Karl Ritter (Karl Rosenfelder)
In observance of Holocaust Remembrance Day, we're posting an extra profile of a Jewish scholar who fled Nazi Germany in the late 1930s.
Karl Rosenfelder (known by his pseudonym Carl Ritter) was a director, lecturer, writer, and actor in German and Austrian theaters. After receiving his doctorate in Munich, Ritter worked as an actor and director at the State Theater of Kassel, then as a lecturer at the University of Giessen. From 1926 to 1928 he was the assistant director to Gustav Hartung at the Heidelberger Schlossfestspielen theater festival. As a director, Ritter promoted modern playwrights and especially helped Ernst Toller’s works come to German theaters. After Hitler rose to power, Ritter was continually denied licenses to work, so he travelled around Austria and Switzerland delivering monologues wherever he could.
Ritter arrived in the United States in 1939. In February 1941, he came to Vassar College to lecture and perform. Several of the monologues he performed dealt with his experience as a refugee and trying to acclimatize to his new surroundings. After the war Ritter published a number of books in Germany and Austria about American theater, as well as a 1955 biography of Josef Schmidt, the German Jewish opera singer.
Works by Ritter:
Erlebtes Amerika: Kleine Bilderbogen aus einem großen Land (1946)
Amerikanisches Theater: Vom Rampenlicht zum Scheinwerfer (1949)
Mauerblümchen in New York: Vision einer Weltstadt (1953)
Ein Leid geht um die Welt (1955)
Sources:
"Dr. Karl Ritter Talks of His Fifteen Year Career with the German Theatre." Vassar Miscellany News 1 Mar. 1941: 4. Vassar Newspaper Archives. Web.
"Producer-Actor to Visit and Lecture." Vassar Miscellany News 22 Feb. 1941: 1. Vassar Newspaper Archives. Web.
Ritter, Carl. Amerikanisches Theater: Vom Rampenlicht Zum Scheinwerfer. Hamburg: J.P. Toth, 1949. Print.
Rüdenauer, Ulrich, ed. Heidelberg City of Literature: Application to the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Rep. Heidelberg: Management Group and Committee, 2013. Print.