Langhoff, Wolfgang

Born Oct. 6, 1901, in Berlin; died there Aug. 25, 1966. German director, actor, writer (German Democratic Republic). Member of the German Academy of Arts (vice-president, from 1962).

Langhoff became an actor in 1919 and a director in 1927. Persecuted under the fascist dictatorship, he was imprisoned in a concentration camp in 1933 and 1934. He subsequently wrote a book of memoirs describing his camp experiences (Swamp Soldiers; Russian translation, 1936). Langhoff emigrated from Germany and worked in Switzerland until 1945. After the defeat of fascism he managed Düsseldorf theaters. Between 1946 and 1963 he was the artistic director and an actor at the German Theater in Berlin. In 1963 he became involved in stage directing there and, at the same time, continued acting.

Langhoffs work played a significant role in the development of theater in the GDR. He staged classic drama, including Gogol’s The Inspector-General (1950) and Schiller’s Don Carlos (1952) and Intrigue and Love (1955). He also presented the modern progressive plays of F. Wolf (Thomas Mü nzer, 1953, in the title role), B. Brecht (Fear and Misery of the Third Reich, 1948), and L. Kruczkowski (Sonnenbruckes, 1949, in the role of Peters). Soviet plays staged by Langhoff include An Optimistic Tragedy by V. V. Vishnevskii (1949) and The Storm by V. N. Bill’-Belotserkovskii (1957). He received the National Prize of the GDR in 1949, 1951, and 1960.