A History of Münchner Kammerspiele

On January 1, 1911, Eugen Robert opened an alternative, private theater at Augustenstrasse 89, which he managed as the first artistic director with the new name “Münchner Kammerspiele” at the beginning of the second season 1912/13 on October 11, 1912. Thanks to its avant-garde approach and the quality of its ensemble, the private theatre – founded by the lawyers Leo Fromm and Adolf Kaufmann – swiftly made a name for itself in Maxvorstadt, a part of Munich then on the outskirts of the city. In 1913, theatre-loving Jewish patrons founded an operating company named the “Münchner Theater GmbH” to enable the Kammerspiele’s artistic work to continue on a permanent basis. Alongside Adolf Kaufmann and Leo Fromm, the shareholders included the latter’s brother, hop wholesaler Heinrich Fromm, as well as the banker Hugo Marx and his cousin Heinrich Marx, the managing director of the Kammerspiele Benno Bing, and five other partners from the Fromm, Degginger and Dünkelsbühler families.

By the time of the Weimar Republic, the Kammerspiele was already recognised as the most inspiring stage outside of Berlin, with Bertolt Brecht’s “Trommeln in der Nacht” (“Drums in the Night”) premiering at the theatre in 1922. Senior artistic director Rudolf Frank and managing director Adolf Kaufmann brought Karl Valentin and Liesl Karlstadt to the Kammerspiele to attract new audiences and consolidate the theatre’s finances. Contemporary drama played a key role in the repertoire, including works by Carl Sternheim, Heinrich Mann, Georg Kaiser, Bruno Frank, Alfred Polgar, Egon Friedell, Franz Molnár, Lion Feuchtwanger and Carl Zuckmayer – all of whom would be banned during the following Nazi era. But even during the Weimar Republic, productions such as “Schloß Wetterstein” (“Castle Wetterstein”) by Frank Wedekind caused veritable theatre scandals: after organised disruptions by reactionaries, performances of Wedekind’s play were banned by the police.

In 1926, under the commercial management of Adolf Kaufmann, the Münchner Kammerspiele moved to the Schauspielhaus on Maximilianstraße. The building had been conceived in 1900 by the property developer Jakob Heilmann, his son-in-law the architect Max Littmann, and the art nouveau designer Richard Riemerschmid. After being built in just ten months, it hosted its first premiere in April 1901. From the beginning, the Schauspielhaus focused on creating a contemporary programme, latterly under the direction of the actor Hermine Körner who departed from the bankrupt theatre on 1 March 1925. The Münchner Kammerspiele’s managing director Adolf Kaufmann then scored a coup: selling the “Münchner Theater GmbH” properties in Maxvorstadt to “Emelka” (the forerunner of “Bavaria-Film-AG”), he moved the Kammerspiele to Maximilianstraße in the city centre. The “Münchner Kammerspiele Schauspielhaus” then became the sole venue for contemporary theatre in Munich. On 19 September 1926, the theatre opened in its new home with a production of Georg Büchner’s “Dantons Tod” (“Danton’s Death”), directed by Otto Falckenberg – meaning the Münchner Kammerspiele will celebrate its 100th birthday in 2026. The Schauspielhaus is not only one of the best-preserved art nouveau theatres in Germany: most importantly, it fosters an intimacy between the stage and the audience. To this day, the building forms the centrepiece of the Münchner Kammerspiele.

A place for artistic resistance

The year 1933 marked a dark turning point in the Kammerspiele’s history: the “Münchner Theater GmbH” was “Aryanised”. Managing partner Flora Fromm († 1942) would go on to be murdered in the Theresienstadt concentration camp; managing partner Benno Bing († 1942) in Auschwitz. Except for Otto Falckenberg, all the artistic and deputy directors of the theatre’s early years from 1912 to 1933 were forced to flee Germany: Eugen Robert, Erich Ziegel, Hermann Sinsheimer, Otto Zoff, Rudolf Frank, Julius Gellner and the two managing directors Benno Bing and Adolf Kaufmann. For a long time afterwards, the Kammerspiele remained silent: much was left unsaid, covered up or forgotten in the amnesiac decades following the end of the National Socialist dictatorship in a self-narrative full of omissions. However, since 2018, a long-term project has been methodically researching the fates of the Kammerspiele employees who were disenfranchised, persecuted and murdered during the Nazi era.

