Wallenstein

The story of Wallenstein, one of the most successful mercenary leaders in history, has much to tell us about our current wide and dirty panorama of wars and is highly topical about the structures of power, hubris and loyalty. Amongst all the dealmaking, are there any strategies for peace?

In-house director Jan-Christoph Gockel is creating a sensual spectacle based on Schiller’s monumental Wallenstein trilogy to explore the rise and fall of the power-hungry Wallenstein. On stage, a myth will quite literally be cooked up and devoured. In this epic performance, the audience is invited to share in the meal as we ask together: How do we finish this? How do we get out of this? The final act is dedicated to a peace treaty which, after Wallenstein’s fall in the case of the Thirty Years’ War, proved to be greatly enduring.

Schiller artfully condensed thirty years of conflict into the final three weeks before Wallenstein’s assassination. On the orders of the Emperor, the great commander fights with huge armies that sustain themselves with plunder. But a leader of mercenaries must not become too powerful, nor must he lay claim to political might. Ultimately, the Emperor orders Wallenstein to be killed. Over 350 years later, something very similar happened to Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner group of mercenaries who was nicknamed ‘Putin’s chef’ with his empire of luxury restaurants, troll factories and a powerful private army. In 2023, his march on Moscow failed and a ‘plane crash’ plucked him from the sky.

Today, we find ourselves in a new age of mercenaries. In “Wallenstein’s Lager” (Wallenstein’s Camp) initially it is only the ‘cannon fodder’ who speak: soldiers, accompanying female traders, children and peasants who follow the army. Who are these people today? The production team has spent two years researching among ex-mercenaries, army relatives and NGOs and now give these people a voice within Schiller’s powerfully eloquent depiction of war.

A predominantly female ensemble presents this ‘eternal war’ as a way of life and an act of heightened male self-expression. They take delight in dismantling the myth and knocking Wallenstein off his pedestal.

“Playing Wallenstein is a challenge, and that’s a gross understatement. My first school presentation was about Schiller. Escaping his own insignificance was more important to him than health, money or short-term recognition. That impresses me.”

– Samuel Koch, playing the role of Wallenstein