DEAR AUDIENCE
There is so much to tell. After all, we've known each other for quite a while now. But we'd rather start fresh: we're really looking forward to meeting you. We want to create new memories with you. We want to get together with you,
get to know you, celebrate old acquaintances and make new experiences possible. For us, making theater is the most beautiful activity in the world. A love that we will soon be able to share with you. The word love, as the author bell hooks wrote, should be used more often in the verb form, then we would all love better. For us, loving the theater therefore means welcoming you and taking you with us, reflecting and marveling with you, experiencing and discussing fascinating stories. We like to bring courage, strength, creativity, humor and the deep conviction that change happens always and everywhere and can be co-created in the theater. We are convinced that we can create something together. It's great to be here, a great privilege. Today, as then, the Schauspielhaus is one of the most important theaters in Europe - a dazzling legacy that radiates far beyond the borders of the canton and the country. It is a place of longing. A shared home where we can laugh, ponder, cry and grow together.
We love great stories; we love socially relevant theater; we love our new ensemble.
It is only through the people on and behind the stage that the stories we tell become relevant. It is only because of them that we have the right to take up your time and concentration, to seduce you, to win you over.
And so we would like to invite you to join us on our journey into the future of the Schauspielhaus.
Pınar Karabulut & Rafael Sanchez Zurich
BEATE ECKHARDT
Co-Chairwoman, since 2020
STEFAN MÜHLEMANN
Co-Chairman, since 2021
PROF. DR. URSULA AMREIN
since 2011 (2)
MARKUS BACHOFEN RÖSNER
Chair of the Finance and Audit Committee, since 2017
REBEKKA FÄSSLER
since 2021 (1)
SALOME GRISARD
Chair of the Real Estate Committee, since 2021
ALEXANDROS IOANNIDIS
since 2022 (3)
DR. SERAINA ROHRER
since 2024 (2)
DAVID SCHÄRER
since 2025 (1)
(1) seconded by the City of Zurich
(2) seconded by the Canton of Zurich
(3) seconded by the City of Zurich as staff representative
Thank you!
We would like to thank all those who support our theatre with their advice, their actions and their presence. Special thanks go to the City and Canton of Zurich for their financial support. We would also like to thank our long-standing friends, patrons, sponsors and partner companies for their valuable services and support. The Schauspielhaus lives above all from enthusiastic and critical visitors as well as committed employees. It is above all these people who breathe meaning, life and brilliance into the theatre in every respect and lead it into a future full of playfulness. Enclosed you will find the annual reports of the past years with the reviews of the respective seasons.
BEATE ECKHARDT, Co-President of the Board of Directors
STEFAN MÜHLEMANN, Co-Chair of the Board of Directors
Previous annual reports
Download Geschäftsbericht 2022/23
Download Geschäftsbericht 2020/21
Download Geschäftsbericht 2019/20
Download Geschäftsbericht 2018/19
Download Geschäftsbericht 2017/18
Download Geschäftsbericht 2016/17
Download Geschäftsbericht 2015/16
Download Geschäftsbericht 2014/15
Download Geschäftsbericht 2013/14
Download Geschäftsbericht 2012/13
Download Geschäftsbericht 2011/12
Download Geschäftsbericht 2010/11
Download Geschäftsbericht 2009/10
Download Geschäftsbericht 2007/08
Download Geschäftsbericht 2006/07
Download Geschäftsbericht 2005/06
Download Geschäftsbericht 2004/05
Download Geschäftsbericht 2003/04
Download Geschäftsbericht 2002/03
Download Geschäftsbericht 2001/02
History
In 1888/89, the “Volkstheater am Pfauen” was built on the current site (the name of the adjacent pub was “Zum Pfauen”), and in 1901 the building was reopened as a playhouse with Goethe's “Mitschuldigen”. The Schauspielhaus remained a private theater until 1938, when it was upgraded artistically by emigrants from Nazi Germany such as Leopold Lindtberg and Therese Giehse and the “Neue Schauspiel AG” was founded. This is where the glorious history of the Schauspielhaus begins: Under the direction of Oskar Wälterlin, some of Bertolt Brecht's most important plays had their world premiere, and after 1945, numerous plays by Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt were premiered at the Pfauen. Incisive authors and directors as well as outstanding actors still characterize the artistic image of the theatre today.
Nobody will believe it: Switzerland's most important spoken theater, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, was a private theater until 1938. Its director and owner, Ferdinand Rieser, put the theater up for sale that same year because he wanted to emigrate to the USA. A one-off campaign was launched to save it and its ensemble from certain destruction. On the initiative of the publisher Emil Oprecht, the dramaturge Kurt Hirschfeld and with the courageous support of the then Social Democratic mayor Emil Klöti, the “Neue Schauspiel AG” was founded. “It was a foundation of social democracy with the capital of liberal citizens,” wrote Peter Löffler, director of the Schauspielhaus in the 1969/70 season.
