Iffland-Ring

thumb|[[August Wilhelm Iffland and Franz Labes in Molière's Der Geizige, Berlin, 1810.]]

The Iffland-Ring is a diamond-studded ring with a picture of August Wilhelm Iffland, a prominent German actor, dramatist and theatre director of the late 18th and early 19th century, who played in works of contemporary writers Goethe and Schiller, starting in 1782. The holder of the Iffland-Ring is considered to be the "most significant and most worthy actor of the German-speaking theatre", in the opinion of the previous holder who has passed it to him by will.

One exception to this rule came in 1954, when Werner Krauß was determined not by the previous holder Albert Bassermann (1867–1952) but by a committee of German-speaking actors. Bassermann had chosen a successor three times, but on each occasion his nominee had died shortly thereafter. Bassermann considered the ring cursed, and in 1935 declined to choose a fourth successor. Since his death, the Iffland-Ring has been earmarked as the state property of the Republic of Austria, although the holder retains it until their death.

The origins of the ring are shrouded in some mystery. The apocryphal story is that it was indeed worn by Iffland, but its established history only begins a century later with its supposed fifth holder, Friedrich Haase, who has been suspected of commissioning it for himself and inventing the story.

The current holder of the ring is Jens Harzer, having been named by Bruno Ganz as his successor. By tradition, the ring is only passed from one male actor to another. Since 1977, it has had a counterpart for female actors in the Alma-Seidler-Ring, named after the actress Alma Seidler. She had been considered as a successor for the Iffland-Ring by Krauß, who held it from 1954 to 1959.

History

Origins

The origins of the Iffland-Ring are shrouded in some mystery, and the current ring is said to have been the most precious of a set of seven, of which only two appear to have survived: the Iffland-Ring itself and a less valuable similar ring which in the 1950s was in the private possession of Wilhelm Burckhardsberg, but that may now also be lost.

Iffland, a leading actor in his time in Germany, was inspired by Romanticism and is claimed to have commissioned the ring, to be carried by the leading German-speaking actor of his time. If so, Iffland's inspiration was most likely the play Nathan the Wise by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.

Ludwig Devrient

The circumstances of where and when Iffland passed on the ring to Ludwig Devrient are uncertain; according to Albert Bassermann, Iffland handed the ring to Devrient in 1814, after his last performance in Breslau. Shortly after, in September 1814, Iffland died in Berlin.

After early performances in Potsdam and Weimar, Haase moved to Prague, where he had considerable success. His career took him to Karlsruhe, Munich, Frankfurt, St. Petersburg and New York, and he became one of the most successful German actors.

Neither Haase nor Döring were ever actually seen with the ring, despite both being known to have been rather vain, and one theory concerning the ring's origins has it that Haase himself had the ring made and invented its history. The now-known history of the ring in any case begins with Haase. Certain discrepancies in the wording of a note, found in the case in which the ring was kept, point in this direction, but they can also be quite easily explained otherwise. In particular, the date Haase gives for his receipt of the ring from Döring's widow, 1875, appears wrong as Döring died in 1878.

He left the ring to Albert Bassermann upon his death in 1911.

Jens Harzer

The current holder of the ring is German actor Jens Harzer, having been named by Bruno Ganz as his successor.

Bearers of the Iffland-Ring

{| class="wikitable"

! Ring-bearer

! Born

! Died

! Duration

! Nationality

| August Wilhelm Iffland

| 19 April 1759

| 22 September 1814

| ?−1814

| Hanoverian / Prussian

| Ludwig Devrient

| 15 December 1784

| 30 December 1832

| 1814–1832

| Prussian

| Emil Devrient

| 4 September 1803

| 7 August 1872

| 1832–1872

| Saxon / German

| Theodor Döring

| 9 January 1803

| 17 August 1878

| 1872–1878

| Prussian / German

| Friedrich Haase

| 1 November 1827

| 17 March 1911

| 1878–1911

| Prussian / German

| Albert Bassermann

| 7 September 1867

| 15 May 1952

| 1911–1952

| German

|colspan="3"| Interregnum

| 1952–1954

| Werner Krauss

| 23 June 1884

| 20 October 1959

| 1954–1959

| German / Austrian

| Josef Meinrad

| 21 April 1913

| 18 February 1996

| 1959–1996

| Austrian

| Bruno Ganz

| 22 March 1941

| 16 February 2019

| 1996–2019

| Swiss

| Jens Harzer

| 14 March 1972

| 2019–

| German

Note: until 1871, Germany did not exist as a country but instead was subdivided into a number of countries; citizenship before 1871 is shown as applicable.

Laws governing the ring

In 1954, three basic laws were enacted concerning the possession of the ring:

The holder of the ring has to determine a successor within three months of receiving the ring.
Should no successor have been appointed or the documents regarding succession be lost, the federal Austrian theatre administration will form a committee to decide on a successor.
The ring is the property of the Republic of Austria, but its future holder is determined by personal decision of the current holder.

References

Sources

External links

The Iffland-Ring Short abstract on the history of the ring