Shylock in Germany: Antisemitism and the German Theatre from the Enlightenment to the Nazis

How did the catastrophic development of antisemitism in Germany interact with the portrayal of Shylock on the German stage? Here Andrew Bonnell gives us the first cultural history of this tragic character from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as performed on the German stage. He analyses the performances of the most famous German actors in the role from the late eighteenth century up until the end of World War II and takes a broader view of the rising and falling popularity of The Merchant of Venice across Germany in this period. Bonnell does not confine the book to theatre history only – but instead uses the changing portrayal of Shylock to analyse German cultural attitudes towards Jews over time.