Böhm

In the organizer's words:

by Paulus Hochgatterer

This work can be seen in Hamburg for the first time. Experience puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan, winner of the Nestroy Theater Prize, whose "F. Zawrel - erbbiologisch und sozial minderwertig" was a surprise success at the 2018 festival. This time, too, it is dedicated to the period of National Socialism, now focusing on the aspect of the artist as a follower - with no less a protagonist than the conductor Karl Böhm.
Conductors have to be sensitive as well as strong leaders and are sometimes tyrannical, autocratic despots whose pointing fingers can set hundreds of people in motion. Like Karl Böhm, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. Böhm was a great artist, but also a man who came to terms with National Socialism for the sake of his career. Following Hitler's intercession, he was appointed to the Semperoper in Dresden in 1934 to succeed Fritz Busch, who had been forced to resign and emigrate by the Nazi regime.
In 1935 Böhm wrote: "It is certainly in the interests of the government if I, as a German conductor, go to Vienna to give new impetus to the many supporters of the National Socialist idea there, all the more so as I was born in Austria. [...] Heil Hitler!" Böhm became director of the Vienna State Opera in 1943.

With: Nikolaus Habjan

Directed by: Nikolaus Habjan, with the director's assistant: Martina Gredler, stage: Julius Theodor Semmelmann, costumes: Cedric Mpaka, lighting: Robert Grauel, puppet construction: Nikolaus Habjan, Marianne Meinl, dramaturgy: Karla Mäder, Elisabeth Geyer

A production of the Schauspielhaus Graz, a guest performance of the Deutsches Theater Berlin

Price information:

St. Pauli Theater ticket hotline: (040) 4711 0 666, st-pauli-theater.de and at all known advance booking offices