Commemorative stamp series - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1972 - 50 Pfennig

Important Personalities, Edition 1972 The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic publishes five special postage stamps with illustrations of important personalities. No special first-day cover envelope 50-pfennig value Friederike Caroline Neuber F. C. Neuber was born on March 9, 1697 in Reichenbach im Vogtland as the daughter of court director Daniel Weißenborn. On November 30, 1760 she died impoverished and despised in Laubegast near Dresden. In her earliest childhood, she secretly dealt with plays and her ardent wish was to be on stage herself. At the age of twenty, she joined forces with Johann Neuber, with whom she married in 1718 in Braunschweig, to a traveling troupe at that time. In 1727 she founded her own opera company in Leipzig, with which she undertook traveling tours throughout Germany, to Austria, and in 1740 to the Tsar's Court in Russia. In Germany, it was the then larger cities of Leipzig, Frankfurt / M., Hamburg, Lübeck and Dresden. In Leipzig, she played first most frequently. Through the mediation of the Saxon court poet Johann Ulrich König their troupe received the privilege of the Elector Friedrich August I ("August the Strong") as "Royal Polish and Churfürstlich Saxon court comedians". During her time in Leipzig, she met the university professor Gottsched, who, like her, had endeavored in the struggle for the cleansing of the poetry and stage of tyranny and filth. The former touring companies had as their main character a so-called "Harlequin" or "Hanswurst". With pompous machinations, hollow phrases and filthy jokes they speculated on the lower instincts of their audience. The main merit of the Friederike Caroline Neuber, she was popularly known as the "Neuberin", was not only to banish the Harlequin from the stage, but to lay the foundation for a truly German national culture in the theater. In the young Leipzig student Lessing, this clear-sighted woman already saw the man who would found the national German drama and performed his dramatic experiments and youth works. The company of Neuberin, they were called at that time Comedian, had a good reputation and they succeeded for many years to prevail over the traditional touring trolleys with their low level. The new in the art of acting did not prevail without conflict. So it was Müller, a former member of the Neuberschen troupe, who made himself independent, who acted her just in Leipzig, the cradle of the theater reform, as an opponent. Due to special intrigues Neuberin not only lost her permanent stage in Leipzig, which was now used by Müller for his shallow plays and thus revived the "Hanswurst", but was even banned from playing. Another intriguer was Schönemann, also a former member of the Neuberschen troupe, who was hard on the Neuberin. Added to this was the break with Gottsched. The life of the Neuberin was very moved and so it came also to the repeated dissolution and new formation of the Neuberschen troop. The splendid rise of Neuberin and the high art of acting acknowledged in many royal and electoral courtyards was confronted with a sad and bitter end in those days.