Burgtheater

The Burgtheater opened in 1888 on Vienna's Ringstrasse

The Burgtheater in Vienna is an Austrian federal theater . It is considered one of the most important theaters in Europe and, after the Comédie-Française, is the second oldest European and largest German-speaking theater . The old Burgtheater had been on Michaelerplatz since 1748 . In October 1888 the new building was opened on today's Universitätsring (then Franzensring). After it was completely burned out in 1945 as a result of bombing, the Ronacher served as an alternative accommodation until it reopened on October 14, 1955. The Burgtheater is considered the Austrian national theater .

Older names of the Burgtheater were kk theater next to the castle and then until 1918 kk Hof-Burgtheater . In Vienna in particular, it is often called “The Castle” for short, and the ensemble members are known as “Castle actors”. In terms of number of employees and budget, it is "the richest and largest repertory theater in the world". Martin Kušej has been the director of the Burgtheater since September 2019 .

history

Michaelerplatz with the old kk theater next to the castle (right) and the winter riding school of the Hofburg (left), painting by Robert Raschka

Interior of the old Burgtheater, painting by Gustav Klimt . The people are shown in such detail that identification is possible

The "old" Burgtheater on Michaelerplatz

The original Burgtheater was set up in a ballroom that the Roman-German King and later Emperor Ferdinand I had built in the lower pleasure garden of the Hofburg in 1540 after the old ballroom fell victim to a fire in 1525. Jeu de Paume , a forerunner of tennis , was played there until the beginning of the 18th century . Finally, on March 14, 1741, Empress Maria Theresia , who had ordered a general theater ban after the death of her father , gave Joseph Karl Selliers, the “entrepreneur of the royal court operas” and tenant of the Theater am Kärntnertor , built in 1708, permission to use the ballroom To transform theater. At the same time, a new ballroom was built in the immediate vicinity, which gave today's Ballhausplatz its name.

In 1748 the newly designed theater was opened next to the castle . In 1756 major renovations took place, including a new rear wall. The auditorium of the old Burgtheater was still made entirely of wood and held around 1200 guests. The imperial family could reach their court box directly from the imperial apartments with which the Burgtheater was structurally connected. Several works by Christoph Willibald Gluck , Ludwig van Beethoven , Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Franz Grillparzer were premiered at the old venue on Michaelerplatz .

On February 17, 1776, Emperor Joseph II declared the theater a German National Theater . It was also he who ordered by decree that the plays should not deal with sad events, in order not to put the imperial audience in a bad mood. As a result, many pieces had to be changed and given a “ happy ending ” , for example Romeo and Juliet or Hamlet . From 1794 the theater was named kk Hoftheater next to the castle .

In 1798 the poet August von Kotzebue was appointed director of the Burgtheater, but after arguments with the actors he left Vienna in 1799. Under director Joseph Schreyvogel , German was introduced as the new stage language instead of French and Italian.

The last performance took place in the old house on October 12, 1888. The Burgtheater ensemble moved to the new venue on the Ring . The old Burgtheater had to give way to the completion of the Michaelertrakt of the Hofburg . Joseph Emanuel Fischer von Erlach had drawn the plans for this almost 200 years before the old Burgtheater was demolished. A true-to-original (but reduced) copy of the theater hall, built in 1817, is located in Oravita, Romania .

The new building on the ring

Kk Hofburgtheater around 1900

The Munich Festival Hall on the Isar, planned by Semper in 1865 but not built

The "new" kk Hofburgtheater on the Ring opposite the town hall is a historicist building . It opened on October 14, 1888 with Grillparzer's Esther and Schiller's Wallenstein's warehouse . It was designed by Gottfried Semper (floor plan) and Karl Freiherr von Hasenauer (facade), who had already planned the Imperial Forum in Vienna together, in the forms of the Italian High Renaissance . In the original plan from 1869, the Burgtheater was positioned in such a way that it would have been directly connected to the new Kaiserforum. Due to the new building site opposite the new Vienna City Hall , the Hofburg was connected to the new theater building by a tunnel that is now walled up, so that the emperor and other members of the court could get to the performances underground by carriage. The interior of the Burgtheater is lavishly Baroque . Construction began on December 16, 1874 and dragged on for 14 years, during which the architectural duo fell out. As early as 1876, Semper withdrew to Rome due to health problems and let Hasenauer realize his ideas alone, who, in the argument between the architects, had mainly advocated a splendidly designed box theater.

Meanwhile, the well-known Viennese painter Gustav Klimt created the ceiling paintings in the two staircases of the new theater together with his brother Ernst Klimt and Franz Matsch from 1886–1888. The three took on this task after similar commissioned work in the city theaters of Fiume and Karlsbad as well as in the Bucharest National Theater. In the staircase on the side of the Burgtheater facing the Café Landtmann (Erzherzogstiege) Gustav Klimt trained the artists of the Taormina Antique Theater in Sicily , in the staircase on the “ Volksgarten ” side ( Kaiserstiege , because it was reserved for the Emperor) the London Globe Theater and the final scene from William Shakespeare's " Romeo and Juliet " after. Above the entrance to the auditorium, Molière's imaginary sick man can be seen. The painter immortalized himself in the background in the company of his two colleagues. Emperor Franz Joseph I liked the ceiling paintings so much that he awarded the members of the Klimt artist company the Golden Cross of Merit .

The new building is similar to the outside of the Dresden Semper Opera , but even more so, because of the two theaters for quite atypical transverse wing with the ceremonial stairs, Semper unausgeführtem Munich project from the years 1865/1866 for Richard Wagner - Festspielhaus on the Isar . The two large-scale stairwells were to form an architectural counterpart to the wide facade of the new town hall. A loggia is located above the central wing, framed by two side wings and divided by a stage with a gable roof and an auditorium with a tent roof. A statue of Apollo adorns the facade above the central building, enthroned between the muses of drama and tragedy . There are friezes with Bacchus and Ariadne above the main entrances . On the outer facade all around you can see portrait busts of the poets Calderon, Shakespeare, Molière, Schiller, Goethe, Lessing, Halm, Grillparzer and Hebbel. The masks, which can also be seen here, point to the ancient theater, and allegorical representations adorn the side wings: love, hate, humility, lust for power, egoism and heroism. Although the theater has been called the Burgtheater since 1919 , the old inscription KK Hofburgtheater above the main entrance is still there. Some of the pictures in the old portrait gallery were hung in the new building and can still be seen today - although these pictures were originally smaller and had to be "lengthened" so that they look better in the high room. The places of these "additions" are visible as fine lines on the canvas.

The Burgtheater was initially well received by the Viennese due to its magnificent appearance and technical innovations such as electrical lighting, but criticism of the poor acoustics soon arose . In 1897 the auditorium was rebuilt to alleviate the acoustic problems. The new theater became an important meeting point for social life and was soon one of the “sanctuaries” of the Viennese. In November 1918, supervision of the theater was transferred from the Emperor's chief steward to the new state of German Austria .