From 2025, a research library will present the findings of this project which is substantially being undertaken by Janne and Klaus Weinzierl. Memorial plaques in the Schauspielhaus now commemorate the more than 340 people who worked at and for the Münchner Kammerspiele and who were murdered during the Nazi era, took their own lives out of desperation or escaped persecution by fleeing. These forgotten and repressed “SCHICKSALE” (destinies) are to be woven into the history of the theatre and the city. A look at the website which continually documents the research into these destinies reveals the multitude of professions and contributors to the collaborative enterprise that is theatre. What happened at the Kammerspiele is a prime example of how quickly the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933 meant danger, flight and exile for so many. It must have been clear to the Munich public how the new regime was threatening so many people who from one day to the next simply disappeared from the stage. The cataclysm of 1933 was much more noticeable than that of 1945: many colleagues knew immediately that they had to escape from Germany.

The period immediately after the end of the Nazi dictatorship was shaped by the two directors Erich Engel (1945-47) and Hans Schweikart (1947-63) and their efforts to restore the Kammerspiele to its position as one of the leading theatres of the German-speaking world. Schweikart sought to resume the theatre’s engagement with (international) contemporary drama that had been forced to stop during National Socialism: exile literature, the realist drama of American modernism, the Theatre of the Absurd and existentialism all found their way into the repertoire. In 1961, the Werkraum (which has since been altered several times) opened as a second, smaller venue. This engagement with trends in contemporary literature continued during the directorship of August Everding (1963-73). In addition, Fritz Kortner directed a total of 17 plays at the Kammerspiele under Schweikart and Everding, including groundbreaking productions of Shakespeare. In 1967, Peter Stein made a brilliant debut with Edward Bond’s “Saved”. The following, year he was involved in a hotly debated theatre scandal surrounding the production of “Vietnam-Diskurs” by Peter Weiss and was forced to leave the theatre.

In 1970/71, the Schauspielhaus underwent its first major renovation. Led by the architect Reinhard Riemerschmid, a nephew of Richard Riemerschmid, parts of the public areas were redesigned incorporating art nouveau elements.

This was followed by the directorship of Hans-Reinhard Müller (1973-83), during whose time, from 1976, Dieter Dorn as senior director and Ernst Wendt as chief dramaturge and director made their mark on the theatre’s artistic approach. When he took over the directorship, Dorn (1983-2001) extended his ongoing work with a permanent ensemble and many multi-award-winning theatre productions were created. In addition to Dorn, the directors Luc Bondy, Alexander Lang, Thomas Langhoff, Hans Lietzau and Peter Zadek frequently worked at the theatre during this period while contemporary playwrights including Botho Strauß, Heiner Müller, Werner Schwab and Bernard-Marie Koltès played a significant role, as did Bavarian writers such as Franz Xaver Kroetz, Herbert Achternbusch, Marieluise Fleißer and Kerstin Specht. Drawing on a tradition from the 1920s, Dorn also opened the Kammerspiele to Bavarian political cabaret greats such as Gerhard Polt, Dieter Hildebrandt and the Biermösel Blosn.

In 2000, after the completion of the “Neues Haus” as a rehearsal space, a general renovation of the main house could begin in order to preserve the listed building. Both of these measures were led by the Viennese architects Gustav Peichl, Walter Achatz and Stephan Schumer and allowed for a comprehensive updating of the technical equipment and the infrastructure of the theatre. During the general renovation of the Schauspielhaus, the Neues Haus and the Jutierhalle – a converted industrial building that had belonged to the Munich public utility company – became interim venues. After the Schauspielhaus reopened in 2003, the Neues Haus retained a performance stage alongside three rehearsal stages. This phase of the theatre fell under the direction of Frank Baumbauer (2001-09) who brought the most significant directors of contemporary theatre to the Münchner Kammerspiele: Stephan Kimmig, Andreas Kriegenburg, Sebastian Nübling, Luk Perceval, René Pollesch, Thomas Ostermeier, Johan Simons, Lars-Ole Walburg and Jossi Wieler. Frank Baumbauer and his team of dramaturges sought to undertake a poetic and political engagement with the present in both classic texts and the works of a current generation of playwrights. Contemporary playwriting festivals were regularly held alongside politically themed festivals and city-related projects. Baumbauer also brought the theatre to the urban space, for example, with the “Bunny Hill” project in 2004.

