Carl (also known as: Seydelmann, Karl) Seydelmann

* 24.04.1793 in Kłodzko (Lower Silesia); ✝ 17.03.1843 in Berlin

Actor

Biography

Seydelmann was the son of an Upper Silesian merchant, and served as a soldier in the Napoleonic Wars. However, he deserted after two years in order to become an actor. After first finding employment at the theatres of various noblemen, in 1819 he managed to attain a fixed position in Breslau. Further engagements saw him grace the stages of the Court Theatres in Kassel, Darmstadt, Stuttgart and, finally, Berlin, where he worked for the last five years of his life.

Seydelmann gave many guest performances and can be considered as a prototype of the ‘virtuoso artist’, favouring individual performance and audience response over ensemble interaction and directorial unity.

These considerations also shaped his most famous Shakespeare role, Shylock. According to sources, Seydelmann portrayed Shylock not as a comic caricature, but as a sublime, almost tragic character – an act of radical reinterpretation very much in accord with the mood of the time.

Shakespeare Roles

• Laertes (Hamlet)
• Shylock (The Merchant of Venice)
• Bolingbroke / Richard II (Heinrich IV)
• Jago (Othello)
• Richard (Richard III)

Literature

Secondary Literature

• Grube, Max (ed.): Rollenhefte Carl Seydelmanns. Aus den Handschriften veröffentlicht. Nebst einer Bibliographie der Seydelmann-Literatur. Berlin, 1915.
• Rötscher, Heinrich Theodor: Seydelmann's Leben und Wirken. Nebst einer dramaturgischen Abhandlung über den Künstler. Mit Benutzung und Veröffentlichung des handschriftlichen Nachlasses und der Briefe desselben dargestellt. Berlin, 1845.
• Troizkij, S.: Konrad Ekhof, Ludwig Schröder, August Wilhlem Iffland, Johann Friedrich Fleck, Ludwig Devrient, Karl Seydelmann. Die Anfänge der realistischen Schauspielkunst. Berlin, 1949.
• Wilda, Oskar: ‘Karl Seydelmann’. In: Friedrich Anderae (ed.): Schlesier des 17. bis 19. Jahrhunderts (Schlesische Lebensbilder, 3). Sigmaringen, 1985.

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