The Schauspiel Frankfurt is the municipal theatre company for plays in

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

, Hesse, Germany. It is part of

Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt (literally: municipal stages of Frankfurt) is the municipal theatre company of Frankfurt, the largest city of Hesse Germany. The name dates back to 1919. The company is structured today in two organisations, Oper Fran ...

History

In the late 1770s the theatre principal

Abel Seyler Abel Seyler (23 August 1730, Liestal – 25 April 1800, Rellingen) was a Swiss-born theatre director and former merchant banker, who was regarded as one of the great theatre principals of 18th century Europe. He played a pivotal role in the deve ...

was based in Frankfurt, and established the city's theatrical life. Opened in 1782, the ''Comoedienhaus'' (comedy house) was the first permanent venue of the Frankfurt theatre, both plays and opera (drama and opera). Its traditional house, the Schauspielhaus, built in 1902 by architect

Heinrich Seeling Heinrich Seeling (1 October 1852 – 15 February 1932) was a German architect. Life He was born the son of a bricklayer in the Thuringian town of Zeulenroda, then part of the sovereign Principality of Reuss within the German Confederation. Seeli ...

at the Theaterplatz (now

Willy-Brandt-Platz The Willy-Brandt-Platz is a central square in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. Its name was Theaterplatz (Theatre square) until 1992, when it was named after Willy Brandt, the former chancellor. It is located between the Main Station and the A ...

) was destroyed in World War II. In 1926, Brecht's ''

A Respectable Wedding ''A Respectable Wedding'' is a short play by the German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. The German title ''Die Kleinbürgerhochzeit'' literally means ''the petit bourgeois wedding.'' Like other of Brecht’s early works (Baal, Drums in the Night, and ...

'' premiered. Main temporary location of the Schauspiel from 1945 to 1963 was the Börsensaal. A new house for opera and play was built at the Theaterplatz, completed in 1963. When

Harry Buckwitz Harry Buckwitz (13 March 1904 – 28 December 1987) was a German actor, theatre director and theatre manager. He was general manager of the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt from 1951 and 1967, where he was responsible for opera and plays, and initi ...

was general manager, the ruins of the Schauspielhaus were restructured to house both play and opera. Buckwitz focused on plays by Bertolt Brecht, including the world premiere of ''

Die Gesichte der Simone Machard Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicond ...

'' in 1957. On 31 October 1985, the planned first performance of Fassbinder's ''Garbage, the City and Death'' caused a theater scandal. Spectators occupied the stage and prevented the actors from continuing to play.

Venues

* Schauspielhaus (689 seats),

* Kammerspiele (185 seats), Neue Mainzer Straße * Bockenheimer Depot (400 seats), Carlo-Schmid-Platz * Box (70 seats), Willy-Brandt-Platz

Städtische Bühnen

Schauspiel Frankfurt is part of the municipal

Intendant

* 1879–1912 * 1912–1916 * 1916–1920 * 1920–1929 Richard Weichert * 1929–1933

Alwin Kronbacher Alwin is a German and Dutch form of Alvin and may refer to: *Alwin-Broder Albrecht (1903–1945), German naval officer, one of Adolf Hitler's adjutants during World War II *Alwin Berger (1871–1931), German botanist and contributor to the nomencla ...

* 1933–1944 * 1945–1947 Toni Impekoven * 1947–1951 /

Heinz Hilpert Heinz Hilpert (1 March 1890 – 25 November 1967) was a German actor, screenwriter and film director. He was head of the Deutsches Theater during the Third Reich. Selected filmography Actor * '' Nameless Heroes'' (1925) * '' Prinz Louis Ferdi ...

* 1951–1968

* 1968–1972

Ulrich Erfurth Ulrich Erfurth (1910–1986) was a German film director.Giesen p.201 Filmography Director * ' (1944/1950) * ''Finale'' (1948) * ''Not Afraid of Big Animals'' (1953) * ''Columbus Discovers Kraehwinkel'' (1954) * ''Captain Wronski'' (1954) * ''One ...

* 1972–1980

Peter Palitzsch Peter Palitzsch (11 September 1918 – 18 December 2004) was a German theatre director. He worked with Bertolt Brecht in his Berliner Ensemble from the beginning in 1949, and was in demand internationally as a representative of Brecht's ideas. He ...

* 1980–1981 /

Johannes Schaaf Johannes Schaaf (7 April 1933 – 1 November 2019) was a German film, theatre and opera director and actor. Several of his films have been internationally recognized. His focus shifted to opera in the 1980s and he worked with many of the leading i ...

* 1981–1985 * 1985–1990

Günther Rühle Günther Rühle (3 June 1924 – 10 December 2021) was a German theatre critic, book author and theatre manager. He directed the ''feuilleton'' (editorial/entertainment) sections of major newspapers and was regarded as an influential theatre cri ...

* 1990–1991 * 1991–2001 * 2001–2009 * 2009–2017 * Since 2017

References

External links