About the work
Jugend ohne Gott is based on Ödön von Horváth's 1937 novel. The version presented by Deutsches Theater Berlin is a youth-theatre staging directed by Emel Aydoğdu, which premiered in 2025. Horváth's 1937 novel is the source.
Plot
The central figure is a teacher living in a society increasingly shaped by racism, militarism and authoritarian ideology. His pupils repeat the political slogans surrounding them. When the teacher objects to a dehumanising statement, he himself becomes vulnerable to social pressure. During a militarised school camp, a murder occurs. Questions of guilt, lying, complicity and responsibility force the teacher to reconsider his own compromises and the consequences of remaining silent.
Cultural significance
Horváth's novel is regarded as one of the important literary examinations of moral brutalisation and the ideological formation of young people in 1930s Europe. It combines elements of a crime narrative with an inquiry into conscience, conformity and individual responsibility. The Deutsches Theater production stresses the continuing relevance of the work's questions about susceptibility to manipulation, civil courage and the risks attached to moral dissent.