Ivan Nagel (28 June 1931 – 9 April 2012) was a German theater scholar, critic and former theater director of Hungarian origin.

Life

Ivan Nagel was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

. He came from a Jewish family who fled their home because of the Second World War, and therefore survived the

Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...

. After the war, Nagel wanted to study in Budapest. This was refused to him by the communist rulers since he was a bourgeois. He fled to Switzerland in 1948. In the 1950s Nagel lived and studied as a refugee first in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

and

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

then in

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

. In Frankfurt he studied philosophy under

Theodor W. Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of criti ...

who later helped him to avoid a threatening deportation (as an "undesirable asylum seeker"). After his studies, he worked as a theater critic in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

and became the chief drama director of the

Munich Kammerspiele The Munich Kammerspiele (German: Münchner Kammerspiele) is a state-funded German-language theater company based at the ''Schauspielhaus'' on Maximilianstrasse in the Bavarian capital. The company currently has three venues: the main stage of ...

. In 1972 he was appointed the director of the

Deutsches Schauspielhaus The Deutsches Schauspielhaus is a theatre in the St. Georg quarter of the city of Hamburg, Germany. It was established in 1901 by the renowned stage actress Franziska Ellmenreich. Theatre managers Notable actors Marco Albrecht, Ingrid ...

(German Play House) in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

and stayed there until 1979. During this time he gathered numerous renowned producers around him. He would become famous from this time on, preceding the productions of

Peter Zadek Peter Zadek (; 19 May 1926 – 30 July 2009) was a German director of theatre, opera and film, a translator and a screenwriter. He is regarded as one of the greatest directors in German-speaking theater. Biography Peter Zadek was born on 19 May ...

who later, in the 1980s, became the director of this stage. Nagel went to New York in 1981 and lived there until 1983. He returned to Germany with the idea of a theater festival that would give an overview of theater development of different cultures around the world. The festival, Theater der Welt (Theater of the World), still takes place in varying German cities. It has given the German public the opportunity to see prominent theater productions like those of

Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook (21 March 1925 – 2 July 2022) was an English theatre and film director. He worked first in England, from 1945 at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre, from 1947 at the Royal Opera House, and from 1962 for the Royal Sha ...

and

Ariane Mnouchkine Ariane Mnouchkine (; born 3 March 1939) is a French stage director. She founded the Parisian avant-garde stage ensemble ''Théâtre du Soleil'' in 1964. She wrote and directed ''1789'' (1974) and ''Molière'' (1978), and directed ''La Nuit Mirac ...

. From 1985 to 1988 Nagel was the director of the Staatstheater Stuttgart, and from 1989 to 1996 Professor of History and Aesthetics at

Berlin University of the Arts The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research universit ...

. He died, aged 80, in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

. His stage achievements aside, Nagel is famous for his theatre theory and portraits of theater directors like

Fritz Kortner Fritz Kortner (born Fritz Nathan Kohn; 12 May 1892 – 22 July 1970) was an Austrian stage and film actor and theatre director. Life and career Kortner was born in Vienna as Fritz Nathan Kohn into a Jewish family. He studied at the Vienna A ...

, Peter Stein and

. His book about Mozart's Opera ''Autonomy and Mercy'' has been translated into English, French and Japanese.

Achievements

Ivan Nagel received the 2000 Moses Mendelssohn Prize and the 2002

Order of Merit of Berlin The Order of Merit of Berlin (german: Verdienstorden des Landes Berlin) is this highest award of the German State of Berlin. Awarded in the name of the Senate of Berlin, the order had recognized outstanding contributions to the State of Berlin sin ...

(Verdienstorden des Landes Berlin). In 2003, he was honored with the Bundesverdienstkreuz and the Ernst Bloch Prize.

References

External links

Literature on and about Ivan Nagel
in the Catalog of the

German National Library The German National Library (DNB; german: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek) is the central archival library and national bibliographic centre for the Federal Republic of Germany. It is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its task is to colle ...

Lecture about "Historical Paintings and Drama" in the Tele-academy of the Southwest Broadcast

(Press Announcement of the Land Berlin) to award the 2003 Bundesverdienstkreuz

(Ivan Nagel: Wowereit presents Bundesverdienstkreuz) {{DEFAULTSORT:Nagel, Ivan 1931 births 2012 deaths German people of Hungarian-Jewish descent German theatre critics Heinrich Mann Prize winners Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Order of Merit of Berlin German male non-fiction writers