Deutsches Theater Berlin

Main photo: Deutsches Theater and Kammerspiele © Jasmin Schuller

Deutsches Theater is one of the largest theatres in the German-speaking world. Situated in the centre of Berlin, it was built in 1848 as a commercial theatre, but only one generation later, under a new management and the name “Deutsches Theater” (German Theatre), it had developed to become one of the most significant and influential theatres in the world – a status which it still holds today. For more than 150 years, numerous actors, directors, playwrights… as well as technical innovations (like the invention of a revolving stage, the use of electricity, light design, up until video design and digital technologies) pushed the artistic means of the theatre medium further.

Today, with an ensemble of 38 actors, around 300 permanent employees, a repertoire of roughly 60 shows on re-runs as well as 20 new productions each season, Deutsches Theater is a powerful producing theatre. The theatre has three stages (the large stage with approx. 650 seats, the Kammer with approx. 230 seats and the Box, a variable venue with a maximum of 80 seats) and some off-spaces like rehearsal stages, beautiful foyers for smaller events etc. In the season 2023/2024, Deutsches Theater welcomed close to 160.000 spectators in around 800 events throughout the year.

Since summer 2023, Iris Laufenberg has taken over the artistic direction of Deutsches Theater Berlin with her team. Her artistic project centres around opening up Deutsches Theater to new audiences, new artists, new texts and playwrights, while highlighting the DNA of this house: a sociopolitical approach to theatre, a profound interest in topics for a contemporary, international, metropolitan audience as well as a strong focus on its first-class ensemble of actors.

Deutsches Theater has long had a strong focus on contemporary drama and authors, with the staging of new theatre texts every season, the ‘Autor:innentheatertage’ (ATT), its annual playwrights’ festival for contemporary German drama, which will have its 30th edition in 2025, and the “ATT Ateliers”, offering three playwrights in-house writing residencies each season.

In addition, ‘DT Kontext’, with a free supporting programme of expert talks and discussions with our audiences for all productions, as well as ‘DT Jung*’, the youth and participatory department of the theatre, anchor Deutsches Theater as an important democratic public space in Berlin.

Deutsches Theater sees itself as a space to collectively encounter the present and explore its complexities. Its wide range of aesthetics and narrative styles over a season, the multiple layers of discourse, the uniquely sensory experience of a theatre visit all offer a multiplicity of access points to our present.