Entertainment, Propaganda, Education: Regional Theatre in Germany and Britain Between 1918 and 1945

An intriguing comparison of regional theater in England and Germany during World War II, this study finds that the British government actively encouraged local theater companies to produce patriotic fare—partly because they thought the Nazis were doing the same thing—while the Nazis actually paid little attention to what was going on in their theaters, and German repertoires remained largely unchanged from the days of the Weimar Republic. Theaters in Yorkshire and Westphalia are compared in terms of their founding and histories; the tastes of their audiences; government subsidies received; the extent of outside control, influence, and censorship; and their sponsorship of educational programs or war propaganda.