Devrient family

Devrient family, German theatre family. Ludwig Devrient (1784–1832) was the greatest actor of the Romantic period in Germany. At the Dessau court theatre he developed his talent for character parts. After his Berlin debut in The Robbers (1814), he played Falstaff, Shylock, King Lear, and Richard III to great acclaim. His eldest nephew, Karl August Devrient (1797–1872), acted in Dresden, Karlsruhe, and principally Hannover (1839–72), where he was popular in plays by Shakespeare, Goethe, and Schiller. Karl’s brother Eduard (1801–77) began his career as an opera singer, then worked as an actor and stage director in Dresden (1844–52) and Karlsruhe (1852–70), where he directed German classics and made new translations of Shakespeare’s plays. Karl’s other brother, Emil (1803–72), made his stage debut in 1821 and acted with the Dresden court theatre (1831–68); his greatest successes were as Hamlet and as Goethe’s Tasso. Eduard’s son Otto (1838–94) acted in various companies, then became a director in Karlsruhe and other German cities. In Weimar he produced his own version of Goethe’s Faust (1876); he also wrote several tragedies. Karl’s son Max (1857–1929) made his debut in Dresden in 1878 and in 1882 joined the famed Vienna Burgtheater.