In 1922/1923 the Akademietheater was opened as a chamber theater for the Burgtheater. On May 8, 1925, the Burgtheater was included in the Austrian criminal chronicle when Mentscha Karnitschewa carried out a revolver attack on Todor Panitza here .

The “Feststiege” in the north side wing
The "Kaiserstiege" in the southern side wing
The entrance foyer
The auditorium based on plans by Michel Engelhart

The Burgtheater in the time of National Socialism

National Socialist ideas also left their mark on the history of the Burgtheater. In 1939 the highly anti - Semitic book by the theater scholar Heinz Kindermann , Das Burgtheater , was published by Adolf Luser Verlag . Legacy and mission of a national theater . In this he analyzed, among other things, the “Jewish influence” on the Burgtheater. On October 14, 1938, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Burgtheater, a Don Carlos production by Karl-Heinz Stroux was shown, which served Hitler's ideology. The role of Marquis Posa was played by the same Ewald Balser , who a year earlier in another Don Carlos production (by Heinz Hilpert ) at the Deutsches Theater railed in the same role with the sentence towards Joseph Goebbels ' box: "Give freedom of thought!". The actor and director Lothar Müthel , who was director of the Burgtheater between 1939 and 1945, staged The Merchant of Venice in 1943 , in which Werner Krauss portrayed the Jew Shylock as clearly anti-Semitic. The same director staged Lessing's parable Nathan the Wise after the war . Adolf Hitler himself only visited the Burgtheater once during the Nazi regime (1938), later he refused for fear of an assassination attempt.

Actors and theater employees who were classified as " Jewish " under the Reich Citizenship Act of 1935 were soon banned from performing; they have been given leave, dismissed or arrested. Between 1938 and 1945 the Burgtheater ensemble did not offer any noteworthy resistance to the Nazi ideology, the program was heavily censored, only a few actively joined the resistance, such as Judith Holzmeister (who was also involved in the Volkstheater at the time ) or the actor Fritz Lehmann. Many Jewish ensemble members were helped to emigrate ; one actor, Fritz Strassny , was murdered in a concentration camp .

The Burgtheater at the end of the war and after the Second World War

In the summer of 1944, the Burgtheater also had to be closed because of the general closure of the theater . From April 1, 1945, when the Red Army approached Vienna, a military unit was stored in the house, part of which was used as an arsenal. The house on the Ring was damaged in a bomb attack and burned down completely on April 12, 1945. The auditorium and stage became unusable, only the steel structure remained. The ceiling paintings and parts of the foyer were almost undamaged.

The Soviet occupying power expected Vienna City Councilor for Culture Viktor Matejka to get Vienna's cultural life going again as quickly as possible. The city council therefore called a meeting of all Viennese cultural workers in the city hall on April 23 (there was no state government yet). The result of the discussions was that at the end of April 1945 eight cinemas and four theaters resumed operations, including the Burgtheater. The establishment was taken over by the Ronacher establishment , which many actors from the castle regarded as “exile”, as an alternative accommodation (and remained there until 1955). This venue was chosen by the newly appointed director Raoul Aslan , who was particularly committed.

The first performance after the Second World War was on April 30, 1945, Sappho by Franz Grillparzer in a production by Adolf Rott from 1943 with Maria Eis in the title role. Other productions from the Nazi era were also resumed. Nestroy's play Das Mädl aus der Vorstadt was shown with Paul Hörbiger , who was still in mortal danger as a Nazi prisoner a few days earlier . The Akademietheater could be used (the first performance was on April 19, 1945 Hedda Gabler , a production by Rott from 1941) and there were also performances in the Redoutensaal in the Hofburg . Aslan had the Ronacher converted in the summer because the stage was too small for classical performances. On September 25, 1945, Schiller's Jungfrau von Orleans could be played on the enlarged stage .

The first new productions are associated with the name of Lothar Müthel: Jedermann and Nathan the Wise , in both of which Raoul Aslan played the leading role. The staging of the Merchant of Venice von Müthel during the Nazi era seemed to have been forgotten.

100 Schilling silver coin for the 200th anniversary (1976)

The Burgtheater on the reverse of the 50 Schilling banknote (1970)

The audience was very happy when Else Wohlgemuth , who was expelled from the ensemble in 1938, returned to the stage. After seven years of exile, she appeared in Klara Bihary's The Other Mother in December 1945 in the Academy Theater. In 1951 the Burgtheater opened its doors for the first time, but only in the left wing, where the celebrations for the theater's 175th anniversary took place.

In 1948 a competition was announced for the reconstruction: Josef Gielen , who was director at the time, initially tended to support Otto Niedermoser's first-class design , according to which the house should have been converted into a modern tiered theater . In the end, however, he did vote for Michel Engelhart's project , whose plan was more conservative but also more cost-effective. The character of the box theater was largely taken into account and retained, but the central court box was replaced by two tiers, and the acoustics, the weakness of the house, were significantly improved by a new, sloping ceiling construction in the auditorium.

On October 14, 1955, under the new director Adolf Rott, the restored house on the Ring was reopened. On this occasion, Mozart's Eine kleine Nachtmusik was played. The first performance followed on October 15 and 16 (as a double premiere due to lack of space) in the restored theater: King Ottokar's happiness and the end of Franz Grillparzer, staged by Adolf Rott. A few months after the signing of the Austrian State Treaty was the choice of this piece, which thematizes the beginning of the Habsburg rule in Austria and Ottokar von Horneck's praise of Austria (... it is a good country / well worth being a prince! / Where you have Have you already seen his kind? ...) contains, extremely symbolic. Under Rott and his successors Ernst Haeusserman and Gerhard Klingenberg , the classic Burgtheater style and “Burgtheater German” finally set the trend for the German stages.

In the 1950s and 1960s, the Burgtheater (with other well-known Viennese theaters) took part in the so-called Brecht boycott .

The Burgtheater today

Gerhard Klingenberg internationalized the Burgtheater, he invited important directors like Dieter Dorn , Peter Hall , Luca Ronconi , Giorgio Strehler , Roberto Guicciardini and Otomar Krejča . Klingenberg also made the castle debuts of Claus Peymann and Thomas Bernhard possible (1974 world premiere of Die Jagdgesellschaft ). Bernhard was under discussion as Klingenberg's successor, but Achim Benning was finally appointed, to which the writer replied with the text Die theatralische Bruchbude auf dem Ring (How I should become Burgtheater director) .

Benning, the Burgtheater's first ensemble representative to be appointed director (from 1976 to 1986), continued Klingenberg's path of Europeanization by other means. He brought directors such as Adolf Dresen , Manfred Wekwerth and Thomas Langhoff to Vienna, looked at the then politically separated East with performances of plays by Václav Havel and paid more attention to the tastes of the public.

