Heinz Hilpert

"It is still easier to turn a great artist into a decent Nazi over time than it is to turn a small nazi into a great artist." - Hermann Göring on Heinz Hilpert 
Heinz Hilpert (born March 1, 1890 in Berlin; † November 25, 1967 in Göttingen) was a human being who worked at the theater and was boss at the Volksbühne from 1932 to 1932. <Br />
== Life and work ==
==== before ∇ ====
He was appointed by Max Reinhardt as senior director at DT in 1926. There he staged world premieres of such insignificant plays as Der Hauptmann von Köpenick by his buddy Carl Zuckmayer or Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald by Ödön von Horváth, who was killed by a branch a few years later, with which Hilpert did nothing had to do.
==== ∇ ====
He began working as an actor at the Volksbühne as early as 1919.
From July 1, 1932, he managed the house and then repeatedly positioned himself rather to the left, even if that wasn't exactly easy from January 1933 onwards. Kiehn, Ute. Theater im "Dritten Reich": Volksbühne Berlin. Wissenschaftlicher Verlag, Berlin, 2001. In March 1933 he announced that he would also stage Horváth here (probably the world premiere of "Glaube, Liebe, Hoffnung" - a similarly insignificant play). Since the author made a big mess of himself with the later Dramaturge of the Reich and Horst Rainer Schlösser (he wanted to decide for himself who to cast), it is not surprising that this never happened. Ödon von Horváth: Glaube Liebe Hoffnung. Ein kleiner Totentanz. Wiener Ausgabe / Vejvar, Martin (Hrsg.), Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2015. However, Joseph Goebbels was an absolute Hilpert fan and was committed to ensuring that he didn't have to fall deep, or actually didn't have to fall at all.
==== after ∇ ====
After his brief interlude as boss at the Volksbühne, he returned to DT, where he succeeded Max Reinhardt, who had fled, from 1934 until the Berlin theaters closed on September 1, 1944, and where he was also director after joining Austria in the Josefstadt. When the front was in his own homeland, he had to work in factories. Even if things didn't go back to the way he had before, the good Heinz was soon big in the business again and was, among other things, the boss at the DT franchise, this time in Göttingen. Since that was so honorable, they put a stature of him on another DT. He is also remembered fondly as a humanist. https://www.zeit.de/1960/09/mit-zigarre-und-rotwein-aber-ohne-regiebuch https://georgkasch.de/2020/11/06/kommentar-startuß-fuer-eine-neue-aera/ 
From July 26, 1944 to June 16, 1945 he wrote a diary about his secret relationship with Annelise "Nuschka" Heuser, whom he married in 1947 after she fled to Switzerland. https://lustauflesen.de/hilpert_tagebuch-fuer-nuschka/
== References ==