You are bidding on one typewritten, signed postcard as well as a autograph album sheet ofdirectors and theater managers Saladin Schmitt (1883-1951).

From the estate of a Berlin autograph collector who personally received autographs from singers and actors from the 1930s to the 1970s or had them mailed to him by the artists (some of the envelopes are still there).

The postcard(10.2 x 14.5 cm) is addressed to him (address censored on photos).

Form of the German Shakespeare Society in Bochum, of which Schmitt had been President since 1943.

Dated Bochum, 20. October 1949.

"I would have liked to have added a few words, but can only limit myself to the bare essentials as I broke my right arm in an air raid here."

It is surprising that a broken arm still has an impact a few years later. However, there is no typo in the date (I first assumed the year 1940), since the Shakespeare Society only moved to Bochum after the war.

Not sent by post; the card was probably sent together with the album sheet in an envelope.

The album leaf on beautiful laid paper (20.3x22.5cm); described on half page.

Signed with full name; no more text.

Enclosed in a protective sheet; with handwritten attribution: "Saladin Schmitt director."

Autographs are from Saladin Schmitt rarely!

Condition: postcard on thin paper; Paper browned. sheet folded lengthwise and crosswise; very good condition. BPlease note also the pictures!

Internal note: Opera 2104-2

ÜcalculatedSaladin Schmitt (Source: wikipedia):

Saladin Schmitt (born 18. September 1883 in Bingen am Rhein; † 14 March 1951 in Bochum, actually Joseph Anton Schmitt, also working under the pseudonym Harald Hoffmann) was a director and theater manager.

Life: Schmitt came from a family of wine merchants and mill owners who had lived in the lower Nahe for several generations, in which the eldest son was named Saladin because, according to family legend, an ancestor had taken part in the Crusades. When his older brother Saladin died, he took his first name.

After graduating from high school in Darmstadt in 1901, he studied German in Bonn and Berlin. In 1905 he received his doctorate from the Bonn Germanist and theater scholar Berthold Litzmann with a thesis on Friedrich Hebbel. In addition to his studies, he took lessons as an actor and director under the pseudonym Harald Hoffmann at the drama school in Cologne with Max Martersteig.

In the 1906/1907 season, Schmitt worked as a dramaturge at the Elberfeld City Theater, after which he mainly wrote for the arts section of the Kölner Tageblatt. From 1913 to 1915 he was director at the Stadttheater Freiburg, during the First World War he directed the Deutsches Theater in Brussels.

From 1919 to 1949, Saladin Schmitt was director of the Bochum theater and from 1921 to 1935 of the Duisburg opera. In Bochum he founded with plays by Friedrich von Schiller, William Shakespeare and other classical authors, but also with works by the younger generation, such as Heinrich Eduard Jacob, whose play Beaumarchais and Sonnenfels he played on 6 November 1941. December 1919 successfully staged, the reputation of the theater.

From 1937 he was Vice President and from 1943 President of the German Shakespeare Society. Saladin Schmitt was replaced as director in 1949 when he had tried to reinstate his former chief dramaturge Walter Thomas, who was considered controversial because of a Nazi past; the dismissal was even demanded by a demonstration in front of the Bochum town hall.

Schmitt's homosexuality is first documented in his letters to Ernst Bertram, whom he met while they were students in Bonn. Their relationship ended when Bertram became firmly attached to Ernst Glöckner. “Saladin Schmitt was open about his disposition. He knew and associated with numerous homosexuals.” As a result, he ran into “considerable difficulties” during his brief engagement as head director in Freiburg.

Schmitt was related to Stefan George as a third cousin. After a first personal encounter in 1905, some of Schmitt's poems appeared in the "Blän für die Kunst" in the period from 1909 to 1919. A complete collection of the surviving poems and letters from Schmitt to George was published in 1964 by Robert Boehringer from George's estate. The following stanza from George's poem Secret Germany refers to Saladin Schmitt.

"I love him · my own blood ·

The best song after the best song..

Because a precious commodity once eluded him

He casually broke his lute game

Crouched forehead destined for the laurel

Walking quietly between people.”

– Stefan George: The New Reich: Secret Germany

The former Fürstenstrasse in Ehrenfeld has borne his name since 1955.