The fact that the Nazis tried to claim Shakespeare as a Germanic playwright has been well documented but recently theatre historians have claimed that their “success” was rather limited. Instead commentators have asserted that plays such as Othello, Antony and Cleopatra and The Merchant of Venice offended National Socialist precepts and were sidelined. This article attempts a re-evaluation and shows that the effect of the Nazi claims on Shakespeare was substantial, the amount of critical writing supporting these demands was significant, and the official efforts which went into putting these demands into practice were considerable. Crucially, it is also argued that the Nazis established a particular reading of Shakespeare which lasted well into the 1960s and dominated the aesthetic of West German productions of his drama
