Wilhelm Ringelband

 * October 07 - 1921 in Frankfurt am Main,
 + October 11 - 1981 in Auerbach-Bensheim,
 a well known theater critic and founder of the ‘Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring’

 Life

 Julius Georg ‘Wilhelm’ Ringelband was born in Frankfurt. In January 1928
 his family moved to the small villa of Art Nouveau in Hoellbergstrasse 28.

At the age of 16 Ringelband had his first contact with the theater. He saw Strindbergs Totentanz with Paul Wegener (1874-1948) discovering his passion for the stage which should never leave him. Before he was able to take up his university studies, he had to join the army. Soon he sickend by chronic illness and in the end of the war his mother became a widow. After that they both went to Auerbach near Bensheim to share a home with the grandfather.
Wilhelm Ringelband’s illness did not allow him to work for his living, but his private means were sufficient to follow his passion for theater and film world. He was a frequent visitor to the theatre and film performances and started writing articles and reviews on this subject for several newspapers. His first article was a portrait of the German-Dutch actress
Adele Sandrock (1863-1937), which appeared on the tenth anniversary of her death. Many theater-, opera- and filmreviews were to follow.

The actress Gertrud Eysoldt (1870-1955), was very important to Ringelband and a close and a good adviser to him. They never met, but they exchanged letters frequently until her death in 1955.

In 1947 Ringelband wrote to Gertrud Eysoldt that he intended to establish archives which should cover the German theatre- and filmworld. When he died, he left extensive archives of German film- and theatre history including a collection of pictures.
The archive is located in Bensheim where Ringelband lived until his death.

Relevance to date

In honour of the Max-Reinhard-actress Gertrud Eysoldt,
Wilhelm Ringelband’s last will set out an award of 10 000 €  together with the so called Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring.
This prize is given away in a ceremony every year – since 1986 - by the township of Bensheim together with the “Deutsche Akademie der Darstellenden Künste”. It honours actors of outstanding performance
(laureate),  e.g. Edith Clever (1988), Cornelia Froboess (1990), Ulrich Mühe (1991), Jürgen Holtz (1993), Ulrich Matthes (2004), Klaus Maria Brandauer (2008),
Barbara Nuesse (2009), Kirsten Dene (2010), and Nicolas Ofczarek in 2011.
In this year Constanze Becker received the Gertrud-Eysoldt-Ring for her theatric part Medea.

Auerbach -  graveyard