Management Claus Peymann 1986–1999

Under Claus Peymann , director from 1986 to 1999, who was brought to Vienna by the short-term education minister Helmut Zilk , the program and the staging styles were further modernized. In addition, Peymann was never at a loss for critical comments in public; an attitude that had been unusual for Burgtheater directors until then. He and his program therefore met with rejection from parts of the audience. The biggest Viennese theater scandal since 1945 occurred in 1988 about the premiere of Thomas Bernhard's drama Heldenplatz, which was fiercely opposed by conservative politicians and zealots . The play deals with Austria's coming to terms with the past and critically illuminates the present - with attacks on the then ruling SPÖ . Together with Peymann, Bernhard faced applause and boos on the stage after the premiere.

Bernhard, who had a love-hate relationship with his homeland, forbade the performance of his pieces in Austria before his death in 1989. Peymann, who had a difficult friendship with Bernhard (see Bernhard's piece Claus Peymann buys a pair of pants and goes out to eat with me ), feared damage to the author's work if his pieces were not shown in his homeland of all places. Initially, with the permission of the executor Peter Fabjan - Bernhard's half-brother - it was at least possible to continue playing the productions that were already on the Burgtheater's repertoire. Shortly before Bernhard's tenth anniversary of his death, the new production of the Bernhard play Before Retirement by the world premiere director Peymann took place. Since then, Bernhard's plays have been on the Burgtheater's repertoire and are regularly re-released.

In 1993 the rehearsal stage of the Burgtheater in the Arsenal was opened (architect: Gustav Peichl ). Since 1999 the Burgtheater has been operating as a limited liability company

Director Klaus Bachler 1999–2009

In 1999 Peymann was followed by Klaus Bachler as director. He is a trained actor, but mostly worked as a cultural manager (director of the Wiener Festwochen ). Bachler brought the theater to the fore as a cultural event and engaged directors such as Luc Bondy , Andrea Breth , Nicolas Brieger , Peter Zadek and Martin Kušej . He is accused of “not designing the castle, just managing it” and inviting big names in the international theater business to productions at random. “At the end of the Bachler era, the castle wasn't fish, not meat”.

The unusual "events" of the Bachler Directorate included the orgies and mysteries theater by Hermann Nitsch with the performance 122nd Aktion (2005), the recording of the MTV Unplugged concert with Die Toten Hosen for the music channel MTV (2005; under the Title Only available for a visit ), John Irving's reading in the Burgtheater from his book Until I Find You (2006), The 431st animatographic expedition by Christoph Schlingensief and a major event by him under the title Area 7 - Sadochrist Matthäus - An Expedition by Christoph Schlingensief (2006). Daniel Hoevels accidentally cut his throat in Schiller's Maria Stuart (December 2008). Outpatient care was sufficient. In October 2005, the Burgtheater celebrated the 50th anniversary of its reopening with a gala evening and the performance of Grillparzer's King Ottokar's Glück und Ende in a production by Martin Kušej, which was performed with great success at the Salzburg Festival in August 2005 . Michael Maertens (in the role of Rudolf von Habsburg ) received the Nestroy Theater Prize as best actor for his role in this play. Leading actor Tobias Moretti was awarded the Gertrud Eysoldt Ring in 2006 for this role . There was also an open day on October 16, 2005 , on which the 82-minute film “burg / privat. 82 miniatures ” by Sepp Dreissinger was shown for the first time. The film contains one-minute filmic “stand portraits” of actors from the castle and guest actors who, without saying a word, try to present themselves with the most natural facial expression possible. Klaus Dermutz wrote a work on the history of the Burgtheater. A quote from Lessing's Minna von Barnhelm served as the motto of this season : "It's so sad to be happy alone."

The 2006 Mozart year was also commemorated in the Burgtheater. Since Mozart's Singspiel Die Entführung aus dem Serail was premiered in 1782 in the Hof-Burgtheater, a new production (director: Karin Beier) of this opera was staged in cooperation with the Vienna State Opera at the Wiener Festwochen in May 2006.

Head of Matthias Hartmann 2009–2014

Kleist's Prinz von Homburg , coproduction with the Salzburg Festival , Peter Simonischek and August Diehl , staged by Andrea Breth , 2012

From September 2009 to March 11, 2014 Matthias Hartmann was artistic director of the Burgtheater. The director, who comes from Osnabrück, previously headed the theaters in Bochum and Zurich. With him, directors like Alvis Hermanis, Roland Schimmelpfennig, David Bösch, Stefan Bachmann, Stefan Pucher, Michael Thalheimer and actors like Dörte Lyssewski, Katharina Lorenz, Sarah Viktoria Frick, Mavie Hörbiger, Lucas Gregorowicz, August Diehl and Martin Wuttke came to the castle . Matthias Hartmann himself stages around three premieres per season, about once a year he stages at the major opera houses. For more internationality and “cross-over” he was able to win the Belgian artist Jan Lauwers and his Needcompany as “Artists in Residence” for the castle, the New York group Nature Theater of Oklahoma show their big episode drama Live and Times as an annual sequel. For the new image - the Burgtheater presents itself without a fixed logo with puns about the BURG - the Burgtheater was awarded the cultural brand of the year in 2011 .

Hartmann was able to increase the occupancy rate of the theater by 15 percent compared to the Bachler era (comparison of the seasons 2008/09 and 2011/12). In the only four and a half years of his tenure, the Burgtheater was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen seven times. Predecessor Klaus Bachler had nine invitations in 10 years. However, Hartmann was also accused by the writer Peter Truschner that after the Bachler era he "certainly did not serve the Burgtheater in his self-drunkenness and the self-enrichment that went with it".

Hartmann was dismissed without notice on March 11, 2014 by the Bundestheater- Holding on behalf of Minister of Culture Josef Ostermayer , because legal opinions obtained from the minister determined that Hartmann grossly disregarded managerial duties. Hartmann's dismissal was preceded by the dismissal of the company's former commercial manager, Silvia Stantejsky, without notice on November 18, 2013. In connection with these events, violent criticism was leveled at the Burgtheater's supervisory board and the holding's managing director Georg Springer , who subsequently retired. The allegations against Stantejsky and Hartmann were still preoccupying the courts in 2016.

Financial scandal 2013/2014

The Burgtheater hit the media in the winter of 2013/2014 when irregularities in the bookkeeping led to the dismissal of the deputy artistic director, Silvia Stantejsky. Auditors discovered inconsistencies in an audit of the financial years for which Stantejsky was responsible as commercial director, which cannot be clarified. The Burgtheater's financial problems had already come to the fore: For example, the annual report for the 2011/2012 season shows a non-cash deficit of EUR 3.705 million and, as a consequence, a capital reduction of the same amount.

Stantejsky's immediate discharge took place on November 18, 2013. On January 3rd, 2014 the magazine News reported for the first time about the dismissal. On January 9th, the auditing firm KPMG was commissioned to conduct a forensic investigation of the suspicious facts against Stantejsky. In an interview with ZiB 2 on January 22nd, Georg Springer, the managing director of the Bundestheater Holding, raised serious allegations against Stantejsky: Stantejsky had built up a very intelligent shadow organization and committed fraudulent acts . Six days later, Stantejsky vigorously denied all allegations in an interview with the radio station Ö1: Both Dr. Both Springer and the Supervisory Board are informed of all accounting decisions. Nothing at all can happen in parallel.

