Theater Freiburg

Up until the first decades of the 19th century, theatre performances in Freiburg were mainly staged in the Kornhaus (granary) on the Münsterplatz, which later proved to be increasingly unsuitable for a “modern“ theatre. Thus it was decided to use the church of the abandoned monastery of the Augustinian hermits as the theatre. The architect Christoph Arnold was instructed to redesign the building accordingly. In 1823 the theatre was opened and the actors could return to the stage. In 1866 the “Privileged Theatre“ was taken over by the town following a decision by the district council. The first season of the current “Städtisches Theater“ (municipal theatre) opened with Lessing's Emilia Galotti. Construction of the present day theatre was started in 1905 under Otto Winterer, Lord Mayor of Freiburg at the time. It was designed by the Berlin architect Heinrich Seeling in an eclectic style combining a Neo-Baroque building with Art Nouveau decorative elements and built on the site of the former "Dauphin" bastion, part of Vauban's town fortifications. The architectural sculptures were modelled out of plaster by Hermann Feuerhahn and realised by six sculptors from Freiburg: Julius Seitz, his students Louis Granget, Theodor Hengst and August Muessle, along with Ludwig Kubanek and a Berlin colleague, Albert Mayer. The building was opened to the public on October 8, 1910, with performances of both ''Wallenstein's Camp'' by Friedrich Schiller and the “Festwiese” from Richard Wagner's The Mastersingers of Nuremberg. While the reconstructions were carried out, in the late 1990s, the Eschholzpark in Freiburg served as an alternative venue for the theatre. Around 30 premieres were presented during the 2010/11 season. One can choose from hundreds of performances every year. Freiburg Theater, under its managing director Barbara Mundel, and the slogan, “What kind of future do we want to live in?”, seeks dialogue with the city, searching for answers, models and opportunities. The scheduled reconstruction of the stagecraft, which is estimated at around 9 million euros, is currently being looked into due to a lack of financial means within Freiburg's cultural budget. == Performers ==

Freiburg Theatre houses three of the performing arts: opera, theatre and dance, as well as a choir and the Freiburg Philharmonic Orchestra, which, along with performing with the opera, also gives concerts in the Großes Haus and in the neighbouring Konzerthaus (concert house). The Werkraum (workshop) is an open studio for the Youth Theatre Group and an experimental laboratory dedicated to questions and issues of our times. A current example is the Family Conference - a research project dealing with the topic of education over a time span of more than 100 years. Questions concerning politics are central on the Kammerbühne (chamber stage). There, The Stronghold of Europe is being looked at from various perspectives. A number of events and theatre layouts are concerned with questions such as: Who decides who is allowed to live here? What we are talking about when we talk about Europe? Who belongs to Europe? In addition, the theatre makes an effort to support young authors and directors by providing opportunities for students, such as the student group Frischfleisch (fresh blood), and their own youth club. == Directors ==

since 2017 Peter Carp ==References==