March 13 is probably a kind of fateful day for Claus Helmer.
On March 13, 1956, he performed in a theater for the first time, as a professional.
"Süden" by Julien Green, in the Theater am Wiener Konzerthaus.
He was just twelve years old then.
On March 13th, 1995 of all days, Claus Helmer took over the then heavily indebted Frankfurt Theater at the Zoo.
Eva Maria Magel
Senior cultural editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.
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On March 13, 2020 of all days, the lights in the Frankfurt Comedy and the Rémond Theater had to go out during the pandemic.
They were still obscure when, a year later, Helmer could have celebrated an anniversary that was unusual even in acting circles: 65 years of life on stage.
life for the stage.
Children often take up their parents' job, boys their father's, with Helmer it runs through his "genes", as he sometimes claims: He never met his father Ernst, an actor and artistic director.
He died as a soldier in World War II when Helmer was still a baby.
He was born in Brünn, today Brno in the Czech Republic. In 1945, his mother, aunt and sister fled to Vienna with him in a pram.
Confident and disciplined
Young Helmer must have been very good in his first role in 1956.
His next station, in the autumn of the same year: the Burgtheater in Vienna.
From then on he was what one would call a child star today, in the theatre, in films and on television, which was still young.
He has played with legends such as Hans Moser and Werner Krauss, of whom he speaks with deep admiration.
When Helmer tells the anecdote of how Krauss, with a small gesture, taught him how to have the audience's emotion on his side, then Helmer's understanding of the stage profession is also explained.
"Those below have to cry, not you," Krauss had said.
It is a craft that is exercised in a sovereign and disciplined manner in order to give the audience emotions, joy and impressions beyond everyday life.
When Helmer's mother died, he found out during recess.
He kept playing.
Whatever else. She had said to the boy: "If you want to keep playing, you have to do it right." Helmer did it right - he applied to the Max Reinhardt Seminar when he was 15 and was accepted despite all age limits.
Despite all the Austrian charm he exudes, Helmer is an extremely disciplined worker and strict boss.
When he says that he "not throws away a nail that can still be used" and that the actors, including the theater, are his children, so they have to be educated, then you get an idea of what he means when he says, he was "a Viennese Prussian".
An old-school principal who acts, directs, chooses plays and performers.
"No invoice leaves the house without my signature." Today he, who turned 78 a few days ago, manages two private theaters in Frankfurt, for which he is personally responsible.
He took over both with a mountain of debt that he literally played off.
The motto, even then: "Once a theater closes, it doesn't open anymore."
"Thinker or Lover"
No wonder the current situation is tormenting him immensely.
The struggle for structures, the worry about how to proceed.
Helmer believes in entertainment theater in comedy, with well-known actors known on television, as well as in his idea of the Rémond Theater as a kind of alternative city theatre.
There are always Molière, Kleist, Lessing, the most recent success: "The Game of Love and Chance" by Marivaux.
The fact that the one who has always been the youngest in everything can now celebrate a triple anniversary of record numbers is a comedic volte of its own kind. Helmer came to Frankfurt via Düsseldorf in 1965, and the director of the Theater im Zoo, Fritz Rémond, is very fond of him become a fatherly friend.
As early as 1972 he, a young actor who was once credited with a career in the subject “Thinker or Lover”, took over the management of today's comedy.
He always wanted to do more than just act, the whole theatre, so to speak.
He managed relocations, a new building and the reopening of today's comedy in 1999, as well as the Rémond Theater.
How things will continue there is uncertain.
After the announcement of the plans for a children's and youth theater in the Zoogesellschaftshaus, Ina Hartwig (SPD), Head of the Department of Culture, said that the operation of the Rémond Theater was "secured until the end of 2022".
Helmer expects to continue.
When his two celebrations, 25 years of Rémond directorship and stage anniversary, were canceled in 2020 and 2021, the optimist said he would make up for them in the course of 2022 – after all, there would also be half a century of comedy to be celebrated.
It's the same now.
On February 28, the longest-serving artistic director in the city, possibly in the entire country, celebrates his triple anniversary.