On February 10, 2014, KPMG published an interim report: It located clear indications of falsified documents and the pretense of false facts by Silvia Stantejsky. According to the Supervisory Board of the Burgtheater is therefore for the year 2012-13 with a net loss of expected expected 8.3 million euros. In addition, 5 million euros in back taxes could come.

On February 24, which brought the National Group NEOS one a 72 questions are comprehensive urgent request Causa Burgtheater. At the same time, the (at that time still designated) Minister of Culture Josef Ostermayer announced that he would ask the Austrian Court of Audit to examine the financial management of the Burgtheater.

On February 27, 2014, it was announced that an anonymous complaint against Silvia Stantejsky had been received by the Corruption Prosecutor . On the same day, KPMG submitted the forensic investigation report. It states that Stantejsky's commercial directorate was controlled in a very centralized manner and managed like a container organization . Furthermore, there was suspicion of falsification of documents, evidence and balance sheets, money laundering and breach of trust.

In a press interview the day before, Martin Wagner, senior partner of KPMG, criticized Hartmann and Springer: From the development of bank debt, it was easy to see that the house was making losses. If you spend more than you have, the debt increases. If the result is balanced anyway, common sense tells you that something is not going well.

The financial losses were put at over 8 million euros in the audit report, plus around 5 million euros in arrears tax payments, according to media reports. The losses were concealed by incorrectly posting income to the previous year and expenses to the following year. The documents created for this would have required Hartmann's signature, but this is missing on the accounting documents. Therefore, since the beginning of March 2014 a "system error" for which he is responsible has been discussed. On March 10, Hartmann tried to suspend his office, but was dismissed the following day by Minister of Culture Josef Ostermayer .

Hartmann himself asserted that after 14 years without inflation compensation and with massive increases in personnel costs, the house could no longer be operated in accordance with the legal mandate. He pointed out this fact several times and also questioned the “Stantejsky system” with the owner, the Bundestheater-Holding, at an early stage. Even the involvement of the Berlin theater expert Peter F. Raddatz in 2011 did not induce the holding company to act.

Hartmann has taken legal action against the dismissal. Through his lawyers, he declared the process illegal and ineffective and sued for almost two million euros. This sum is calculated from the annual salaries for his director function until the original end of the contract in summer 2019 and from fees for his work as a director.

Directorate Karin Bergmann 2014 to 2019

The wards

On March 19, 2014 Karin Bergmann was appointed interim director of the Burgtheater by Josef Ostermayer . She should hold this office until August 30, 2016. In April 2014 it became known that the then Burgtheater director Klaus Bachler transferred a total of 32,400 euros to Ms. Bergmann in 2009 as a tax-free "gift". Bergmann would not have complied with the official reporting requirement for gifts. Bachler was the artistic director of the Munich Opera in 2008/09, but also received full salary in Vienna while his deputy director Bergmann ran the business. Therefore it was doubted that it was actually a donation. A certificate from the independent lawyer Karl Newole, commissioned by the magazine NEWS, of an "unsuccessful auxiliary construction". The donation would have been "either a direct taxable fee payment or some kind of indirect salary increase". The newspaper Die Presse also reported that Bergmann's husband, the architect Luigi Blau , received seven orders from the Burgtheater in the Bachler era without a tender. However, Bergmann did not approve of this process.

On October 24, 2014 Karin Bergmann was appointed director of the Burgtheater until 2019. There was a search process with a total of 29 interested parties who either applied or were approached. According to Minister of Culture Josef Ostermayer, there were extensive discussions with the two candidates in the selection committee's proposal. The board of directors then unanimously approved the minister's proposal. For Bergmann, not only the suggestion of the search committee, but also "their previous performance" spoke for the interim management, so Ostermayer when presenting the decision to the press.

Bergmann's repertoire does not differ significantly from that of its three predecessors, it presents classics and a contemporary repertoire in the Akademietheater and the other venues of the castle. She has hired a number of new directors to work. In its first season, the Burgtheater was voted Theater of the Year by the trade journal Theater heute and two premieres were invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen : The ridiculous darkness by Wolfram Lotz and the unmarried by Ewald Palmetshofer . The directors Georg Schmiedleitner (with The Last Days of Mankind by Karl Kraus ), Michael Thalheimer (with the Austrian premiere of Elfriede Jelinek's Die Schutzbefohlenen ) and Jette Steckel with a radical reinterpretation of Sophocles ' Antigone have achieved success in their time as director .

In 2016, the Burgtheater won 13 of 36 nominations for the Nestroy Theater Prize . Furthermore, two Nestroys were awarded to artists who worked at the Burgtheater: to the director Frank Castorf and the set designer Harald B. Thor .

On June 30, 2017 it was announced that director Martin Kušej , who has been director of the Bavarian State Theater since 2011, will succeed Karin Bergmann as Burgtheater director at the start of the 2019/20 season .

Behind the scenes

Stage technology and other technical features

Remodeling work on the Burgtheater stage

The auditorium offers space for around 1,340 spectators (1,175 seats), making it one of the largest among Europe's theaters. The stage portal is 12 m wide and 9 m high at the highest point. The lacing floors and lighting bridges are at a height of 28 m. The stage area is around 780 m², with a width of 31 meters and a depth of around 25 meters - it can, however, be extended by an extension in the cercle area. The stage itself is on the 1st floor of the theater building, there are two entrances for the actors on both sides of the stage. In the backstage area there is a large elevator that is 20 meters wide and 1.5 meters deep and is therefore suitable for transporting decorations that may be very wide and up to 3.5 meters high, but only just under 1.25 meters deep . Larger parts of the backdrop can only be transported tilted.

The stage was rebuilt in 1954 by the Austrian company Waagner Biro , which also has experience with other theaters and opera houses. The main stage is equipped with a rotating cylinder stage that has a diameter of 21 m and four recesses that can be driven up to 8.8 m. It was built according to the plans of Sepp Nordegg and is a total of 5 floors deep, so the stage sets can be exchanged on the paternoster principle . The stage renovation started in 1994 was completed in 2004, among other things the old control was replaced by a computer control. The revolving cylinder stage has two stage cars and four recesses , a revolving stage with a diameter of 21 meters and six orchestral recesses that offer space for 70 musicians.

The iron curtain of the Burgtheater weighs 16.8 tons and in an emergency - for example in the event of a fire - can separate the stage from the auditorium within 28 seconds and keep the flames out for at least 20 minutes. After the major fire of the Ringtheater , all Viennese theaters were obliged to provide the stages with an iron curtain. The old one was replaced by the current one after the Second World War. The Burgtheater has its own company fire brigade, which has to check, among other things, whether a controlled fire on the stage is the cause in the event of an alarm message from one of the particularly sensitive smoke detectors, but also has to carry out the first extinguishing work in an emergency.

