Otto Erich Hartleben
Otto Erich Hartleben was a German playwright and writer born in Clausthal, Germany, who gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite achieving success with his satirical comedies and romantic tragedies, he remained his own harshest critic, often viewing his works as trivial and irrelevant. After studying law at three universities, Hartleben transitioned to writing, establishing his career in Berlin as a freelance writer. His notable plays include "Angele," which explores themes of infidelity and independence, and "Hanna Jagert," featuring a working-class woman rejecting socialist ideals for her self-reliance. Hartleben's most famous work, "Rosenmontag," depicts tragic romance amidst societal pressures and was widely performed across German-speaking theaters. However, he struggled with feelings of doubt regarding the significance of his contributions to theater. Hartleben's life was marred by alcoholism, leading to his death in 1905 in Italy, leaving behind a legacy that, while popular in his time, has largely been forgotten in subsequent generations.
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Subject Terms
Otto Erich Hartleben
Poet
- Born: June 3, 1864
- Birthplace: Clausthal, Harz, Germany
- Died: February 11, 1905
- Place of death: Salò, Gardasee, Italy
Biography
Otto Erich Hartleben was his own harshest—and some would say—most discerning critic. Despite the success of his satirical comedies and romantic tragedies, Hartleben considered his work deficient and trivial. Hartleben, born in Clausthal, Germany, lived in Berlin during the last decade of the 1890’s. In 1901, having gained financial independence, he moved to Salò in northern Italy, where he died in 1905 from complications associated with alcoholism.
Hartleben had studied law at three German universities following his graduation from the gymnasium (academic secondary school) in Celle, Germany. Otto Hartleben was the son of a civil servant, Herman, and his wife. Otto worked as a court stenographer in Stolberg, Germany in 1889, and the following year as a court clerk in Magdeburg. In 1890, he became a freelance writer in Berlin. He married his wife, Selma, on December 2, 1893.
Hartleben’s Angele was produced in Berlin in November, 1890. A comic, ironic tale of the vengeance of a cynical husband disturbed by his wife’s infidelity, it was well received. The offended husband has an affair with Angele, his son’s mistress, who is also having an affair with a preacher-in-training. When Angele’s involvement in this triangle is recognized as being solely for financial gain, she is shunned and told that she should peddle her sexual favors on the streets, an outrageous suggestion at a time when Victorian standards permeated Germany. Angele astounds everyone by agreeing to take to the streets, leaving her lovers in disbelief. Angele is an self-reliant woman, but her lovers view her independence with derision, contempt, and abhorrence. The success of this play encouraged yet depressed Hartleben, who viewed it as irrelevant and inconsequential.
Hartleben’s next play, Hanna Jagert, received the sort of free publicity that assured its success before its opening, which was delayed by the police as a threat to public morality. In this play, as in Angele, Hanna is a working-class woman who strives for independence. She cannot accept the socialist views of her lover, Konrad Thieme. After being jailed for his political views, Konrad seeks to marry Hanna, but she rejects him and opens her own business instead.
In Hartleben’s most popular and famous play, Rosenmontag, two lovers suffer external interference with their romance that cause the protagonist, Hans Rudorff, to negate his promise to marry Gertrude. The two enjoy a final night together during Carnival before killing themselves. Scarcely a major theater in Germany or Austria failed to present this play between 1900 and 1910. Despite the play’s success, Hartleben thought that it was overly sentimental and pandered to popular tastes rather than exploring the deep psychological motives of its two major characters.
When Hartleben died, he was at the peak of his popularity as a dramatist, but he doubted his importance as a playwright. His plays ran their course and have been all but forgotten by future generations.