1886 Blasewitz bei Dresden
1966 Hamburg

Lothar Schreyer was born at Blasewitz near Dresden in 1886. After studying jurisprudence and art history at Heidelberg, Berlin and Leipzig Universities, Schreyer took his doctorate in law in 1910 before his first tentative essays as a self-taught painter. Schreyer had been interested in theatre and art during his student years. Between 1911 and 1918 Lothar Schreyer produced plays and helped to direct stage productions at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg. From 1914 Schreyer collaborated with Herwarth Walden, proprietor of the 'Der Sturm' Gallery in Berlin. From 1916 until 1928 Schreyer was editor of the journal of the same name. Walden and Lothar Schreyer founded an experimental Expressionist theatre in 1918 which they called the 'Sturm-Bühne'. In 1921 Lothar Schreyer was invited to teach at the Bauhaus, where he was head of a stage workshop. Schreyer left the Bauhaus only two years later after his production of 'Mondspiel' ['Moon Piece'], a cultic play with religious overtones, flopped at the Bauhaus because the Bauhaus students vehemently protested the staging, which was to be developed from basic forms, colours, movements and sonic effects. From 1924 until 1927 Schreyer taught at 'Der Weg', a Berlin art school, of which he was also director for a time. Between 1928 and 1931 Schreyer was general editor at the Hanseatische Verlagsanstalt publishing house. In 1933 Lothar Schreyer converted to Roman Catholicism and from then on his work was devoted to Christian themes. Even his early work from the 1920s was informed by a cultic, religious Expressionism but it soon changed to a supra.individual, objective formal language. During the 1930s Lothar Schreyer was preoccupied with Christian mysticism and folk ideas and ultimately dabbled in the National Socialist ideology. After the second world war Lothar Schreyer revived the old 'Sturm-Bühne' as the 'Kampf-Bühne' ['Battle Stage'] in Hamburg, where his productions included 'Kreuzigung' ['Crucifixion'], 'Mann' and 'Kindsterben' ['Death of a Child']. Lothar Schreyer died in Hamburg in 1966.