During the late nineteenth century a remarkable combination of circumstances and individual talents permitted the court theater of a small German state to become the theaterical sensation of its age. The Meiningen Court Theater developed into an international touring company under the leadership of Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen. The company became famous throughout Europe and was a source of inspiration to future directors of the modern theater such as Antoine, Brahm, and Stanislavsky. This book is based on a wide range of published and unpublished contemporary document, photographs, and sketches, many of which are reproduced here. Osborne provides a broad cultural-historical context for the emergence of the Meiningen company and describes in detail the style and staging of productions, as well as the personality and directorial method of the Duke himself. Two famous items in the company's repertoire, Julius Caesar and Prinz Friedrich von Homburg, are selected for pariticular attention.