Architecturally unique and patented is the huge air lock, the ventilation system of the theater, which is hidden under the round roof of the Luftansaughütte, simply called Schwammerl by the Viennese , on the side of the Volksgarten and was designed by Ignaz Gridl according to the plans of the architect's office . The air is blown through filters, cleaned and tempered. The used air is extracted from the auditorium through the brass grille of the crystal chandelier in the center of the hall ceiling from the room to the outside. The suction for this is created by the "bubble angel " , a green angel figure with a wind instrument that stands on the dome as a weather vane . This part of the ventilation system can best be seen in the attic ("Lusterboden") and on the dome roof of the theater.

Ventilation system plan (Ignaz Gridl)
The air intake hut called "Schwammerl" in the Volksgarten
The interior of the air intake hut

There used to be showers and toilets on the steep roof of the Burgtheater (they were built when the theater was rebuilt after the Second World War) so that the actors can sunbathe in the breaks between rehearsals. However, this has been forbidden since 1977, and the facilities have been dismantled again. A weather camera is installed on the roof, which enables a view of the Ringstrasse during the broadcast of Wetterpanorama Österreich on television.

The prompts at the Burgtheater work with radio technology, there is no longer a prompter box.

Guided tours of the house take place every day at 3 p.m. in German and on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays in English. During the months of July and August there are guided tours in German and English every weekday. In addition, guided tours on various topics such as B. Gustav Klimt instead.

Costumes, props

A wig from the Burgtheater workshop

The costume workshops are located in the 1st district, in the Hanuschhof, while the Burgtheater's props and stage design workshops are located in the arsenal . Not only do they take care of castle productions, they also work to order for other Austrian and international theaters. The workshops work in the form of a GmbH (Art for Art - Theaterservice GmbH) . It is also possible for private individuals to borrow costumes from the stock. The costumes and props are carefully selected and elaborately produced, mostly only wigs made from real hair are used, the production of which can often take two to three weeks. A large warehouse for costumes that are currently not in use is located on Montleartstrasse in the 14th district.

Further venues and rehearsal stages of the Burgtheater

The chandelier floor of the house

The rehearsal stage in the workshops in the Arsenal

The Akademietheater , built between 1911 and 1913 by the architects Fellner and Helmer and Ludwig Baumann , has been the Burgtheater's second venue since 1922. It has since been rebuilt and the stage technology renewed.

The casino on Schwarzenbergplatz in the Palais Archduke Ludwig Viktor is a venue for contemporary pieces and special projects. It was opened on April 26, 1981 under director Benning as the third room on Schwarzenbergplatz and has been used with interruptions since then (see Lusterboden). The current name comes from the Peymann direction, which initially only used the space as a rehearsal stage.

The vestibule is the Burgtheater's studio stage and is located under the festival staircase facing Café Landtmann . The vestibule was prepared for performances in the 1990s.

The Lusterboden is a rehearsal stage located in the top floor of the Burgtheater at a height of 43 meters. This room in the attic has been around since 1955 and is used, among other things, as a prop store. From September 16, 1979, it was repeatedly used for performances (first as the third room - Lusterboden , later only Lusterboden ), then replaced by the room on Schwarzenbergplatz. When this was used again for rehearsals, Peymann again resorted to the Lusterboden as a performance venue, from 1986 to 1993 the Lusterboden functioned as the house's regular venue. Since 1993, the Events Act has forbidden public use of theater rooms that are higher than 8 meters above street level. Finally, after the reopening of the room on Schwarzenbergplatz, the Lusterboden was used again as a rehearsal stage, for which it is currently used.

The production Der Anatom by Klaus Pohl with Ignaz Kirchner had an unusual venue . It took place in the anatomical hall of the Academy of Fine Arts on Schillerplatz (2005–2006).

The exceptional setting of Last call from Albert Ostermaier , the first collaboration of Andrea Breth with the set of Martin Kušej , Martin Zehetgruber was on the rehearsal stage 1 in Arsenal in the 3rd district played, which was converted temporarily to a theater space (2002). In June 2010, three performances of Christoph Schlingensief 's last play Via Intolleranza II took place on the same rehearsal stage .

The Feststiege of the Burgtheater Christian Nickel's production Die Wand based on the novel by Marlen Haushofer in December 2012 was a special venue .

Another rehearsal stage is located in Turnergasse in the 15th district .

The Viennese and "their" castle

Burgtheater, main portal on Universitätsring

The Burgtheater has always been in the limelight for the Viennese. It was always considered particularly elegant to go “to the castle”. As early as the 19th century, the rumors and the scandals surrounding the castle actors were among the most popular subjects in Vienna. The different social classes ( bourgeoisie and nobility ) could meet in the castle , although their places were strictly separated from each other. The castle actors "linked" the two estates and thus enjoyed a particularly high social status in Vienna (see later curtain ban ).

The actress Charlotte Wolter, for example, was celebrated hysterically, her voice - the powerful "Wolter scream" - was legendary. Later, in the 1940s, the couple Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger were, of course, crowd favorites. Women liked to imitate the “Wessely”, her hairstyle, the “Wessely part”, made fashion. The popularity of the two was also misused for propaganda purposes when they campaigned for the Anschluss . The couple's daughters, who later all became actors, often suffered from their parents' fame.

“Die Burg” sometimes got into negative headlines. In the run-up to the premiere of Thomas Bernhard's Heldenplatz in 1988, many Austrians felt insulted in their honor, which is why the large- scale action by Martin Humer , who dumped cow dung in front of the Burgtheater , which was intended as a protest against it , was favored by many. Many Viennese were also unimpressed by Hermann Nitsch's performance in 2005.

Funerals of famous actors from the castle are still a popular event, the Viennese love "the beautiful corpse" . This characteristic of the Viennese was caricatured on stage in the musical piece Pompes Funèbres by Franz Wittenbrink . Particularly big events were the funeral of Paul Hörbiger in 1981 and the farewell to Josef Meinrad in 1996 , to which thousands traveled from all over Austria. Meinrad was so popular that the square between the Burgtheater and the Volksgarten was named after him.

While other theaters nowadays often have to struggle for survival, the Viennese desire to go to the castle seems unbroken. The occupancy rate of the house in the 2005/06 season was 84 percent with 313,000 visitors. The target revenue was exceeded by € 380,000, a total of six million euros were brought in.

A major topic of conversation in Vienna is always the appointment of a new artistic director - speculation about the person of the possible director usually begins months before the decision is made, which is announced by the respective State Secretary for Culture and the Media and which usually provides further topics of conversation for months.

