The Laterndl: A Light in Dark Times

Das Laterndl (The Little Lantern) was the first and largest of a number of German-language theatres run by exiles in London during the Second World War. It reunited friends and colleagues who had worked together in Vienna at one or other of the political cabaret theatres which had flourished during the period of Austro-fascism, 1934-1938.

The three actors who proposed the opening of a theatre at the Austrian Centre in March 1939 – Fritz Schrecker, Franz Hartl and Franz Schulz – had clear aims in mind for the theatre. They wanted to give the wider refugee community hope and belief in the future, contribute to the fight for a free and independent Austria and reach out and share stories with their British hosts. Perhaps, just as importantly, was an unspoken hope that theatre would bring a sense of agency and purpose to their life in exile.

This talk by Kat Hubschmann, project archivist, Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Trust, coincides with a new online exhibition entitled A Light in Dark Times on the same subject, based on the holdings of The Martin Miller and Hannah Norbert-Miller Archive at the University of London.

Booking details here