Lothar Schreyer (1886 in Blasewitz – 1966 in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

) was a German artist, writer, editor, stage designer and gallery owner. He was the first Master of the stagecraft workshop at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

art school.Bauhaus100. Workshops. Stagecraft
Retrieved 6 December 2018

Life and Work

Schreyer was born in Blasewitz in 1886. He studied art history at

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

and then law at universities in Berlin and Leipzig. In 1910 he graduated in literary and artistic copyright law.Bauhaus100. Lothar Schreyer
Retrieved 6 December 2018 From 1911 to 1918, he worked as a

dramaturge A dramaturge or dramaturg is a literary adviser or editor in a theatre, opera, or film company who researches, selects, adapts, edits, and interprets scripts, libretti, texts, and printed programmes (or helps others with these tasks), consults au ...

and assistant director at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in

and from 1916 until 1928 he was the editor of Der Sturm magazine, owned by Herwarth Walden, with whom he became a close collaborator on several projects. At the same time, he also taught at the ''Sturm-Schule für Bühnenkunst und Pantomime'' ('Sturm school of stagecraft and pantomime') until 1924. In 1918 Scheyer and Walden founded the ''Sturmbühne'', an expressionist theatre. Schreyer’s first plays Kreuzigung (Crucifixion) and Kindssterben (Death of a Child) were performed during his tenure as director there. Scheyer left the theatre in 1921.Toepfer, Karl (1997
Walter Holdt and Lavinia Schulz
in ''Empire of Ecstasy: Nudity and Movement in German Body Culture, 1910–1935''. Berkeley: University of California Press. Retrieved 6 December 2018 In 1921

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...

, director of the Bauhaus in Weimar, invited him to lead school's stagecraft workshop. Gropius established the workshop to explore theatrical methods, as he saw similarities between building and stage work. Students from all departments were encouraged to participate. Scheyer, like fellow teachers

Johannes Itten Johannes Itten (11 November 1888 – 25 March 1967) was a Swiss expressionist painter, designer, teacher, writer and theorist associated with the Bauhaus (''Staatliches Bauhaus'') school. Together with German-American painter Lyonel Feinin ...

and

Gertrud Grunow Gertrud Grunow (8 July 1870 – 11 June 1944) was a German musician and educationalist who formulated theories on the relationships between sound, colour and movement and was a specialist in vocal pedagogy. She taught courses in the "theory of harmo ...

, was regarded as one of the Bauhaus 'esoterics', as opposed to the more technically-minded Gropius.Bauhaus100.Curriculum. Harmonisation theory 1919-1924
Retrieved 2 December 2018 He was experimental and concealed his players behind geometric full-body masks to explore the language of form. However, his plays such as ''Mondspiel'' (Moon Play) and ''Kreuzigung'' (Crucifixion) were not well received at the school and he left in 1923. He was succeeded by

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the w ...

. From 1924 to 1927, he was a teacher at the Berlin art school 'Der Weg'. From 1928 to 1931, he was head editor of the publishing house ''Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt''. In 1933 he converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. During the 1930s, he was concerned with Christian mysticism and folk ideas, and ultimately the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

ideology. He was one of 88 German writers who signed the Gelöbnis treuester Gefolgschaft, a 1933 public declaration of faithful allegiance to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and the ...

.88 "writers"
in ''Letters of Heinrich and Thomas Mann, 1900-1949''. (vol. 12) ''Weimar and Now: German Cultural Criticism''. University of California Press, 1998 , p. 367-8 This did not stop his work being classified by the Nazis as

degenerate art Degenerate art (german: Entartete Kunst was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, ...

. It was shown in the 1937 Degenerate Art Exhibition (German: ''Die Ausstellung "Entartete Kunst"'') in Munich.

Collections

Amongst other public collections, Schreyer's art work is held by: *

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 19 ...

(LACMA) *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of t ...

(MoMA), New York *

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress) ...

New York Public Library Digital Collections. Kreuzigung Spielwerk VII
Retrieved 7 December 2018

Bibliography

*Schreyer, Lothar; Keith-Smith, Brian (ed.) (2001, 3rd ed
''Theateraufsätze''
New York: Edwin Mellen Press

References

External links

Bauhaus100. Workshops. StagecraftBauhaus100. Lothar Schreyer
''Artnet'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Schreyer, Lothar German artists Bauhaus teachers 1886 births 1966 deaths Converts to Roman Catholicism