In the main building of the theater there are two companies that do not belong to the Burgtheater, but have meanwhile become "institutions". The Leporello bookshop is located on the left side of the entrance hall and sells books as well as gifts from the Burgtheater and signed photos. It usually unlocks one hour before the start of the performance and stays open until the end of the performance. In the right, southern wing of the theater there is the noble restaurant Vestibül , which is an architectural “mirror image” of the theater of the same name in the left wing of the building and is especially known for its wine selection. In the restaurant, as in Café Landtmann, actors and theater people can often be found before and after the performance.

The Burgtheater can be seen on the back of the 50 Schilling banknote from 1970. It is also a repeated motif of Austrian coins and postage stamps.

Side view from the south; The restaurant "Vestibül" is located in the former driveway to the Kaiserstiege
Back of the Burgtheater on Löwelstrasse
View from the roof over the south wing of the Volksgarten and museums

The "Burgtheater German"

Burgtheater German, the language spoken on the stage of the Burgtheater, is felt by most Viennese like music in their ears; in any case, this term is used for a particularly beautifully spoken variant of the German language (common in southern German-speaking areas). This variant was actually an artificial language and served so that the audience could understand the actors, who came from different regions of the German-speaking area, even under the less than ideal acoustic conditions of the Burgtheater. As a classic example of Burgtheater German, many cite the stage language that Paula Wessely used.

The big names and their impact

In the meantime, a large number of the actors and theater employees do not come from Austria, but from Germany or other countries; Nevertheless, many castle actors are accepted by the Viennese as Viennese and revered as "their actors". The German Michael Heltau is one of the greatest Wienerlied interpreters, and Robert Meyer , who comes from the border region between Germany and Austria, is one of the most popular Nestroy actors. The Swiss Annemarie Düringer was one of the audience's favorites as was the German Ignaz Kirchner , and the German-born Susi Nicoletti was considered the Austrian actress par excellence. Actors such as Gert Voss and Kirsten Dene , who were brought to Vienna by Claus Peymann and initially hostile , soon became audience favorites. A good cast (sometimes with guest actors) can make it next to impossible to get tickets for a production. The names of the already mentioned Hörbigers and "der Wessely" worked like a magnet on the audience, practically everything was completely sold out wherever they performed. But even today there are “long-running hits”: for the Ottokar production with “der Orth”, “dem Maertens”, “the Merkatz” and “dem Moretti” or Nathan with “the Brandauer” it was very difficult for months without a subscription Buy tickets. The contributions in the guest book on the Burgtheater homepage show that some productions have a real fan base. Nevertheless, it happens again and again that the more conservative castle visitors loudly express their displeasure with a modern staging during the performance.

A house with tradition

The special theater superstition, which is of course also widespread elsewhere, can also be found in the Burgtheater, where tradition is particularly important, and the resulting customs and rituals are always observed. Many actors even believe - with a twinkle in their eye - that the house has a “house spirit”.

There are strict house rules, for example those that regulate bowing. The bowing rules stipulate who, when and with whom should bow, with special rules for the premiere. One such rule is allegedly, for example, that everyone who plays in the second act has to bow; those who only appear in the first act can of course, but do not have to. At the premiere, all participants, including the extras and child actors, usually bow. For special ensemble members different rules sometimes applied, for example old Paul Hörbiger did not always have to bow with the others, because otherwise he would have missed his train.

The so-called curtain ban was an unwritten law that was obeyed for almost 200 years. It goes back to a police theater regulation of August 19, 1798, which stipulated that only guests and debutants, but not members of the ensemble, were allowed to bow in front of the curtain. The reason was the high reputation of the actors, they were considered "His Majesty's Actors" and as such it would have been impossible for them to bow to the common people. The ban on curtains, the abolition of which has been discussed again and again over the course of time, which was also not completely adhered to - for example in performances for children - and only applied to the main building (i.e. never to the academy theater), was dated from the beginning of the 1983/1984 season then Minister of Education Helmut Zilk repealed. The first premiere without a curtain ban was Nestroy's fear of hell in a production by Leopold Lindtberg .

Repertoire, program and audience

The Burgtheater works in the repertoire system , which means that at least 30 pieces are played alternately each season. Annually there are around 25 to 30 premieres in the Burgtheater, Akademietheater and in the small venues.

In the first decades, the Burgtheater's repertoire , i.e. the number of pieces performed, was very large. Up to 160 different pieces per season could be seen in the Laube direction, and at the beginning of the 1918/1919 season there were 107 pieces. Some productions often lasted 10 years or longer, some even for decades, both in the old and in the new Burgtheater on the program. It was shown a maximum of 4 to 6 times per season. As a result, subscribers did not have to see the same piece too often, but were confronted with an extraordinarily varied variety. This system ended after the First World War. Suddenly there were only 20 pieces left in the repertoire for the 1919/20 season. When direction came to the fore and productions became outdated faster due to changing fashions, plays were scheduled at least as often per year as they used to be in 10 or 20 years.

A typical Burgtheater poster

The current program of the Burgtheater is announced on posters and a red board to the left of the main entrance. In the past - before Bachler's time - it was common to hang the program on the facade above the main entrance. The posters are printed every day with the current cast and hung up during the performance the evening before; they also contain the names of the extras (in the case of multiple casts, always the current cast).

The program notes had after the Second World War a uniform appearance that was true for all Federal Theater: they were featured on the front by a series of closely set, brown, vertical lines on the bottom center of the name of the theater was given in italics. The theater bills were placed in the programs . They were printed daily for the respective performances and contained a.o. a. Information on the piece, author, beginning, end and line-up. After the programs appeared, they were inserted into them. This system was maintained until 1986. With the beginning of the Peymann directorate, this system was gradually abolished; the frequent changes in staff that had previously been customary had been replaced over the years by constant staffing. The respective line-up was now permanently printed in the program. Any changes will be announced by inserting smaller pieces of paper ("In today's performance, NN plays the role of XY").

In addition to (cultural) historical texts and information about the work and author since the Peymann directorate, the program booklets also mostly contained the entire text of the play listed, in which the changes, abbreviations and stage directions were marked. Occasionally photos of the stage designs or models as well as the costume figurines were also printed.

Older programs have a collective value and can be purchased on special days (such as the open house) in the Burgtheater. In the Peymann management, the look of the program booklet was redesigned by Karl-Ernst Herrmann . They were basically similar for the Burgtheater and the Akademietheater and in the first few years only differed in a different color scheme (light gray for the Akademietheater, light beige for the castle). Later they experimented with other colors and different formats. Only the program booklet for André Heller's Sein und Schein differed completely from the other programs and contained illustrations by the artists involved in the set-up ( Roy Lichtenstein or Mimmo Paladino ). Under Bachler's direction, the programs were basically designed individually and they mostly contain associative texts and images for the piece, only very rarely the text of the piece. The Burgtheater's posters and programs are produced in the agensketterl printing company in Mauerbach (Lower Austria).

