Introducing the first series of 'Berlin Stories'
“Berlin Stories” opens with a series of numbered installments, actually historic journal entries by a real-life 22-year-old Berlin theater-worker, writing in 1934....
We open Berlin Stories with “The Lessons of Troupe31” (Die Lektionen von Troupe31), a series of 35 numbered columns, based upon the historic account by a real Berlin theater-worker, giving a very personal and professional narrative. Writing in 1934, this 22-year-old actress describes the process of making three creative and successful “activist” theater productions, beginning three years before.
These texts are based on a rare, unpublished document that I found in a private collection, here in Berlin. I transcribed and translated the actress’s writing, then reworked it — while maintaining her voice and her rich factual story — to incorporate more information (material from my own research). This is the real and fascinating world of many, many “radical” theater-workers in Berlin from that time.1
The three plays were mounted by this dynamic Berlin actress/writer — Ingeborg Franke von Wangenheim (1912-1993) — and her circle of about a dozen friends. These activist actors worked together as a creative, collaborating ensemble, which they dubbed “Troupe 1931” (Truppe 1931). In 1933, Troupe31 was forced to shut down its operations (and run for cover) as Adolf Hitler’s National Socialists (Nazis) took over Germany, finally destroying its fragile democracy (which they had been weakening since 1919).
The earliest chapters of Inge Franke’s story tell how she and her actor/musician friends launch their collectivist theater company, first by recruiting an accomplished writer, theater-and-film actor/director/producer Gustav von Wangenheim (1895-1975). By 1931, Ingeborg Franke’s future husband already was known for his many roles, including his screen portrayal of the Jonathan Harkar character in 1922’s (partly shot-in-Berlin) Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens.
I have prepared Ingeborg Franke’s factual account, describing the landmark theater-production work of Gustav von Wangenheim and the members of Troupe31. It will be released on “Berlin Stories” in weekly installments from now (June 19, 2023) until around February 2024. I have no other plans to publish my interpretation of Franke’s rare factual account, being offered exclusively to paying Berlin Stories subscribers, seeing it for the first time in any language.
So this narrative — packed with very rich and fascinating historical material — is what you will get as a paying subscriber to Berlin Stories. Thanks for helping me get this remarkable true story “out there,” using this new online platform.
When we look closely and retrospectively at what was ‘radical’ in the work of those theater-workers in Berlin of 1932-34, a lot of their creative work — in writing and producing theater and film — seems merely commonplace and rational today. What’s amazing is that the members of Troupe31 were able to create these insightful and inspiring plays — including some really fine political satire — from “scratch” in the ‘belly of the beast’ — during the days of weighty civil conflict that plagued Berlin as the Nazis took power.