Rauch, Carl Hermann

Theater director, spa director

born: 08.06.1869 in Berlin

died: 18.10.1954 in Wiesbaden

Rauch studied German and history in Berlin and received his doctorate in 1892 with a thesis on "Lenz and Shakespeare". Alongside his studies, he trained as an actor and director under Heinrich Oberländer (1834-1911). He worked at the Freie Bühne and the Lessing Theater in Berlin, and later in Antwerp and Bruges. Rauch then went to the Meinigen court theater as an acting trainee. In 1894, he took over as director of the Cottbus municipal theater. In 1895, he moved to Wiesbaden and took over an insolvent private theater in Bahnhofstraße, which had been founded in 1892 and which he continued to run as the Residenztheater.

Under his management, the operetta theater became a house in which works by modern and contemporary authors were performed and which - partly due to guest performances by popular actresses and actors - achieved a certain degree of fame. Its great success prompted him to move his ensemble to a new theater building at Luisenstraße 42 in 1910. In 1915, Rauch had to give up the theater for financial reasons.

After selling his stage, Rauch returned to Berlin in 1919. There he became director of the Theater des Westens. In 1921, he was appointed Wiesbaden's spa director and returned to Wiesbaden. He held this position until his retirement in 1933. After the Second World War, Rauch took on the role of spa director for a further two years.

In 1947, he finally retired to private life after he had obtained the release of the opera house (large house of the Staatstheater) from the Americans. Rauch was involved in voluntary work as a senior member of the German Baths Association and an honorary member of the Rotary Club.