Date of Birth: 
About Axel Maurer
- Axel Maurer (12 April 1866 – 1925) was a Norwegian stagewriter, editor and theatre director. He was born in Kristiania.
- He took the law degree cand.jur.
- in 1889, but did not practise as a lawyer, as he instead traveled abroad to study theatre.
- From 1895 to 1896 he was the artistic and financial director of the Karl Johan Theatre in Kristiania.
- This theatre had been established in 1893 in the premises of Kristiania Tivoli, and led by Olaf Hansson before Maurer took over, but it went defunct in 1896.
- During this period he wrote and issued the play Lykkens Pamphilius, which was staged at Sekondteatret in 1900 to mediocre reviews.
- The same reception happened to his next play, Kundskabens Træ, staged in November 1897 at Christiania Theatre.
- His play Babylons konge, staged at Nationaltheatret, received somewhat more mixed reviews.
- Another play, Arilda, was accepted by Nationaltheatret, but probably never staged.Maurer edited the humorous magazine Tyrihans from 1898 to 1899.
- His songbook Kristiania-viser, issued in 1906 with new lyrics to known melodies, was received well.
- He also embarked on recitation tours in Norway as well as in Denmark (1909), the US (1910) and Germany (1911).
- In 1917 he issued the novel Den store kjærlighed, and the humoresques Portnøklen and Mindebægeret in 1918 and 1919 respectively.Maurer was not uncontroversial.
- In 1905, when Norway was about to dissolve the union with Sweden, he attacked the Negotiations in Karlstad in a leaflet which was sold on the street.
- The leaflet was soon forbidden by the Norwegian authorities, who did not want a critical viewpoint on the negotiations, according to the diaries of Johan Castberg.
- In 1915 Maurer attended the general assembly of Nationaltheatret.
- In the open discussion at the assembly, he denounced the presence of a "camorra" in Norwegian art and literature, which acted as a "secret society".
- The "camorra" had a secret influence over which plays were staged, and which artists that received grants.
- The purported "chairman" of this "camorra" was theatre critic Sigurd Bødtker.
- A debate was called in Kunstforeningen, where Maurer was asked to back his allegations up.
- During the debate it was pointed to a work by Axel Borge, which had supposedly been refused under murky circumstances, but Borge himself appeared to deny this and support Bødtker.
- Bødtker denied the claim of a camorra, and stated that the probable reason for the attack was the refusal of one of Maurer's plays.
- Maurer was strongly attacked by Nils Kjær, and also received unfavourable comments from Peter Egge, Hjalmar Christensen and Arnulf Øverland.He died in 1925, only 59 years old.
- A street in Oslo, Axel Maurers vei, was named after him in 1934.
Read more at Wikipedia