Theatre: Stratford-on-Rhine

When Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933, one of his problems was to satisfy the German passion for music and drama without indulging the non-Aryan composers, playwrights and directors who were to a large degree responsible for them. Music was comparatively easy, for Germany's favorite composer is romantic, loud, Aryan Richard Wagner. Every year at Bayreuth the Führer turns up and sits raptly listening to Tristan und Isolde. But Germany's favorite dramatist is an Elizabethan Englishman: William Shakespeare. And Shakespeare's foremost German producer before Adolf Hitler was a Jewish director, Max Reinhardt, whose summer theatre at Salzburg once ranked with...

Want the full story?

Subscribe Now

Subscribe
Subscribe

Learn more about the benefits of being a TIME subscriber

If you are already a subscriber sign up — registration is free!