The repertory was the collection of the documentation of the performances at the Burgtheater that had been made since 1821. The performances and the casts at premieres were recorded daily in large books. All actors who later took on a role in the respective play were added. For productions that were on the program before 1821 and were still being played, the casts were added since 1776. Those pieces that disappeared from the program by 1821 were not taken into account. Sources for this are theater and program leaflets or old theater magazines. The management of the repertory was given up in 1958. They were followed by the introduction panels. They were created by the director's office for each production of a play and contained the performance dates, the cast and any cast changes.

In the annual report of the Burgtheater you can find the exact cast and reshuffle lists, as well as statistics on the occupancy of the house for various productions.

In order to maintain direct contact with the audience, the Burgtheater regularly organizes public discussions with the audience - some general, where the audience will have the opportunity to provide the management issues, some specific audience discussions about individual performances, which always take place after a performance, and where the audience can meet the dramaturgy, the director and the actors. Matinées and readings prepare important events such as premieres, and entries in the homepage's guest book are also replied to.

Subscriptions, advance ticket sales, seasons

From 1776 until after the First World War, there was no subscription system in the current sense. There were the so-called headquarters in all parts of the auditorium. They authorized the daily visit of the Burgtheater and the use of a certain seat. Because of the headquarters, the schedule had to be particularly varied. Often more than 100 different works were shown in a single season. Popular pieces could be staged several times year after year, sometimes in the same staging over decades . However, the direction played a clearly subordinate role at the time. In order to increase the interest in the performances, frequent changes of line-up took place. The Burgtheater is currently offering a similar system as part of its fixed subscription . In addition to these full subscriptions, there were also half subscriptions (they entitle you to visit on even or odd days) and quarter subscriptions (visit on every fourth day). This system became obsolete due to the radical restriction of the repertoire , which was numerically large until 1919/20 . From November 25, 1919, the full subscription to gallery seats was discontinued, as was the quarter subscription to parquet seats. Visiting rights were withdrawn from the half-subscribers for one day, which meant that more tickets were freely available for sale.

There are currently 30 different subscriptions and various cycles (such as the After Premiere cycle ). The optional subscription entitles the holder to purchase tickets of a certain category at lower prices even before the official start of advance sales. Many performances are also offered in the youth subscription “Theater der Jugend”. Seniors have their own subscription, with a monthly performance that starts earlier (at 4 or 5 p.m.). The fixed subscription entitles the holder to attend five performances of his choice on a pre-determined day of the week (except Saturday, any day can be chosen) at a great discount - the subscription holder has a fixed seat with this subscription.

Advance ticket sales for the next month's performances begin on the 20th of the month ; subscription holders can reserve tickets as early as the 15th of the month. Guests from other federal states and from abroad can also order tickets in writing or by fax. There are contingents for educators and young people, since January 2007 it has even been possible to get free tickets for whole school classes for certain performances followed by a conversation. One hour before the start of the performance you can buy remaining tickets at half price, and standing tickets are always withheld, which are also offered before the start of the performance, but for very popular performances you can only buy one standing ticket per person.

Seating plan

The Burgtheater and its side stages are theoretically used every day from mid-September to 30 June. Up to the Bachler directorate, the Burgtheater started playing on September 1st every year (after a two-month summer break). Generally only Good Friday and Christmas Eve are free of play , due to the trial period it may happen that on some evenings there is no performance on one or the other stage. These so-called closing days for the all-day holding of stage, decoration and lighting rehearsals in the Burgtheater and in the Akademietheater were first introduced under the direction of Peymann and caused fierce controversies for several years, some of which were carried out on the culture and reader letters pages of Austrian newspapers. Peymann was accused of reducing the Burgtheater's income by closing days.

A big debate sparked off in February 2007 the news that a fan mile for the 13th European Football Championship was to be built in front of the town hall - and thus also in front of the Burgtheater - in June 2008 , and the Burgtheater is calling for replacement venues to keep the game going is not affected and no closing days are required.

The Society of Friends of the Burgtheater

The Society of Friends of the Burgtheater is a registered public organization that was founded in 1956 by around 200 theater lovers and is based in Goethegasse in Vienna's 1st district . Famous personalities such as Friedrich Heer and Clemens Holzmeister were among the founders . Since then, membership has increased to around 700 people. The company has its own theater contingent with fixed seats for the first performance after each premiere in all of the theater's venues. The association maintains close contact with the house and the actors. He organizes public meetings, readings, book presentations and information evenings for his members, furthermore he tries to address the young audience by trying to hire popular young artists for these events. The company also supports the study of talented young actors at the Max Reinhardt Seminar and sometimes holds writing competitions.

Employee at the Burgtheater

The ensemble

During the imperial times, the actors enjoyed a high social status and a great reputation. They were mostly hired for life. Today there are mostly annual contracts for ensemble members. The guidelines for the activities of the Burgtheater's ensemble representatives have been in place since October 1971 . A shop steward elected by the Ensemble has the right to have a say in matters such as castings and the design of the schedule. The current ensemble speaker is Roland Koch . The Burgtheater is basically a typical ensemble theater, most actors are bound by long-term contracts, guests only come for individual roles. At the same time, the Burgtheater has always lived from outstanding actors who only came to the Burgtheater for one or a few roles and who contributed their personality.

Current ensemble members

In the 2014/2015 season, 74 actors were engaged as ensemble members and a further 38 as guests at the Burgtheater. The current 112 actors (44 women, 68 men) are ensemble members:

Ladies: Liliane Amuat , Elisabeth Augustin , Jasna Fritzi Bauer , Andrea Clausen , Kirsten Dene , Stefanie Dvorak , Sarah Viktoria Frick , Alina Fritsch , Regina Fritsch , Brigitta Furgler , Frida-Lovisa Hamann , Maria Happel , Dorothee Hartinger , Sabine Haupt , Alexandra Henkel , Mavie Hörbiger , Katharina Lorenz , Dörte Lyssewski , Petra Morzé , Elisabeth Orth , Caroline Peters , Barbara Petritsch , Christiane von Poelnitz , Stefanie Reinsperger , Sylvie Rohrer , Aenne Schwarz , Dunja Sowinetz , Catrin Striebeck , Adina Vetter , Johanna Wokalek .
Gentlemen: Bernd Birkhahn , Klaus Maria Brandauer , Franz J. Csencsits , Sven Dolinski , Detlev Eckstein , Lucas Gregorowicz , Philipp Hauß , Michael Heltau , Tino Hillebrand , Daniel Jesch , Marcus Kiepe , Ignaz Kirchner , Peter Knaack , Hans Dieter Knebel , Roland Koch , Dietmar König , Johannes Krisch , Fabian Krüger , Michael Maertens , Oliver Masucci , Michael Masula , Peter Matić , Rudolf Melichar , André Meyer , Markus Meyer , Joachim Meyerhoff , Tilo Nest , Dirk Nocker , Johann Adam Oest , Nicholas Ofczarek , Klaus Pohl , Robert Reinagl , Martin Reinke , Falk Rockstroh , Laurence Rupp , Branko Samarovski , Hermann Scheidleder , Martin Schwab , Peter Simonischek , Oliver Stokowski , Daniel Sträßer , Stefan Wieland , Peter Wolfsberger , Martin Wuttke .

