Leidsch Dagblad
- Leiden Theatre
- Address to the Council
- Thoiry Continued
The Leidsch Dagblad of 12 October 1926 opened with a warm review of Theo Mann-Bouwmeester's farewell performance at the Leiden theatre in Henri Bataille's "The Child of Love". The paper described a nearly sold-out house, a student escort from the station in the L.S.C.'s Senate carriage, a welcome at the Minerva society and flags flying over the theatre. A letter to the municipal council described how pupils saved a little each week for class outings, and how poor children who could not save were left behind to wave their classmates off. The letter then began to argue that a few hundred guilders from the community could put this right. Under the heading "Thoiry Continued", a foreign report followed the Prussian Diet's debate on the settlement with the Hohenzollerns. The Communist Pieck first moved to drop the bill and then to postpone it for four weeks until the Reichstag had decided.
Translation
Leiden Theatre
FAREWELL PERFORMANCE OF MRS. THEO MANN-BOUWMEESTER. The Child of Love, a play in 4 acts by Henri Bataille.
Last night was once again an old-fashioned evening, and one that did us good. A sold-out house, one might well say, and an enthusiastic mood, although there was reason for wistfulness. For is not the farewell of Mrs. Mann a wistful event in the world of the stage?
Shortly after six in the evening she had been fetched from the station in the Senate carriage of the L.S.C. and brought to Minerva, where the president of the society welcomed her, and then on to the theatre, where her dressing room had been neatly furnished and where the flags snapped in the wind as a last tribute from Leiden's theatre centre.
As her farewell piece she had chosen one of those works that give every occasion for "acting", the mighty, vigorous, flaming acting of the Bouwmeesters, namely Bataille's "L'Enfant de l'Amour", in which she had already celebrated triumphs in the past as Liane
Address to the Council
...the required sum together by bringing something along each week. This saving has become a most praiseworthy custom, which we would be loath to lose, not least because of its educational value. Unfortunately, in most classes there are one or several children for whom this saving is simply impossible; every teacher could tell you sad examples of it. And naturally it is precisely those children, whose lives are already marked by much sadness, upon whom this painful childhood grief is also poured out.
Just picture for a moment the boy who sees his classmates off to the train, tram or boat. Laughing and singing, their eyes shining with excitement and joy, they wave on departure to those who are seeing them off. And his eyes shine too, though not exactly with joy. In this way, deep wounds of heartfelt childhood grief are inflicted every year.
With a few hundred guilders, donated by the community and under the supervision of those competent to judge where
Thoiry Continued
Prussia and the Hohenzollerns – Von Heeringen †
In the Prussian House of Representatives the agreement with the Hohenzollerns has come up for discussion. The Communists once again put up a fierce fight. It is reported as follows:
Pieck (Comm.) proposes removing from the agenda the bill on an agreement with the Hohenzollerns, because it was sent too late to the deputies, who have lacked the time to study it. This proposal is rejected. Pieck then proposes postponing the debate for four weeks, in order first to await the decision of the Reichstag. The Soc. Dem.
Context
Theo Mann-Bouwmeester and the Bouwmeester acting dynasty
Theodora Bouwmeester was born on 19 April 1850 into a family of actors; she was the sister of the celebrated actor Louis Bouwmeester, and as a descendant of that family she went on stage while still a child. Her career rested above all on the Koninklijke Vereeniging Het Nederlandsch Toneel, which she joined in 1885 and where she stayed for almost 35 years. At her 40th stage anniversary in 1911 her admirers presented her with the Theo Mann-Bouwmeester Ring, a sign of how far she had become a public institution of Dutch theatre. This background explains the Leiden reviewer's phrase about "the mighty, vigorous, flaming acting of the Bouwmeesters". By 1926 her name stood for a whole family tradition of grand tragic acting, so her farewell could also be read as a farewell to that tradition.
Why the farewell came in 1926, at the age of 76
Mann-Bouwmeester's farewell came late and after years of insecurity. Her part in the stage actors' strike of 1920 led to her leaving Het Nederlandsch Toneel, which suddenly left her without a steady income. Only in 1926 did the city of Amsterdam grant her an annual allowance that secured her pension. A 1935 article in Het Vaderland, written for her 85th birthday, recorded that she said goodbye to the stage for good in 1926 with Bataille's "Het Kind der liefde", and that she was made an officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau on that occasion. The Leidsch Dagblad review describes her farewell performance in Leiden. The details of the evening come from the paper itself: the student escort from the station, the reception at Minerva, the flags on the theatre, and the reminder of her earlier triumphs as Liane.
