{
  "subject": "Kurt Hellmer",
  "events": [
    {
      "year": "1909",
      "isoStart": "1909-12-26",
      "title": "Born in Frankfurt am Main",
      "text": "Born 26 December 1909 as Kurt Ehrlich; the family name was officially changed to Hellmer in 1922. Son of the theatre manager Arthur Hellmer.",
      "place": "Frankfurt am Main, Germany"
    },
    {
      "year": "1920s",
      "title": "Wöhler-Realgymnasium & university",
      "text": "Attended the Wöhler-Realgymnasium in Frankfurt, then studied philosophy and psychology for four semesters at the universities of Heidelberg, Berlin, and Frankfurt. Working languages: German, French, English.",
      "place": "Frankfurt, Heidelberg, Berlin"
    },
    {
      "year": "1930–35",
      "isoStart": "1930",
      "isoEnd": "1935",
      "title": "Dramaturg and director in Germany",
      "text": "First professional engagement at age 20 as director at the Schauspielhaus Bremen. In 1931/32 dramaturg and director at the Stadttheater Erfurt; in 1932/33 director at the Kleines Schauspielhaus Hamburg, where he staged (among other productions) an adaptation of Gustav Freytag's Die Journalisten. From 1933 to 1935 engaged as director and dramaturg under his father Arthur Hellmer at the Neues Theater in Frankfurt. From 1930 also guest director (Gastregisseur) at the Altes Theater (Leipzig), Deutsches Theater (Hannover), Schauspielhaus (Bremen) and the Municipal Theatre of Stettin, and playreader at the Lessingtheater and Kleines Theater in Berlin.",
      "place": "Germany"
    },
    {
      "year": "1931",
      "isoStart": "1931-05-23",
      "title": "Directs Somerset Maugham's Der Brotverdiener",
      "text": "Directed the German-language production of Somerset Maugham's Der Brotverdiener (The Breadwinner, trans. Mimi Zoff), with a cast including the young Marianne Hoppe and Günther Lüders. Programme dated 23 May 1931.",
      "place": "Germany"
    },
    {
      "year": "1932",
      "isoStart": "1932-02-13",
      "title": "World premiere of Eine Frau mit sich allein",
      "text": "Directed the Uraufführung (world premiere) of Desider Szomory's Eine Frau mit sich allein, adapted for the German stage by Curt Corrinth, at the Altes Theater in Leipzig on 13 February 1932.",
      "place": "Altes Theater, Leipzig"
    },
    {
      "year": "1932–34",
      "isoStart": "1932",
      "isoEnd": "1934",
      "title": "Editor of theatre programme journals",
      "text": "Schriftleitung (editor) of the Programmheft of the Kleines Schauspielhaus Hamburg (Spielzeit 1932/33, under Direktion Friedrich Lobe) and of the Neues Theater Frankfurt (Spielzeit 1933/34, under his father Arthur Hellmer's direction) — an early editorial role that prefigures his later work at Aufbau.",
      "place": "Hamburg / Frankfurt am Main"
    },
    {
      "year": "1935",
      "isoStart": "1935",
      "title": "Emigration to Vienna",
      "text": "Left Nazi Germany for Austria under the pressure of antisemitic persecution. 1935–37 dramaturg and director at the Theater an der Wien, joining his father Arthur Hellmer there from 1936, where his operetta Majestät privat (music by Ralph Benatzky) premiered in 1937. Reader for Twentieth Century Fox Vienna and for theatrical publishers including Felix Bloch Erben, Drei-Masken-Verlag, Georg Marton Verlag, and Otto Eirich Verlag; translated English-language plays that were staged in adapted form at theatres in Austria and Czechoslovakia.",
      "place": "Vienna, Austria"
    },
    {
      "year": "1938",
      "isoStart": "1938-08-11",
      "title": "Emigration to New York",
      "text": "After the Anschluss of Austria to Nazi Germany, left Vienna overnight on 23 June 1938 for Italy, waited six weeks in Naples for a U.S. immigration visa, and arrived in New York on 11 August 1938; filed first citizenship papers on 18 October 1938. On 23 November 1938 Variety profiled him in 'Inside Stuff — Legit' as a young refugee stage director, son of Arthur Hellmer, and adapter of You Can't Take It With You, Yes My Darling Daughter, Three Minute Murder, and Love from a Stranger.",
      "place": "New York, NY, USA"
    },
    {
      "year": "1939–52",
      "isoStart": "1939",
      "isoEnd": "1952",
      "title": "Editor at Aufbau",
      "text": "Editor — at times acting editor-in-chief — of the German-Jewish exile weekly Aufbau in New York. Wrote the columns 'New Yorker Notizbuch' (civic life), 'Broadway Bulletin' (theatre and film criticism), and 'Anti Anti', confronting antisemitic and antidemocratic currents in the U.S.",
      "place": "New York, NY, USA"
    },
    {
      "year": "1938–41",
      "isoStart": "1938",
      "isoEnd": "1941",
      "title": "Refugee theatre in New York",
      "text": "Directed short plays for the WHN radio series 'Refugee Theater of the Air'. Board member and secretary of the German-American Writers Association (1939–41); in 1941, with Manfred Fürst and others, attempted to found a Free German Theatre (Theatre of German Freemen) in New York — the plan foundered on lack of funds.",
      "place": "New York, NY, USA"
    },
    {
      "year": "1945–",
      "isoStart": "1945",
      "title": "New York correspondent, Neue Zeitung",
      "text": "New York theatre correspondent for Neue Zeitung, the U.S. occupation newspaper published in Munich.",
      "place": "New York, NY, USA"
    },
    {
      "year": "1952–75",
      "isoStart": "1952",
      "isoEnd": "1975-05-11",
      "title": "Literary and theatre agent",
      "text": "From 1952, literary and theatre agent in New York and proprietor of his own theatrical publishing house. Died in New York on 11 May 1975.",
      "place": "New York, NY, USA"
    }
  ]
}