Theater on Schiffbauerdamm
Located directly on the Spree River, the theater opened on November 19, 1892 as the Neues Theater on Schiffbauerdamm.
It was privately run and thus less strictly subject to imperial censorship. The repertoire included mainly popular and entertainment plays typical of the time, but also plays by the naturalists and the world premiere of Gerhart Hauptmann’s social drama “The Weavers”. The performance had been banned by the Berlin police chief in March 1892 on the grounds that the play incited class hatred. But on February 26, 1893, it could take place as a private performance for the members of the Freie Bühne.
Käthe Kollwitz, who regularly attended performances at the New Theater, was also in the audience. She had met Hauptmann personally a few years earlier and knew the story of Hauptmann’s grandfather on which the then controversial drama was based. It was a sensational success, quickly becoming one of Germany’s best-known plays.
The performance animated Kollwitz to create her important cycle “A Weavers’ Revolt,” on which she worked for five years and which became her artistic breakthrough in 1898.
Since 1954, the house has been the venue of the Berliner Ensemble, founded in 1949 by Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht.
