The German Theatre 589 dramatic poet. It was several seasons before he had a com- pany that could play together well enough to satisfy him, and one large or versatile enough to vary classical drama with comedy and farce and even operetta in order to guard against annual deficits. A place had to be won also for the modern drama, which was obstructed not, as in the case of the classical drama, by the indifference but by the hostility of the general public. Conried's theatre for many years remained an example and inspiration for all the German theatres of the United States, and its influence did not stop there. It was used by critics of the American stage as an object lesson for the propagation of certain reforms, particularly against the starring system. It is well-known that Conried's success with the Irving Place Theatre brought him the appointment to the managership of the Metropolitan Opera, but this was not his greatest ambition. We learn from Winthrop Ames in his account of the New Theatre," that it was Conried's great aim to help in the found- ing of a national American theatre, based upon the principle of the resident stock company, and that if he had lived he would have been logically its first manager. With the Metropolitan Opera on his hands, Conried was obliged to neglect his German theatre company, and as a result it declined steadily until he gave it up in 1907. There followed a meteoric rise under the management of Maurice Baumfeld, and then varying fortunes under different heads, but the Irving Place Theatre never re- gained its important position of influence. Second to New York was the German theatre of Milwaukee. Beginning in the fifties with amateurish performances, good traditions were established with the Stadttheater in 1868. The same struggle to maintain the classical drama along with the more popular and financially more successful comedy and farce is also to be observed in the history of the Milwaukee German theatre. Later the engagement of too many stars here also brought about an overstimulation and a perversion of taste. The stock company system rescued the situation under the management of Richard, Welb, and Wachsner, 1884- 1890. Richard subsequently managed a German theatre in Chicago, Welb in St. Louis. A new home was provided in Mil- waukee in 1895 by P. Papst, and in this well-equipped play- ' See Bibliography.
