Deutsches Schauspielhaus

(Hamburg)

   The "Hanseatic Republican Court Theater" was built as a manifestation of civic pride, a monument to Hamburg's long-standing tradition of bourgeois support of the theater and a direct challenge to aristocratic pretension. A public stock corporation whose stated goal was the construction of a theater as "a bulwark against the hegemony of bad taste" offered shares to wealthy patrons and average citizens alike in the late 1890s, and the superb structure, in imitation of the Viennese baroque style, was completed in 1900. From that year until 1909, its director was Alfred von Berger (1853-1912), followed by a series of directors through World War II, all quite conservative; Berger, for example, rejected Naturalism out of hand. Erich Ziegel was perhaps an exception to the conservative rule, but he lasted only two years (1926-1928).

   After the war, Arthur Hellmer (1880-1961) was the theater's intendant, preparing the way for its most famous and influential personality, Gustaf Gründgens, who was intendant from 1955 to 1963. Under his leadership, the theater enjoyed its greatest international renown, premiering several new plays (including Carl Zuckmayer's The Cold Light, Bertolt Brecht's St. Joan of the Stockyards, and the German-language premiere of John Osborne's The Entertainer). Its seating capacity of more than 1,100 makes the Deutsches Schauspielhaus one of the largest theaters in Germany. It was completely renovated between 1980 and 1984 and remains one of the premiere theaters in the German-speaking world, where significant directors and actors want to work.