Wieler, Jossi

(1951- )

   Director. Wieler is one of the few German directors to have studied theater extensively in Israel before initiating his directing career. Upon his return to Germany in 1982, Wieler directed in Düsseldorf and Heidelberg before his breakthrough production of Heinrich von Kleist's Amphytrion in Bonn, which was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen in 1985. In 1988 Wieler was named principal director of Theater Basel in Switzerland, and he assumed a similar position at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg under intendant Frank Baumbauer in 1993. The following year, he staged the production for which he is perhaps most well known, Wolken.Heim (At Home in the Clouds) by the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Elfriede Jelinek; it was invited to the Theatertreffen, named "production of the year," and subsequently invited to several international theater festivals. In 2000 Wieler became principal director of the Hannover State Theater, and two years he later received the Konrad Wolf Prize.