Die Freie Bühne (German: "The Free Stage") was a subscription-based theatre club founded in Berlin, Germany in 1889 by ten writers and theatre critics supervised by

Otto Brahm Otto Brahm (born Otto Abrahamsohn on 5 February 1856 in Hamburg; died 28 November 1912 in Berlin) was a German drama and literary critic, theatre manager and director. His productions were noted for being accurate and realistic. He was involved i ...

for the purpose of staging new, naturalistic plays that were censored, not commercially viable, or not otherwise commonly produced. The ten founding members were Otto Brahm,

Maximilian Harden __NOTOC__ Maximilian Harden (born Felix Ernst Witkowski, 20 October 1861 – 30 October 1927) was an influential German journalist and editor. Biography Born the son of a Jewish merchant in Berlin, he attended the '' Französisches Gymnasium'' ...

Theodor Wolff Theodor Wolff (2 August 1868 – 23 September 1943) was a German writer who was influential as a journalist, critic and newspaper editor. He was born and died in Berlin. Between 1906 and 1933 he was the chief editor of the politically liberal new ...

, Julius Hart and

Heinrich Hart The brothers Heinrich and Julius Hart were German writers and literary critics who collaborated closely. They were among the pioneers of naturalism in German literature. Heinrich was born 30 December 1855, in Wesel and died 11 June 1906, in T ...

, Paul Schlenther, Julius Elias, Julius Stettenheim, Paul Jonas and

Samuel Fischer Samuel Fischer, later Samuel von Fischer (24 December 1859 – 15 October 1934), was a Hungarian-born German publisher, the founder of S. Fischer Verlag. Biography Fischer was born in Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus/Liptószentmiklós (now Liptovský ...

. Inspired in part by

André Antoine André Antoine (; 31 January 185823 October 1943) was a French actor, theatre manager, film director, author, and critic who is considered the father of modern mise en scène in France. Biography André Antoine was a clerk at the Paris Gas Uti ...

's Théâtre-Libre in Paris, Brahm's company gave private performances to subscribers only. Performances were held on Sunday afternoons. The ''Freie Bühne'' opened with a production of

Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright, poet and actor. Ibsen is considered the world's pre-eminent dramatist of the 19th century and is often referred to as "the father of modern drama." He pioneered ...

's "

Ghosts In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...

" (1881), in September 1889. Later productions included works by writers such as Gerhardt Hauptmann,

Arno Holz Arno Hermann Oscar Alfred Holz (26 April 1863 – October 1929) was a German naturalist poet and dramatist. He is best known for his poetry collection ''Phantasus'' (1898). He was nominated for a Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel prize in litera ...

Émile Zola Émile Édouard Charles Antoine Zola (, ; ; 2 April 184029 September 1902) was a French novelist, journalist, playwright, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of Naturalism (literature), naturalism, and an important contributor to ...

August Strindberg Johan August Strindberg (; ; 22 January 184914 May 1912) was a Swedish playwright, novelist, poet, essayist, and painter.Lane (1998), 1040. A prolific writer who often drew directly on his personal experience, Strindberg wrote more than 60 pla ...

, as well as dramatic adaptations of

Tolstoy Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy Tolstoy pronounced his first name as , which corresponds to the romanization ''Lyov''. () (; ,Throughout Tolstoy's whole life, his name was written as using pre-reform Russian orthography. ; ), usually referr ...

. The ''Freie Bühne'' closed in 1894, mostly due to the fact that larger, commercial theaters in Berlin had by then begun to embrace the new theatrical styles that the ''Freie Bühne'' had championed. Together with the Théâtre-Libre in Paris and the

Independent Theatre Society The Independent Theatre Society was a by-subscription-only organisation in London from 1891 to 1897, founded by Dutch drama critic Jacob Grein to give "special performances of plays which have a literary and artistic rather than a commercial valu ...

in London, the ''Freie Bühne'' inspired a number of smaller, subscription-based theatres, known collectively as the Independent Theatre Movement.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Freie Buhne Theatres completed in 1889 Theatres in Berlin 1889 establishments in Germany