Das Laterndl

The file contains several informations about the 'Laterndl, Wiener Kleinkunstbühne' (the Lantern). The material which is attached includes programms, announcements of performances and social events, texts and drafts of satirical pieces, documentary photographs of performances and rehearsals. The Lantern was a small theater, founded and run by Austrian exiles in London during World War II. It was connected to the 'Austrian center', the 'Free Austrian Movement' and the 'Interniertenfond'. Opened on June 21st, 1939, it was active throughout the war years, with a break between summer 1940 and 1941, when most of the Austrian refugees were interned. The founder, producer and one of the leading actors was the Viennese actor Martin Miller and his wife Hanne Normann. The Lantern stage played of German and Austrian Literature like Goethe, Schnitzler and Brecht. But its main concern was the continuation of the Viennese cabaret, a small-scale form of political satire which flourished in Vienna before the German occupation. In February 1940 Martin Miller played a parody on Hitler. The name of the play was "Der Führer spricht" (The leader talks), where he was dressed as Hitler and imitated him. Another important point was the cultivation of the work of the Austrian writer Jura Soyfer, who died in the Buchenwald camp 1939.