Kerr, Alfred

born Kempner (1867-1948)

   poet and critic; among the most influential drama critics during 1895-1920. Born in Breslau (now Wroclaw), he moved to Berlin* in 1887 and began writing for Tägliche Rundschau. A student of philosophy and German literature, he wrote his doctoral thesis in 1894 on the poetry of Clemens Brentano and thereafter returned to his work as critic and freelance writer. His early success was partially owed to the friendship of Theo-dor Fontane, who helped him get published in the magazine Nation. Noted for elegance and wit, he already drew large fees for his journalism during his student days. By 1900 his criticism was appearing in Tag, Neue Rundschau, Frankfurter Zeitung, and Berliner Tageblatt—Germany's most prestigious newspapers*— and he was able to live and travel without financial worry. In 1911 he took the name Kerr.

   A romantic in style and form, Kerr treasured the work of Ibsen and Shaw, promoted that of Wedekind and Gerhart Hauptmann,* and misunderstood that of Bertolt Brecht.* While his poisoned-penned criticism was feared, he became Ernst Toller's* champion after seeing Die Wandlung (The transformation) in 1919. But when Kreuzweg (Crossroad) was staged in 1920, he announced that Carl Zuckmayer* would "never engender a sentence that can be spoken on the stage"; respecting Iwan Goll, he reviled Arnolt Bronnen's* Exzesse as "inco-herent and decked out with obscenities." Belatedly warming to Max Reinhardt,* he embraced the political theater* of Erwin Piscator,* due in part to his own ill-defined socialism. Equal to his criticism were his furious disputes, carried on in Berliner Tageblatt, with fellow critics Herbert Ihering* and Karl Kraus. Al-though enmity existed between Kerr and Maximilian Harden,* the latter refused to be drawn into battle with someone "who made his living by splattering me with mud." In any case, by the mid-1920s Kerr's influence was waning.

   Of Jewish heritage, Kerr fled Germany on 15 February 1933. He was in London by late 1935 and eventually assisted the BBC with its anti-Nazi broad-casts. At the behest of Britain's Foreign Office, the eighty-one-year-old Kerr returned to Germany in 1948 as part of a lecture tour; he died in Berlin.

   REFERENCES:Benz and Graml, Biographisches Lexikon; NDB, vol. 11; Willett, Theatre of the Weimar Republic; Young, Maximilian Harden.