USC Specialized Libraries and Archival Collections
Collection 214

MARTA MIERENDORFF COLLECTION
ON LEOPOLD AND FRITZ JESSNER

 Processed by Robert J. Rohrbacher
Date Completed: 7/13/2001
© 2001 University of Southern California. All Rights Reserved

Descriptive Summary

Title: Marta Mierendorff collection on Leopold and Fritz Jessner, 1910-1986 (bulk 1960-1980).

Creator:  Mierendorff, Marta, collector.

Extent:  1 cubic ft.

Repository:  University of Southern California.

        Specialized Libraries and Archival Collections.

                    Los Angeles, California 90089-0182 

Administrative Information

Acquisition: Donation of Marta Mierendorff; 1986.

Access: COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE: Advance notice required for access. Consult finding aid for additional information.

Publication Rights: All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Manuscripts Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of Special Collections as the owner of the physical material and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained.

Preferred Citation: [Identification of item], Marta Mierendorff Collection on Leopold and Fritz Jessner, 1910-1986 (Collection 214 ). Specialized Libraries and Archival Collections, Information Services Division, University of Southern California. 

Biographies 

Marta Mierendorff  was born in Charlottenburg (Berlin), Germany in 1911. She received her doctorate in 1949 from Humboldt University in Berlin. In the 1950s, she turned to study of the sociology of art and co-founded the Institut für Kunstsoziologie in Berlin with Heinrich Tost in 1954.

In the late 1950s, Marta Mierendorff developed an interest in the study of German-speaking exiles from the National Socialist regime. She traveled to Los Angeles in 1964 and there began working on the history of the Jewish Club of 1933, whose members were German Jewish exiles. Marta  Mierendorff moved to Los Angeles in 1966. In 1971, she became a professor in the Department of German at the University of Southern California. Professor Mierendorff continued her research on German-speaking refugees, who were active in theater, film, cabaret, and other cultural endeavors, and who came to the United States in the 1930s and 1940s.  She also collected materials on their life and work. Considered a pioneer in the study of exiles, Marta Mierendorff was made Emeritus Research Professor in 1984 at USC.

Leopold Jessner was born in Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia) on 3 March 1878. Before and during World War I, he worked in theater as an actor and director. In 1919, he was appointed manager of the Berlin State Theater. As a director, Leopold Jessner was associated with the German Expressionist theater of the 1920s. He became well-known for his innovations, which included the use of bare stages with graduated levels and flights of steps that were used as platforms for different actions in place of scene changes. In addition, he had his actors use a simplified and antinaturalistic style of acting. Both a Jew and a Socialist, Leopold Jessner left Germany in 1933 after the Nazi seizure of power.

In exile, Leopold Jessner directed a couple of plays for the Habimah Theater in Tel Aviv in 1936. He immigrated to the United States in 1937. In the United States, he only directed two plays. Leopold Jessner was an active member of the émigré community. From June 1941 to the summer of 1943, he was president of the Jewish Club of 1933, an organization of German-speaking immigrants. Leopold Jessner died in Los Angeles on 13 December 1945.

Fritz Jessner was an actor, director, and the brother-in-law of Leopold Jessner. He was born in Stolp (Pomerania), Germany on 19 August 1889. Fritz Jessner received his law degree in 1912. Afterwards, he became an actor and worked in Königsberg, Munich, Hamburg and Berlin. In 1925, he was appointed general manager and director of the Neues Spielhaus in Königsberg. In 1933, Fritz Jessner became the stage director for the Jüdischer Kulturbund in Berlin. In the summer of 1936, he became the stage director at the Stadttheater in Bern, Switzerland. During World War II, Fritz Jessner worked as a drama teacher in the United States. He died on 8 June 1946.

Access Points

Subjects:

• Jessner, Leopold, 1878-1945--Archives
• Jessner, Fritz--Archives
• Refugees, Jewish--Germany----Sources
• Refugees, Jewish--United States--Sources
• Theater producers and directors--Biography--Sources

Other Access Points:

• Wicclair, Walter
• Spalek, John M.
• Perry, Alfred
• Niessen, Carl, 1890-1969
• Jessner, Lucie
• Samson, Eva
• Frank, Rudolf, b. 1886

Scope and Content

The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts, notes, and ephemera regarding the lives and work of German Expressionist theater director Leopold Jessner (1878-1945) and his brother-in-law, the actor and director Fritz Jessner (1889-1946), both of whom left Germany in the 1930s to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews. Much of the material relates to their years in exile in the United States. The bulk of the material relates to Leopold Jessner. The material was collected from the 1960s into the 1980s. The collection has been organized into the series described below. 

Series Description

• Correspondence: The series consists of the correspondence of several individuals. Among the letters are originals, photocopies, as well as typed copies (often unsigned). The correspondence of Marta Mierendorff includes as correspondents John M. Spalek, Carl Niessen, Alfred Perry, Lucie Jessner,  Felix Guggenheim and others. The series also includes the correspondence of her partner Walter Wicclair, as well as that of Alfred Perry, Horst Martin Müllenmeister, Rudolf Frank, Fritz Jessner, Eva Samson, Lucie Jessner, and Leopold Jessner. The arrangement of the each individual’s correspondence is chronological with undated items placed first.

• Manuscripts: The series includes typed manuscripts, some in multiple copies, about Leopold and Fritz Jessner. Authors include Marta Mierendorff, Walter Wicclair, Alfred Perry, and Grete Carow-Wolf.

• Notes:  The series consists of the typed and handwritten notes of Marta Mierendorff relating to her research on Leopold and Fritz Jessner. The notes are arranged into folders according to the notebook or file folder, in which they were originally found. Within the folders, the notes are left in the order in which they were found.

• Exhibits: This series includes materials used for exhibits. The bulk of the materials is described in: Mierendorff, Marta. First West Coast Exhibition, German Language Theater in Exile, Hollywood 1933-1950, November 1-December15, 1973, presented at the University of Southern California Treasure Room, Doheny Library. Edited and translated by Jackie O’Dell. [Los Angeles]: Mierendorff, [1974]. (See pages 18-20.) Please note: This collection is missing numbers 63 and 67 described in the catalog, and numbers 0 and 00 in this collection are not mentioned in the catalog. In addition, the exhibit numbers found with the materials do not match the numbers in the exhibition catalog.

• Ephemera:  The series includes original materials and photocopies. The bulk of these materials consists of newspaper clippings, programs, photographs, and film negatives about or related to Leopold and Fritz Jessner.

See Inventory.