1892-1933
But back to the beginnings of this theater. In 1892, innkeeper Heinrich Hürlimann had the first permanent theater with a domed building and small stage built on the site of today's Schauspielhaus: The “Volkstheater am Pfauen”. In this building, the outer outlines of which are still preserved today, the audience was seated at long tables during performances. “Berlin farces” and frivolous “Parisian farces” were on the program, as were snake dancers and fakirs: a temple of amusement in the Zurich suburbs.
In 1901, the then director of the opera house, Alfred Reucker, rented the “Volkstheater am Pfauen” to create a venue for the spoken theater. He cleared out the beer tables and wobbly chairs and opened the house with Goethe's “Mitschuldigen”. At first, the audience was by no means friendly to the new, demanding repertoire, but the director nevertheless dared to engage a permanent ensemble for the first time. It is to his credit that this theater, whose architecture was actually unsuitable for modern drama, developed more and more charisma. Nevertheless, both the ensemble and its director were dismissed in 1920 as the deficits increased. After his successor, Ferdinand Rieser, bought the Schauspielhaus and extensively renovated it in 1926, he implemented a contemporary repertoire despite numerous hostilities from the audience - and he was successful. Internationally, however, the Zurich theater was hardly recognized until 1933.
1933-1961
The situation changed fundamentally when Hitler came to power. Many emigrants, actors and actresses from Germany, were taken into the ensemble by Rieser, all of them explicit opponents of National Socialism, they were Jews and/or politically radical leftists. Not all the famous actors and directors who worked in Zurich at the time - and in some cases until 1945 - can be named here: Therese Giehse, Grete Heger, Albert Bassermann, Ernst Ginsberg, Wolfgang Langhoff, Kurt Horwitz, Leonard Steckel, Leopold Lindtberg and many others. In addition to classics, Rieser performed numerous contemporary plays in his theater and premiered works by such renowned authors as Else Lasker-Schüler, Ödön von Horváth, Ferdinand Bruckner, Georg Kaiser and Friedrich Wolf. It was a critical, sometimes militant repertoire with an explicitly anti-fascist thrust. The “frontists” in Switzerland, who adopted Hitler's ideology of anti-Semitism and nationalism, unleashed a real cultural war against the Schauspielhaus. Their combat units did not shy away from violent actions, so that certain performances could only take place under police protection.
It was not only the looming bankruptcy but also this daily threat that led Ferdinand Rieser to decide to sell his theater in 1938. This year was of existential importance for the continued existence of the Schauspielhaus. And without the courage
1961-today
For the first time in its history, the Zurich Schauspielhaus under its director Christoph Marthaler was voted “Theater of the Year” in 2002 and 2003. And since September 2000 - Marthaler's start as artistic director - this theater has had three stages that could not be more different. On the one hand, the traditional Haus am Pfauen and, on the other, two flexible theater spaces - the Schiffbauhalle and the Box im Schiffbau - which have become known throughout Europe in the short time of their existence. Numerous invitations to the Berlin Theatertreffen - between 2003 and 2009 this included productions by Christoph Marthaler, Stefan Pucher, Frank Castorf, Johan Simons, Jan Bosse and Jürgen Gosch - also speak for themselves. After Marthaler's politically sensational departure, the house was managed by Andreas Spillmann in the 2004/05 season and by Artistic Director Matthias Hartmann from the 2005 to 2009 season. From the 2009/2010 season to 2018/2019, Barbara Frey was the first female artistic director of the Schauspielhaus Zürich. Since the 2019/2020 season, Benjamin von Blomberg and Nicolas Steman have taken up the directorship of the Schauspielhaus.
Author: Bruno Hitz, former dramaturge of the Schauspielhaus
Artistic directors
1938–1961
OSKAR WÄLTERLIN
1961–1965
KURT HIRSCHFELD
1965–1968
LEOPOLD LINDTBERG
1968/69
TEO OTTO, ERWIN PARKER, OTTO WEISSERT
1969/70
PETER LÖFFLER
1970–1977
HARRY BUCKWITZ
1978–1982
GERHARD KLINGENBERG
1982–1989
GERD HEINZ
1989–1992
ACHIM BENNING
1992–1999
GERD LEO KUCK
1999/2000
REINHARD PALM
2000–2004
CHRISTOPH MARTHALER
2004/05
ANDREAS SPILLMANN
2005–2009
MATTHIAS HARTMANN
2009-2019
BARBARA FREY
2019-2024
BENJAMIN VON BLOMBERG UND NICOLAS STEMANN
2024-2025
ULRICH KHUON
