Max Reinhardt, born Maximilian Goldmann on September 9, 1873, in Baden near Vienna, was the eldest of a large Jewish family. His father Wilhelm worked as a merchant, and his mother Rosa Wengraf managed their bustling household. At first, Reinhardt trained as a bank clerk, but his love for theatre soon overtook the security of a desk job. He studied acting and made his stage debut in Vienna in 1890, eventually joining Berlin’s Deutsches Theater under Otto Brahm in 1894. By the early 1900s, he was already forging his reputation as a pioneer by co-founding Schall und Rauch, which evolved into the Kleines Theater, and later acquiring the Deutsches Theater itself.
Reinhardt’s productions redefined theatre. His 1905 staging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream set new standards in imaginative spectacle, while The Miracle in 1911 stunned audiences with its scale. In 1920, he co-founded the Salzburg Festival, presenting Jedermann in the city’s cathedral square, a tradition that still continues. Beyond productions, he established acting schools—first at the Deutsches Theater in 1905, later the Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna, and eventually in Hollywood after his emigration in 1938. Though he began by teaching directly, he increasingly served as a guiding visionary, occasionally giving workshops and masterclasses while others carried out the daily training.
Reinhardt drew inspiration from ancient Greek and medieval theatre, striving to revive ritual and communal performance for modern audiences. His productions emphasized light, movement, and ensemble acting, reshaping the relationship between actor and audience. He was equally influential in film, directing Sumurûn, first staged as an oriental pantomime in 1910 and later made into a silent film in 1920. This work suited his interest in myth, spectacle, and visual storytelling, providing a bridge into cinema. In Hollywood, he directed the 1935 Warner Brothers production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, one of the rare times his theatrical vision was directly translated to the screen.
In his personal life, Reinhardt married actress Else Heims in 1910, with whom he had two sons, Wolfgang and Gottfried. After their divorce in 1935, he married actress Helene Thimig, who remained with him until his death in 1943. His son Gottfried later carried forward the family legacy as a Hollywood producer and director.
Although he was not showered with formal awards, Reinhardt’s true legacy lies in the institutions he founded, the directors he inspired, and the festival traditions that still bear his influence. By blending ritual, innovation, and bold visual imagination, Reinhardt transformed modern theatre and film, leaving a mark that continues to echo in stages and screens around the world.
Citations:
Androom. (n.d.). Max Reinhardt biography. Retrieved from https://androom.home.xs4all.nl/biography/p012175.htm
Britannica. (n.d.). Max Reinhardt Austrian-American theatrical producer. In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/biography/Max-Reinhardt
Filmportal. (n.d.). Max Reinhardt. Retrieved from https://www.filmportal.de/en/person/max-reinhardt_ef764d2dc5362394e03053d50b371c7c
Mahler Foundation. (n.d.). Max Reinhardt. Retrieved from https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/contemporaries/max-reinhardt
Stadtmuseum Berlin. (n.d.). Max Reinhardt. Retrieved from https://www.stadtmuseum.de/en/article/max-reinhardt
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Max Reinhardt. In Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Reinhardt