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LUDWIG DEVRIENT (1784-1832)

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 135 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LUDWIG See also:DEVRIENT (1784-1832) , See also:born in See also:Berlin on the 15th of See also:December 1784, was the son of a See also:silk See also:merchant. He was apprenticed to an See also:upholsterer, but, suddenly leaving his employment, joined a travelling theatrical See also:company, and made his first See also:appearance on the See also:stage at See also:Gera in 1804 as the messenger in See also:Schiller's Braut von See also:Messina. By the See also:interest of See also:Count Briihl, he appeared at See also:Rudolstadt as See also:Franz See also:Moor in Schiller's Ri uber, so successfully that he obtained a permanent engagement at the ducal See also:theatre in See also:Dessau, where he played until 18o9. He then received a See also:call to See also:Breslau, where he remained for six years. So brilliant was his success in the See also:title-parts of several of See also:Shakespeare's plays, that If See also:land began to fear for his own reputation; yet that See also:great artist was generous enough to recommend the See also:young actor as his only possible successor. On If land's See also:death Devrient was summoned to Berlin, where he was for fifteen years the popular idol. He died there on the 3oth of December 1832. Ludwig Devrient was equally great in See also:comedy and tragedy. Falstaff, Franz Moor, Shylock, See also:King See also:Lear and See also:Richard II. were among his best parts. Karl von See also:Holtei in his Reminiscences has given a graphic picture of him and the " demoniac See also:fascination " of his acting. See Z. Funck, Aus dem Leben zweier Schauspieter, Ifflands and Devrients (See also:Leipzig, 1838) ; H.

Smidt in Devrient-Novellen (3rd ed., Berlin, 1882); R. See also:

Springer in the novel Devrient and See also:Hoffmann (Berlin, 1873), and Eduard Devrient's Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (Leipzig, 1861). Three of the nephews of Ludwig Devrient, sons of his See also:brother, a merchant, were also connected with the stage. KARL See also:AUGUST DEVRIENT (1797-1872) was born at Berlin on the 5th of See also:April 1797. After being for a See also:short See also:time in business, he entered a See also:cavalry See also:regiment as volunteer and fought at See also:Waterloo. He then joined the stage, making his first appearance on the stage in 1819 at See also:Brunswick. In 1821 he received an engagement at the See also:court theatre in See also:Dresden, where, in 1823, he married Wilhelmine See also:Schroder (see SCHRODER-DEVRIENT). In 1835 he joined the company at See also:Karlsruhe, and in 1839 that at See also:Hanover. His best parts were See also:Wallenstein and King Lear. He died on the 5th of April 1872. His brother PHILIPP EDUARD DEVRIENT (1801-1877), born at Berlin on the Iith of August 18o1, was for a time an See also:opera See also:singer. Turning his See also:attention to theatrical management, he was from 1844 to 1846 director of the court theatre in Dresden.

Appointed to Karlsruhe in 1852, he began a thorough reorganization of the theatre, and in the course of seventeen years of assiduous labour, not only raised it to a high position, but enriched its repertory by many noteworthy librettos, among which See also:

Die Gunst See also:des Augenblicks and Verirrungen are the best known. But his See also:chief See also:work is his See also:history of theGerman stage—Geschichte der deutschen Schauspielkunst (Leipzig, 1848-1874). He died on the 4th of See also:October 1877. A See also:complete edition of his See also:works—Dramatische and dramaturgische Schriften—was published in ten volumes (Leipzig, 1846-1873). The youngest and the most famous of the three nephews of Ludwig Devrient was GUSTAV ESUL DEVRIENT (1803-1872), born in Berlin on the 4th of See also:September 18o3. He made his first appearance on the stage in 1821, at Brunswick, as Raoul in Schiller's See also:Jungfrau von See also:Orleans. After a short engagement in Leipzig, he received in 1829 a call to See also:Hamburg, but after two years accepted a permanent See also:appointment at the court theatre in Dresden, to which he belonged until his retirement in 1868. His chief characters were See also:Hamlet, Uriel See also:Acosta (in Karl See also:Gutzkow's See also:play), See also:Marquis Posa (in Schiller's See also:Don See also:Carlos), and See also:Goethe's Torquato See also:Tasso. He acted several times in See also:London, where his Hamlet was considered finer than See also:Kemble's or See also:Edmund See also:Kean's. He died on the 7th of August 1872.

End of Article: LUDWIG DEVRIENT (1784-1832)

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