Fehling, Jurgen

(1885-1968)

   actor and stage director; among the Re-public's finest interpreters of realism. Born in Lübeck to a city senator and Burgermeister, he completed theological and legal studies before breaking with his family in 1910 and becoming an actor at Vienna's Volksbuhne. Moving to Berlin* in 1918, he acted at the Theater am Nollendorfplatz, gained an appoint-ment at Berlin's Volksbuhne, and made his directing debut in March 1920 with a production of Gogol s Heirat (Marriage). Thus began one of Berlin s re-nowned interwar directing careers. He was appointed stage manager in 1922 of Leopold Jessner s* Staatstheater and retained the position until the theater s destruction in a 1944 bombing raid. By focusing on acting rather than the theater* or the stage, Fehling was cel-ebrated as Max Reinhardt s* successor. His productions, which accentuated the realism in Expressionist works, were identified curiously as Expressionistic Re-alism. He introduced such dramatists as Else Lasker-Schüler* and Ernst Toller,* but was linked above all with Ernst Barlach.* Through his cycle of Der arme Vetter (The poor cousin, 1923), Die Sundflut (The flood, 1925), and Der blaue Boll (Squire Blue Boll, 1930), Fehling established Barlach as an important post-Expressionist writer.

   Rising nationalism increasingly led Fehling to the safety of Shakespeare. He demanded total commitment and realism from his actors; his productions were especially successful. After Gustaf Gründgens became the Staatstheater's inten-dant in 1934, Fehling presented a spectrum of works ranging from George Ber-nard Shaw to the irrationality of Knut Hamsun.

   REFERENCES:Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; Willett, Theatre of the Weimar Republic.