23 April, foundation of the Deutsche Shakespeare Gesellschaft.
The Grand Duchess Sophia of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, who will become the first patroness of the Shakespeare Gesellschaft, convinces Franz Dingelstedt, the director of the Court Theatre, to produce the English Histories for the Weimar jubilee. The whole cycle of eight plays, entitled Königsdramen, are shown in chronological order before an audience of theatre directors, dramatists, literary critics and scholars as well as industrialists.
In the context of the current war with Denmark, the dramatist Karl Gutskow composed a lengthy ode, Eine Shakspearefeier an der Ilm, denouncing the fratricidal wars of Odin’s sons and comparing Shakespeare to “a mother who whith raised hands sees her children tear each other apart.”
Gifts from the “Free German Hochstift” to the Corporation of Stratford, and a Jarhbuch der Deutschen Shakespeare-Gesellschaft, dedicated to Grand-Duchess Sophia, Berlin, 1865, listing performances of Shakespeare’s plays in 1864:
| BERLIN: 15 |
| WEIMAR: 14 |
| CARLSRUHE: 13 |
| VIENNA: 12 |
| DRESDEN: 11 |
| MUNICH: 10 |
| HANOVER: 9 |
| STUTTGART: 8 |