Cäsar von Arx

Cäsar von Arx (23 May 189514 July 1949) was a Swiss theatre producer and dramatist.

Life Provenance and early years Cäsar von Arx was born into a Catholic family in Basel. At the time of his birth the family was living in the city at Rheingasse 49. Alphons von Arx , his father, who came originally from Stüsslingen (SO), worked as a typesetter. The production, by Ernst Reissig, featured a cast of school children. In practice he seems to have been something of a part-time student. During 1915 he completed his short story "Hexensabbath" ("Witches Sabbath") and his drama "Der Heilige und Abigail" ("Abigail and the saint"). The next year he started work on "Die Rot Schwizerin" ("The red Swiss lass"). From 1916 he was also contributing occasional pieces of theatre criticism to the National-Zeitung (as the "Basler Zeitung" newspaper was known at that time). While still enrolled as a student at the university, in 1918 Cäsar von Arx took a job as a stage manager at the City Theatre, where that same year he also undertook his first directorial work. In May 1918 two sixteenth century dramas, the carnival piece "Elsi Tragdenknaben" (loosely, "Elsi carries the little boy"), possibly by Niklaus Manuel and "Die Komödie von den beiden Eheleuten" ("The comedy of the two married people"), thought to be by Tobias Stimmer were staged at the City Theatre by von Arx, who had also undertaken the task of adapting the sixteenth century texts. In December 1919 he staged his adaptations of "Das Spiel vom reichen Mann und armen Lazarus" ("... the rich man and Lazarus"), based on an anonymous original, and "Die Parabel vom verlorenen Sohn" ("The parable of the lost son") by Hans Salat at the City Theatre. He stayed with sixteenth century for "Von fünferlei Betrachtnis" (loosely, "Five things to think about") which he authored in 1919, based on a text by Johann Kolross. Richard Flury provided the music. A few weeks later, during September 1922, he terminated his contract at the Leipzig Playhouse and returned to Switzerland.

Back in Switzerland The festival stage show that von Arx had produced in Solothurn in August 1922 turned out to be the first in an impressive succession of such shows, which would culminate in August 1941 with a show for inclusion in the 650th anniversary celebrations for the Swiss Federation. Also in 1924, he joined the "Schweizerischer Schriftsteller-Verein" (as the Swiss National authors' association was then known) and the "Gesellschaft Schweizerischer Dramatiker" ("Society of Swiss Dramatists"). Between 1924 and 1933 he would serve as a jury member with the latter. In terms of his public profile 1933, the year in which the Hitler government took power in Germany, was a quieter year for van Arx in Switzerland. It was, however, the year in which, on 6 May, his father Alphons died.

The period piece "Dreikampf" had its premiere at the City Theatre Basel on 2 February 1938. Werner Wolff directed the production. The play was a none too carefully coded exposition of the dangers posed by Totalitarianism: it triggered artistic and political controversy across Switzerland.