Background
Otto Brahm was born on the 5th of February, 1856 in Hamburg, Germany.
Otto Brahm was born on the 5th of February, 1856 in Hamburg, Germany.
Otto Brahm attended universities in Berlin, Heidelberg, Strassburg, and Jena.
In 1889 Brahm helped establish and then directed the theatre company Freie Bühne (Free Stage), and in 1890 he founded a periodical of the same name (later Neue Deutsche Rundschau). It had no official home and presented its productions in various rented auditoriums throughout Berlin. The Freie Bühne introduced the iconoclastic plays of Henrik Ibsen and Leo Tolstoy to Germany and staged the first performances of plays by the major German dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann. Despite its influence, it closed after two seasons, though it staged occasional productions for another three years whenever a play Brahm deemed worthy was denied a public license. By 1894, however, the mission of the Freie Bühne had been fulfilled as the new drama had become accepted fare throughout Germany.
In that year Brahm was appointed director of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. His productions, which were obsessively concerned with the exact reproduction of reality, aimed at natural dialogue and the careful integration of character, incident, and environment. Under his guidance, the Deutsches Theater was a popular and critical success. When he resigned his post in 1904 and turned leadership over to Max Reinhardt, Brahm was appointed director of the Lessing Theatre in Berlin, where he remained until his death.
Otto Brahm's socially and historically accurate productions became models for the German stage, and the Brahm style became synonymous with naturalistic production. His productions were noted for being accurate and realistic.
