Bremen

   Bremen achieved substantial prestige as a theater city in the latter part of the 20th century with the presence of Bruno Ganz, Hangünther Heyme, Peter Stein, Peter Zadek, and other notables regularly in its midst. It had enjoyed a similar prestige at the beginning of the 18th century as a venue for touring troupes. When the Velthen troupe was performing outdoors in 1739, however, a lightning bolt struck a nearby gunpowder storage facility, causing an enormous explosion that killed dozens of people. City fathers took the event as a sign of Heaven's displeasure; they banned theater troupes until 1765, when Konrad Ernst Ackermann and Konrad Ekhof successfully petitioned the Bremen city council for a license. Even then, performances were relegated to available barns or other shabby facilities. In 1792 business leaders erected a theater building and troupes performed there until 1824, when it became the Bremen City Theater with its own troupe. The city regularly hosted sojourns by the Meininger troupe in the 1870s and later by troupes of visiting virtuosi. The theater was destroyed in World War II and rebuilt in 1950.