Dresen, Adolf

Born in 1935 in the city of Eggesin ( Mecklenburg ) and was named after his father Adolf Dresen, an engineer by profession, who went missing in the early days of the war . Left without a husband, Jadwiga Dresen with her son and three daughters was forced to change her place of residence more than once. Even before school, Adolf came into contact with music thanks to the church, where he could take lessons at first on the accordion , then on the piano . In the post-war period, he attended a monastery school in Rosleben ( Thuringia ), continued his studies in Thale ( Saxony-Anhalt ) and received a matriculation certificate there.

He studied German studies at the University of Leipzig (1953-1959), prepared under the guidance of Hans Meyer the work on the theme “The Formation of Bourgeois Comedy in Leipzig”, presented at the state exam ^[3] .

During an internship in Berliner, the ensemble Adolf Dresen became acquainted with the embodiment of the Brecht idea of ​​an epic theater , based on the traditions of the "theater of performance", in contrast to the "theater of experience" and the Stanislavsky system .

Since 1959, Dresen worked as a theater director in Magdeburg , and then in Greifswald . However, in 1964, his production of Hamlet caused controversy and criticism from the authorities, which banned the performance, removing the director from his post for "leftism and the destruction of the classical heritage" ^[4] .

From 1965 to 1977 Adolf Dresen was the director of the Drama Theater in East Berlin .

The expulsion of dissident Wolf Birman from the German Democratic Republic provoked the movement of several German cultural figures to the West in 1977, including Adolf Dresen ^{[4] [5]} .

From 1977 to 1981 A. Dresen, on the basis of a contract, worked in the Vienna Burgtheater , where he staged, among other things, the play Emilia Galotti with the participation of Klaus Maria Brandauer . In 1981-1985 was a director in Frankfurt am Main , and then worked as a guest opera director in various theaters in Europe - the Paris Chatelet , London Covent Garden , Brussels La Monnet / De Munt , Vienna State Opera and so on ^[3] .

It is noteworthy that after moving to the West in 1977, director Adolf Dresen retained East German citizenship ^[3] . He died in Leipzig in 2001, is buried in Berlin.

The son of Adolf Dresen is a contemporary filmmaker Andreas Dresen .

• In addition to directing, A. Dresen showed interest in various types of activities. In his youth, he was fond of gliding ^[5] , worked as a student in transport and land reclamation companies, in 1963 he was an auxiliary worker at the oil rig’s oil rig in Grimmen , and in 1967 he was a laborer on the metallurgical giant ^[3] “the first socialist city on German soil ” which was first called Stalinstadt.
• Even in the years of university studies, taking an active part in student performances, A. Dresen staged the comedy of Aristophanes “The World ”. He kept his love for ancient Greek classics until the last days of his life. A doctor at the Charite Clinic was amazed when he saw his patient with the poem " Iliad " in his hands a few hours after heart surgery. The director explained to the surgeon that he had long dreamed of completely reading Homer , but there was no free time for this ^[5] .

• 1992, Adolf Dresen . Siegfried Forgetfulness. A culture between consensus and conflict. Publishing House "Ch. Links Verlag ”, 2011, ISBN 3-86153-041-4 (German)
• 1995, Adolf Dresen . “Authors and directors. Notes on the Director's Theater, Göttingen (German)
• 2000, Adolf Dresen . “How much freedom does art need?” (Theater der Zeit, ISBN 3-934344-00-3 ) (German)
• 2010, Adolf Dresen . “Archive pages. Interstellar Emptiness: Stories, Poems & Dreams. ” Fürst & Iven Publishing House, ISBN 3-88331-148-0 (German)
• 2011, Adolf Dresen . "Marxist Readings 1976: Toward a Critique of Marxist Political Economy." Basisdruck-Verlag, Berlin, ISBN 3-86163-124-5 ) (German)

Dresen's books and pamphlets are reprinted, modern authors also comment on his thoughts ^[6] .

• 1964, Greifswald , Shakespeare ’s tragedy Hamlet
• 1968, Berlin , the Goethe tragedy “Faust, Part I”
• 1977, Basel , Barlach ’s play “Poor Relative”
• 1979, Hamburg , Tchaikovsky ’s opera Eugene Onegin
• 1980, Bochum , Strauss 's operetta The Bat
• 1989, Brussels , Beethoven 's opera Fidelio
• 1992-1993, London , Wagner 's epic opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung
• 1999, Vienna , Goethe 's drama "Iphigenia in Tauris"

Some theatrical productions of A. Dresen are recorded as videos on DVD and CD. In these recordings, the director participated in various qualities.

Television Director

• 1968 - ( German: Der Mond scheint auf Kylenamoe ) ^[7]
• 1974 - ( German: Juno und der Pfau ) ^[8]
• 1978 - ( German: Iphigenia auf Tauris ) ^[9]

Television Movie Director

• 1987 - ( German: Wozzeck ) ^[10]
• 1990 - ( German: Fidelio ) ^[11]

Actor in the television series

• 1994 - ( Eng. Tales from the Opera ) ^[12] , the role of the director of the opera in the segment "Winter Whirlwinds - Valkyrie "

• 1973, 1975, 1988 - prizes from critics of the Berliner Zeitung newspaper
• 1974 - Order of the Banner of Labor
• 1989 - Hessian Cultural Award )
• 1994 - Member of the Berlin Academy of Arts
• 1996 - Member of the German branch of the PEN Club
• 2000 - Member of the Saxon Academy of Arts
• 2000 - Prize of the International Theater Institute
• 2001 - Lessing Prize of the Free State of Saxony )
• 2002 - Prize of German critics (posthumously)

• Catalog of books (German)