German puppeteer, director of the company Gerhards Marionetten (Gerhards’ Marionettes). Fritz Gerhards’ work in the field of puppetry arts was influenced by his training as an actor at the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus (Düsseldorf Playhouse) as well as a new understanding of fairy tales and legends that was developing between the late 19th century and World War I.

From 1925, Gerhards produced plays in his own theatre in Wuppertal-Elberfeld. In his productions he sought a concentration of theatrical means to paint a vivid picture of the symbolic potential of the texts. Fritz Gerhards represented excellence in his role as company director and producer after 1918. His search for tragic elements differed from the productions of the National Socialist Germanophiles. He featured humanistic principles derived from fairy tales.

After World War II, Fritz Gerhards moved his theatre to Schwäbisch Hall, in southern Germany.

(See Germany.)