BRUCKNER, FERDINAND

(Theodor Tagger, 1891-1958)

   Playwright. Bruckner enjoyed an astonishing run of popularity with three plays in the later years of the Weimar Republic. They were Krankheit der Jugend (The Illness of Youth, 1926), Die Verbrecher (The Criminals, 1928), and Elisabeth von England in 1930. Heinz Hilpert premiered that latter two; he even staged Elisabeth in England in 1931. Bruckner had been an active playwright in his native Austria since 1911, and his first Berlin premiere took place in 1922 at the facility he had leased that year, the Renaissance Theater. None of his three major plays, ironically, premiered there. Bruckner was forced to emigrate in 1933 and worked briefly for the Paramount film studio in Hollywood. He returned to Europe in the 1950s and worked as a "dramaturgical assistant" at the Schiller Theater in Berlin.