What Briand and Stresemann sketched at Thoiry, and why it faded
The heading "Voortzetting van Thoiry" refers to the meeting of the French and German foreign ministers, Aristide Briand and Gustav Stresemann, in the French village of Thoiry in September 1926. The meeting took place in the same month that Germany was admitted to the League of Nations. In outline, Stresemann pledged material support to stabilize the franc, while Briand agreed to return the Saar Basin to Germany early and to bring an early end to the military control and occupation of the Rhineland. Objections from both the German and the French governments soon reduced the scope of these understandings, and the historian Gerhard Rempel judged that American and French politicians prevented the bargain from succeeding. Scholars often see Thoiry as both the peak and the endpoint of the Locarno policy. In October 1926 the paper was still following the aftermath under this heading, although the legible part of this column turns to Prussian domestic politics.
The long quarrel over Hohenzollern property
The bill before the Prussian Diet in this report was the latest attempt to settle the property of the former Prussian royal house. Prussia had negotiated with the Hohenzollerns for years. A first attempt at agreement failed in 1920 against Social Democratic resistance in the Prussian parliament, and a second failed in 1924 because the house itself objected. A draft submitted by the Prussian Ministry of Finance on 12 October 1925 drew heavy public criticism because it would have returned about three-quarters of the disputed real estate to the family. The dispute then moved to the national level. The DDP put a bill before the Reichstag on 23 November 1925, and the Communists launched a petition for expropriation without compensation, which the Social Democrats joined with some reluctance. The petition succeeded in the first half of 1926, but the referendum that followed failed, and individual compensation agreements between the states and the former ruling families took the place of expropriation. Against this background, Pieck's motions to drop the bill or to wait four weeks for the Reichstag can be read as a Communist attempt to delay a negotiated settlement that the referendum had failed to prevent.
Original
LEIDSCHE SCHOUWBURG.
AFSCHEIDSVOORSTELLING MEVR. THEO MANN-BOUWMEESTER. Het Kind van de Liefde, tooneelspel in 4 bedrijven van Henri Bataille. Dat was gisteravond weer eens een ouderwetsche avond, die goed deed. Een uitverkocht huis, kon men wel zeggen, een geestdriftige stemming, hoewel er reden voor weemoed was. Is toch het afscheid van mevr. Mann niet een weemoedige gebeurtenis in plankenland? ' s Avonds om goed zes uur was zij in den Senaatswagen van het L. S. C. van het station gehaald en naar Minerva gebracht, waar de praeses van de societeit haar verwelkomde en daarna naar den schouwburg, waar haar kleedkamer keurig was ingericht en waar de vlaggen zwiepten in den wind als laatste hulde van Leiden's tooneelcentrum. Als afscheidsstuk was door haar gekozen een van die werken, die alle aanleiding geven tot " spel ". het machtige, forsche, vlammende spel der Bouwmeesters, n. l. Bataille's " l'Enfant de l'Amour ", waarin zij vroeger reeds triumfen heeft gevierd als Liane
ADRES AAN DEN RAAD.
het benoodigde bedrag bijeen door wekelijks iets mede te brengen. Dit sparen is tot een zeer loffelijke gewoonte geworden, die wij mede om haar opvoedkundige waarde niet gaarne zouden willen missen. Helaas zijn er in de meeste klassen enkelen of meerderen te vinden, voor wie dit sparen tot de onmogelijkheden behoort; elke leerkracht zou U daar droevige staaltjes van kunnen meedeelen. En het zijn natuurlijk juist die kinderen, wier leven toch al gekenmerkt is door veel droevigs, over wie ook dit schrijnende kinderleed wordt uitgestort. Stelt U zich eens even den jongen voor, die zijn klasgenooten uitgeleide doet naar trein, tram of boot. Lachend en zingend met glinsterende oogen van opgewondenheid en vreugde wuiven ze bij ' t vertrek naar hen, die ze uitgeleide doen. En zijn oogen glinsteren ook, al is dat niet direct van vreugde. Op deze wijze worden jaarlijks diepe wonden van innig kinderleed geslagen. Met enkele honderden guldens, door de gemeenschap geschonken en onder contrôle van hen die bevoegd zijn te oordeelen waar
Voortzetting van Thoiry
Pruisen en de Hohenzollerns - Von Heeringen † In het Pruisische Huis van Afgevaardigden is het accoord met de Hohenzollerns aan de orde gekomen. De communisten hebben zich weer geducht geweerd. Daarover wordt gemeld: Pieck (comm.) stelt voor het ontwerp over een overeenkomst met de Hohenzollerns van de agenda af te voeren, omdat het te laat aan de afgevaardigden is verzonden, wien de tijd tot bestudeering heeft ontbroken. Dit voorstel wordt verworpen. Pieck stelt dan voor de behandeling vier weken uit te stellen om eerst de beslissing van den Rijksdag af te wachten. De soc. - dem.
Source: Source: Erfgoed Leiden en Omstreken (leiden.courant.nu)