About the work
Geld ist Klasse. – Ungleichheit und Überreichtum is a documentary-performance work by Lothar Kittstein and the ensemble. It received its world premiere at FFT Düsseldorf on 20 September 2024. The performers include millionaire heiress and wealth-tax activist Marlene Engelhorn, theatre-maker Volker Lösch and actor Marlene Reiter. It was later presented at Deutsches Theater Berlin as part of the Autor:innentheatertage festival.
Plot
The work examines how extreme concentrations of wealth translate into social and political power. Documentary material on wealth and inequality is combined with personal narratives and grotesque theatrical scenes. Particularly important is Engelhorn's perspective as someone who inherited substantial wealth and publicly campaigns for stronger taxation of large fortunes. The piece asks how extreme wealth shapes democratic decision-making and what forms of political response might be possible.
Cultural significance
The production was shortlisted for the 2025 Berlin Theatertreffen and invited to Deutsches Theater's festival of new drama. It belongs to a contemporary tradition of documentary theatre that treats economic structures through the presence and testimony of people whose biographies are directly implicated in the subject rather than approaching inequality only as an abstract issue.