Volksbühne Berlin

The Volksbühne Berlin, on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in the former East Berlin, was founded in 1914 with the motto Die Kunst dem Volke—art for the people—and has remained one of the most politically charged theatres in Europe. The massive building by Oskar Kaufmann, with its austere neoclassical façade and uncommonly large proscenium, became the signature stage of director Frank Castorf, who led the house from 1992 to 2017. Castorf transformed the Volksbühne into the epicentre of German post-dramatic theatre, producing marathon adaptations of Dostoevsky, Bulgakov, and Kleist that ran six or seven hours and broke with every convention of classical staging. Bert Neumann's stage designs, René Pollesch's absurdist comedies, and Christoph Marthaler's dream-like productions gave the house its unmistakable aesthetic. After the controversial Dercon interregnum from 2017 to 2018, the theatre has continued under René Pollesch until his death in 2024, and now under an interim artistic leadership.