A story from Feldafing about all of us by Lena Gorelik
The past never goes away
Feldafing lies some way outside of Munich on Lake Starnberg. It is a beautiful place for relaxation, even Sisi and Thomas Mann holidayed there. But Feldafing’s history has a darker side, too. Take a closer look, and various layers of Germany’s past unfold. Between 1934 and 1945, the town was shaped by the ‘Reich School’, a training centre for the Nazi elite. After the end of World War II, the abandoned school grounds were transformed overnight into a camp for ‘displaced persons’: a reception centre for Jews who had survived the concentration camps. Today, a German army barracks stands on the very same spot. Feldafing: a magnifying glass of German history?
Writer and journalist Lena Gorelik is looking through this magnifying glass, writing a play for the Münchner Kammerspiele that searches for strands of the past in our contemporary world and examines the connections between memory and the present. The life of Holocaust survivor Mordechai Teichner, who came to Feldafing at the age of 15, serves as a guide through the narrative, which interweaves different time levels of the past with the immediate present. The play is based in part on conversations with Mordechai and Meir Teichner as well as the book “Traum und Albtraum. Feldafing under National Socialism and in the post-war period” by Marita Krauss and Erich Kasberger.
“We have accounted for the past. We have remembered. We have learned. This is our German legend, told in the present perfect. But have we really? What happens when the tenses flow into one another – when past tense becomes present becomes future?”
– Lena Gorelik
- With Luis Brunner , Walter Hess, Johanna Kappauf, Christian Löber, Anna Luster , Konstantin Schumann
- Live-Music Manuela Rzytki
- Idea & Directed by Christine Umpfenbach
- Text Lena Gorelik
- Stage Design Nuphar Barkol
- Costume Design Pascale Martin
- music Manuela Rzytki
- Video Patrik Thomas
- Lighting Design Maximilian Kraußmüller
- Dramaturgy Theresa Schlesinger
- Research Dedi Baron, Lena Gorelik, Meir Teichner, Christine Umpfenbach
- Assistant to the Director Hannah Waldow
- stage design assistant Stella Brauer
- Stage Design Assistant Ying Yue
- Costume Design Assistant Rafael Hinz
- Video assistance Ilinca-Ioana Bucur
- Theater pedagogical accessibility Filo Krause, Daniela Blümel
- Stage Manager Julia Edelmann
- Prompter Jutta Ina Masurath
- Direction Intern Magdalena Almer
- Artistic Production Management Zora Luhnau
- Technical Production Management Adrian Bette, Erik Clauß
- Stage Master Marcel Homack
- stage machinery Stephan Preusser
- Signal box Michael Pohorsky
- Lighting Michael Pohorsky, Daniel Prütz
- Sound Ulrich Treutwein, Paolo Mariangeli
- Video Technician Jens Baßfeld
- video technology Kai Metzner
- Make Up Marisa Schleimer
- Costume Design Arite Pissang
- costume Fabiola Maria Schiavulli
- Props Daniel Bittner
- carpentry workshop Stefan Klodt-Bussmann, Josef Friesl, Josef Piechatzek, Franz Wallner, Michael Buhl, Sebastian Nebe, Ellen Bosse, Wolfgang Mechmann, Hannes Bickelbacher
- Metalwork Friedrich Würzhuber, Jürgen Goudenhooft
- wallpapering Maria Hörger, Anja Gebauer, Tim Hagemeyer, Lisann Öttl
- art room Jasmin Bude, Natalie Knäble, Jeanette Raue
- Photo credits Julian Baumann
- Thanks to Meir Teichner und Dedi Baron, Prof. Dr. Marita Krauss und Erich Kasberger (Autoren von „Traum und Albtraum - Feldafing im Nationalsozialismus und in der Nachkriegszeit“), Günter Schodlok (Kreisbildungswerk Mühldorf am Inn e.V.), und Edwin Hamberger (Stadtarchiv Mühldorf am Inn), Dr. Christoph Thonfeld (KZ-Gedenkstätte Dachau), Bundeswehr in Feldafing, Lara Fürguth, Jana Bugerova und Andrea Koschwitz.
- Photo on the curtain Neureuther, Eugen Napoleon: Starnberger See, Tableau mit Ansichten der Umgebung, 1839, SPSG, GK II (5) 2310
Press reviews
“’Zeit ohne Gefühle’ demonstrates in an outstanding way what documentary theater can achieve: journalistic and poetic, it sends a political signal against historical amnesia and repetition, but for listening carefully (…)”
“Umpfenbach reveals distortions in German history through breaks in her directing aesthetic, combining documentary theater with reenactment, elements of epic theater with film clips from the research phase, and showing projections and live music. The performers do not have assigned roles. The fact that the cast includes not only the two acting students Anna Luster and Luis Brunner, but also Walter Hess, born in 1939, as well as Johanna Kappauf, Konstantin Schumann, and Christian Löber from the Kammerspiel ensemble, ensures great diversity in the performances.”
Dates & Tickets
-
Thu 4.12. 7:30 – 9 pm
Introduction from 7 pm
Talk afterwards
Take part For TUM students 5€ With Audience Description -
Fri 19.12. 7:30 – 9 pm
Talk afterwards
Take part -
Sat 20.12. 7:30 – 9 pm
Talk afterwards
- Therese-Giehse-Halle
- World premiere
- Premiere: 30.10.2025
- 1 hour 30 minutes
- With English surtitles starting 5.11.
- Strobe effect
- Thu-Sat: 25 €, Sun-Wed: 20 €, under 30 years each seat category: 10 €