Karlheinz Martin (May 6, 1886 – January 13, 1948) was a German stage and film director, best known for his expressionist productions.
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Theatre
Karlheinz Martin began his theatrical career as an actor in Kassel in 1904. His next engagements were in Naumburg, Hanover, and Mannheim. He directed for the first time in 1909 at the summer theater in Bad Schandau. He then moved to Frankfurt am Main, where he managed the Komödienhaus (Comedy House) for three years. Afterward, he transferred to the Schauspielhaus (Playhouse) , where he became the driving artistic force in the following years. He directed Molière and Shakespeare cycles and, with productions such as his 1915 production of Bürger Schippel (by Carl Sternheim), helped stage Expressionism achieve its breakthrough.
In Berlin in 1919 he co-founded the avant-garde theater Die Tribüne, where he directed Ernst Toller's play Die Wandlung.
He also worked at the Kleines Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Vienna Volkstheater and Raimundtheater, the Deutsches Künstlertheater Berlin, the Theater am Nollendorfplatz, the Berliner Volksbühne, where he was artistic director from 1929 to 1932, and the Kammerspiele of the Deutsches Theater, Berlin. Under the Nazi regime, Martin was banned from working as a theater director until 1940, so he turned more to film work. From 1940 onwards, he directed as a guest director at the Münchner Kammerspiele and the Berliner Schillertheater.