Gebrüder-Herrnfeld-Theater

The Gebrüder-Herrnfeld-Theater was a Yiddish-language theatre in Berlin’s Luisenstadt district. Built in 1906 at Kommandantenstraße 57, it stood near the former Alexanderplatz railway station. The brothers Anton and Donat Herrnfeld ran it as a private playhouse from 1899 until about 1918. Its stage became a meeting point where middle-class Berliners and popular entertainers mixed. The theatre won fame for more than a hundred self-written burlesques that mocked Jewish life with broad comic types. Anton usually played a slow-witted Slavic servant, while Donat took the excitable Jewish lead. Critics split sharply: some praised the energy, others called the jargon crude. Kurt Tucholsky declared he laughed until he was ill, while Alfred Döblin admired the acting but scorned the language. Film versions of the plays spread the style across Germany. Visitors stepped into a large new hall with rows of seats facing a proscenium stage. The walls held gas lamps and red velvet drapes, giving a warm glow to the performances. Between acts, the foyer buzzed with talk in Yiddish and German. Outside, trams rattled past the corner of Kommandantenstraße, linking the theatre to the rest of the city.