fall. He died in 1925. His play Familie Schimek was adapted into a film three times, 1926 by Alfred Halm, 1935 by E. W. Emo and 1957 by Georg Jacoby. Three more of his plots were transponed into silent movies, amongst them The White Horse Inn. This play, written together with Oscar Blumenthal in 1898, was also transformed into an operetta with music from Ralph Benatzky, Robert Gilbert, Bruno Granichstaedten and Robert Stolz. It was produced by Erik Charell in 1930 at Berlin's Großes Schauspielhaus, a prominent cast led the premiere to a stunning and long lasting success worldwide. The operetta was presented in London, Paris, New York and many other cities. The West End production achieved 631 performances, placing it third among all operettas ever performed there. In Switzerland, 347 performances were counted in the first three seasons alone[4] and on Broadway it ranked on the 9th place with 238 performances.[5] Also the upcoming sound movies (since the late 1920s) were favourable for Kadelburg's plays, since the witty dialogues and the subtle portrayal of his characters came into effect. The wave of successes of Kadelburg's plays ended abruptly in 1933 in Germany (after the Nazis came to power) and in 1939 everywhere else (when they caused WW2).

Apart from The White Horse Inn, the reception never recovered.

Literary works

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His best-known plays (some written in conjunction with Franz von Schönthan [de], Oscar Blumenthal or other colleagues) are:

Sole authorship

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  • Voltaire wird verbrannt (1876, German adaption of Brûlons Voltaire ! [fr] by Eugène Marin Labiche and Louis Leroy)
  • Der wilde Baron (1880)
  • In Zivil (1892)
  • Das Bärenfell (1899)
  • Das schwache Geschlecht (1900)
  • Das Pulverfass (1900)
  • Der neue Vormund (1901)
  • Familie Schierke (1902; later version Familie Schimek, 1915)
  • Der Familientag (1904)
  • Der Weg zur Hölle (1905; produced in English by William Collier as The Girl He Couldn't Leave Behind Him)
  • Der Reisebegleiter (1917)

Co-author together with Franz von Schönthan

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Schönthan (left), Kadelburg (right)
  • Goldfische (1886) (produced in English by Augustin Daly as The Railroad of Love)
  • Die berühmte Frau (1888) (produced in English by Augustin Daly as The Great Unknown)
  • Zwei glückliche Tage (1892)
  • Der Herr Senator (1894)
  • Zum wohltätigen Zweck (1895)

Co-author together with Oscar Blumenthal

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  • Die Großstadtluft [de] (1891) (produced in English by Augustin Daly as A Test Case: Or, Grass Versus Granite; modern title: A Marriage Contract)
  • Die Orientreise (1892) (produced in English by Augustin Daly as The Orient Express, translated by F. C. Burnand)
  • Mauerblümchen (1893)
  • Zwei Wappen (1894) (adapted in English in the US as The Two Escutcheons by Sydney Rosenfeld)
  • Hans Huckebein (1897) (English adaption: Number 9 – The Lady of Ostend, by F. C. Burnand)
  • The White Horse Inn (1898) (First English adaption: At the White Horse Tavern, by Sydney Rosenfeld)
  • Auf der Sonnenseite (1898)
  • Als ich wiederkam (1899, sequel to The White Horse Inn) (English adaption: Twelve Months Later)
  • Die strengen Herren (1900)
  • Das Theaterdorf (1902)
  • Der blinde Passagier (1902)
  • Der letzte Funke (1906)
  • Die Tür ins Freie (1908; English adaptation: Is Matrimony a Failure? by Leo Ditrichstein)
  • Die Schöne vom Strand (1915; musical version of Hans Huckebein, music by Victor Hollaender [de])

Further collaborations

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Filmography

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References

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  1. ^ S. Fischer Verlage: Der Anfang der Moderne, retrieved on 12 November 2023
  2. ^ William Grange: Theodor Lebrun and Industrial Comeny Space in Nineteenth Century Berlin, University of Nebraska 1999
  3. ^ The Manchester Guardian, THE MIDLAND THEATRE: DER WEG ZUR HOLLE 16 May 1908
  4. ^ Reimar Walthert: Ein verhinderter Welterfolg, Hentrich und Hentrich 2022, p. 14
  5. ^ German Operetta on Broadway and in the West End, 1900-1940, Cambridge University Press 2019
  •   This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Isidore Singer & Edgar Mels (1901–1906). "Gustav Kadelburg". In Singer, Isidore; et al. (eds.). The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
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