Otto Brahm

Brahm, Otto (Hamburg, 1856-1912, Berlin), a bank clerk, resigned in order to study at Berlin and Heidelberg universities. He became an influential critic in the late 1880s, writing on the theatre in the Vossische Zeitung and Die Nation. He was particularly active in furthering the Naturalist movement (see Naturalismus), and in 1889 directed the Freie Bühne in Berlin. From 1894 to 1904 he was in charge of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin, and then took over the Lessing-theater. His principal works of literary criticism were a monograph on H. von Kleist (1884), and an unfinished book on Schiller (1888-92). His collected theatrical criticism was published posthumously (1913). His correspondence with G. Hauptmann, Otto Brahm- Gerhart Hauptmann. Briefwechsel 1889-1912, ed. P. Sprengel, appeared in 1985.

Brahm, Otto (ô'tō bräm) , 1856–1912, German theatrical director, manager and critic. Inspired by the work of Antoine in Paris, he founded a theater, the Freie Bühne, in Berlin in 1889. There he devoted his efforts to eliminating from the German stage old-fashioned techniques by employing the theories and methods of the naturalists. In 1894 he became director of the larger Deutsches Theater and the acknowledged leader of the modern German theater movement.

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