Abstract
When the Deutsches Theater Berlin reopened on September 7, 1945, its selec tion for its premiere was significant: Gotthold Lessing's Nathan der Weise. With its Jewish protagonist and its message of religious tolerance, the play spoke directly to a contemporary need for reconciliation. One of the next plays to be performed was equally significant, though its immediate rele vance required more of an interpretive leap: Gustav von Wangenheim's 1945 production of Hamlet. Featuring a diverse cast of established performers Paul Wegener as Polonius, Heinrich Greif as Fortinbras, and Horst Caspar as Hamlet?Wangenheim's production offered Hamlet as an allegory for the German nation looking to rebuild itself. This was certainly not the first time?nor would it be the last?that Ham let had played a political role for contemporary German history; as early as the late 1790s German authors and thinkers used the figure of Hamlet as a mirror for their own national and political identities.1 Nor was Wangenheim's use of
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