From 2009 to 2010, an interim team consisting of the chief dramaturge Julia Lochte, artistic head Christiane Schneider and managing director Dr Siegfried Lederer led the artistic management of the Münchner Kammerspiele. Under the directorship of Johan Simons (2010-15), set designer Bert Neumann converted Rehearsal Stage 1 in the Neues Haus into a flexible performance space. Simons opened the Kammerspiele to the European theatre world, with the canteen becoming a “cosmopolitan village” and the Kammerspiele a “transnational theatre” in the heart of the city of Munich. The diverse and transnational ensemble became indicative of an opening up to other art forms including music and dance. The directorship of Matthias Lilienthal (2015-20) built upon this work and promoted an expansion of the concept of theatre, proposed a “new type of municipal theatre” and established networks with the global theatre scene. The ensemble now worked with directors including Philippe Quesne, Toshiki Okada, Amir Reza Koohestani, Yael Ronen, David Marton and Trajal Harrell, while resident director Christopher Rüping created the groundbreaking production of “Dionysus City”. Numerous invitations to the Berlin Theatertreffen and twice being awarded “Theatre of the Year” (2019 and 2020) confirmed the success of these endeavours and the search for new ways of working. The theatre increasingly forged connections with the international independent scene and organised many concerts and festivals. Making the theatre accessible for various communities in the city was at the heart of its programme.

Despite the difficulties presented by the Covid pandemic, Barbara Mundel’s directorship (since 2020) is building on this work: her team defines the Kammerspiele as the “theatre of the city” and as a place of contemporary dramatic art that offers international artists unique conditions in which to further develop their practice.

Significant contributions have been made by directors including Felicitas Brucker, Serge Aimé Coulibaly, Jan-Christoph Gockel, Karin Henkel, Nele Jahnke, Pınar Karabulut, Marco Layera, Falk Richter, Jette Steckel, Lukasz Twarkowski, Doris Uhlich and Stas Zhyrkov. In addition, there have been premieres of works by authors such as Sivan Ben Yishai, Elfriede Jelinek and Thomas Köck. The Kammerspiele is building on its previous successes and has been invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen four times between 2021 and 2024 alone.

New connections are being forged with Eastern Europe, continuing a tradition which was abruptly and violently broken off in 1933. These connections have taken on a particular urgency following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Kammerspiele is bringing new, previously unheard or repressed voices to the stage to address the pressing questions of today and thereby provide audiences with a place for curiosity, encounters and reflection. To this end, new venues are being created including the “Habibi Kiosk” on Maximilianstraße and the “Theaterlabor Neuperlach” (“Neuperlach Theatre Lab”). Thus, spaces are being developed for the teaching of artistic education (MK: Take part) which is no longer devised separately from the artistic programme as a whole.

The critical engagement with the city of Munich has become a long-term project entitled “What is the City?” while the Kammerspiele’s ongoing exploration of contemporary drama and current feminist voices provides important artistic and social impetus. As part of the work to commemorate the fate of Kammerspiele employees during the Nazi era, the Neues Haus stage has been re-named the “Therese Giehse Hall” and Giehse’s legacy has become a mission for the work of the theatre: “You cannot run the Kammerspiele as a pleasing, cosy municipal theatre, that would destroy it.”

The Kammerspiele continues to undertake a unique artistic and social exploration of the collaboration between artists with and without disabilities who are part of the ensemble and the artistic teams as a matter of course (All Abled Arts) while enjoying wide admiration for the quality of the craftsmanship in its workshops and the artistic and technical knowledge which has, over decades, been developed in the theatre.