Max Herrmann (theatrologist)

Max Herrmann (14 May 1865 – 17 November 1942) was a German literary historian and theorist of theatre studies. He is considered to be the founding father of theatre studies in Germany.

Born in Berlin into a Jewish family, Herrmann, having passed his A-levels, in 1884 began studying Germanic Philology and History at the Universities of Freiburg, Göttingen and Berlin. In 1891 he became Privatdozent for Germanic Philology at the University of Berlin and in 1898 he married Helene Schlesinger. In 1900 he gave his first lectures on theatre studies at the Department of Germanic Studies in Berlin. In his interpretation and analysis of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Jahrmarktsfest in Plundersweilern he not only included results based on research of the original sources but also the stage history of the play. After having been appointed professor in 1903 he continued working as a free-lance lecturer and contributed to a number of literary societies, such as the Society for Theatre Studies. In 1914 he published his most renowned work "Research on the History of German Theatre in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance" (Forschungen zur deutschen Theatergeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance) in which he further specified his approach. In 1916 he founded the "Library of German Private and Manuscript Prints" (Bibliothek Deutscher Privat- und Manuskriptdrucke) at Berlin State Library.

Herrmann advocated vehemently the emancipation of theatre studies from German Studies. In 1919 he was offered a chair at the University of Berlin. When, in 1923, the Institute of Theatre Studies at Berlin University, world-wide the first of its kind, was founded despite much resistance from the more established disciplines, Herrmann was appointed its head, a function he fulfilled alternately with Julius Petersen.

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