The guests for the 2014/15 season include:

Ladies: Inge van Bruystegem , Edith Clever , Gertraud Jesserer , Sung Im Her , Corinna Kirchhoff , Pauline Knof , Melanie Kretschmann , Sona MacDonald , Nadia Migdal , Birgit Minichmayr , Wiebke Mollenhauer , Sophie Rois , Yohanna Schwertfeger , Bibiana Zeller .
Gentlemen: Gundars Āboliņs , Sven-Eric Bechtolf , Joachim Bißmeier , Gregor Bloéb , August Diehl , Marc Hosemann , Gerrit Jansen , Simon Kirsch , Gerhard König , Michael König , Christoph Krutzler , Christoph Luser , Matthias Matschke , Cornelius Obonya , Sven Philipp , Hanno Pöschl , Hans-Michael Rehberg , Thomas Reisinger , Michael Rotschopf , Udo Samel , Albrecht Abraham Schuch , Maik Solbach , Florian Teichtmeister , Moritz Vierboom .

Other employees

In addition to the actors, around 300 Burgtheater employees work on the success of the theater evenings. In the collective agreement, the rights and obligations of theater employees (including actors, of course) are precisely regulated. An important point is that you are not allowed to play longer than 11 p.m., which of course can be a problem with longer performances, so an unusually early start time had to be set for the performance of the sports piece . There are about fifty billeteers, but they are employed by another company. The night firefighter's post is considered a particularly important function. Johann Bugnar has been responsible for the overall technical management since the 2009/2010 season. Ernst Meissl has been appointed technical director of the Burgtheater ; he is the successor of Heinz Filar, who in turn succeeded Friedrich Schlanzar. In total (together with the employees of the other companies, such as the costume workshops) around 600 people support the work at all the venues.

The work of a well-functioning extra series is also of great importance for the success of the productions. No extras work at the Burgtheater - the amateur actors are only referred to as extras . The head of the extra series has been Wolfgang Janich since 1986 , who himself completed his acting training and who also steps in in an emergency. In some plays even the chief inspector , Klaus von Schwerin , who used to work for years at the Berlin Schaubühne , appears as an extra. The extras are selected very carefully through a multi-stage casting process , and even the companions of the animals involved are called extras and paid for looking after the animals. Claus Peymann wanted to abolish the extras series and cast the extras roles with actors, but they refused.

Recognition of the acting performance

Recognition of the actors in the ensemble

To be a member of the Burgtheater ensemble is probably the dream of many actors and is one of the highlights of an artist's career on stage. The ensemble members of the Burgtheater are additionally honored for special achievements.

One form of honor is the Burgtheater-Ring (the Concordia) . The ring was donated by Jakob Lippowitz , publisher of the New Vienna Journal , and awarded annually to a member of the Burgtheater or to a playwright for special merits between 1926 - the year of the 150th anniversary of the Burgtheater's foundation - and 1934. It was awarded to Arthur Schnitzler and Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius for the first time and in the following years was awarded to the dramatists Hermann Bahr , Gerhart Hauptmann , Karl Schönherr , Ludwig Fulda and the actors Max Devrient , Georg Reimers , Hedwig Bleibtreu and Else Wohlgemuth .

The Burgtheater's ring of honor has been awarded to members of the ensemble at irregular intervals since October 1st, 1955 by the Burgtheater colleagues. This award is proposed by the works council.

Honorary members have been particularly deserving artists since 1922. The occasion at that time was the 40th stage anniversary of Max Devrient. Together with him, Hugo Thimig , Georg Reimers and Auguste Wilbrandt-Baudius were made honorary members. The appointment was made in agreement with the federal theater administration based on a proposal from the Burgtheater management. These first appointments were followed by the official guidelines in 1926, on the occasion of the Burgtheater's 150th birthday. According to them, only very prominent, deserving ensemble members, and even these only after many years of membership in the house, may participate in this honor. The number of living honorary members should not exceed one tenth of the total membership. The title may not be used in word or in writing if the sponsors are involved in events that would be incompatible with the dignity of the title, e.g. if they appear in operettas, variety shows or cabaret. The names of the honorary members are chiseled in marble at the foot of the festival stairs on the Volksgarten side and recorded for eternity. Special practices also apply to the funeral of honorary members . The coffin of the deceased actor or actress is laid out on the festival staircase and then carried once around the theater. Since October 20, 2010, honorary members have also received a so-called ring of honor from the management (not identical to the ring of honor of the Burgtheater, which is awarded by the works council) (until then they were given a certificate). The first bearer of the ring is Michael Heltau. The ring was designed by the jeweler Wagner and shows the facade of the Burgtheater.

The doyen (currently Michael Heltau ) or the doyenne (since 2015 Elisabeth Orth ) of the Burgtheater remains lifelong connected to the stage of the house, so enjoys an engagement until death, i.e. he or she cannot be retired. This honorary title is given to two of the older honorary members of the house - usually the longest serving members who have been members of the ensemble for the longest time - one lady and one gentleman, who then have the task of representing the house externally. A prerequisite for this award, that previously the Chamber actress must have been respectively appointed Kammerschauspieler. The award is only passed on after the death of its wearer. The Burgtheater's first doyenne was Christiane Weidner . Hedwig Bleibtreu (1868–1958) and Rosa Albach-Retty , members of a traditional family of actors, which also included their granddaughter Romy Schneider , held this position for many years . She died in 1980 at the age of 106. She was followed by Adrienne Gessner (died on June 23, 1987), from 1987 to 2000 Paula Wessely , the mother of Elisabeth Orth, Christiane and Maresa Hörbiger , and finally from 2001 to 2014 Annemarie Düringer . Doyen of the Burgtheater included Fred Liewehr , Otto Tressler , Fred Hennings and Karl Eidlitz .

The Burgtheater Gallery is a collection of artist portraits in the foyer, a kind of “honor gallery”, some of which still comes from the old building on Michaelerplatz. Since October 23, 2006 not only old paintings adorn the walls. In 2006, contemporary artists portrayed some of today's audience favorites: Christy Astuy immortalized Annemarie Düringer and Branko Samarovski , Franz Graf drew Elisabeth Orth and Ignaz Kirchner , photographer Ilse Haider photographed Andrea Clausen and Michael Heltau , Josef Kern painted Karlheinz Hackl and Martin Schwab , Klaus Maria Brandauer and Kirsten Dene were portrayed by Elke Krystufek . Kitty Speiser and Gert Voss were shown in specially created room installations by Gregor Zivic .

At the suggestion of Burg director Franz Herterich, Federal President Michael Hainisch created the chamber title in 1926 for performing and performing artists in the field of music and performing arts . Since then there have been chamber actors and singers in Austria . The first Austrian chamber actors were Maria Mayen , Maria Mayer , Raoul Aslan and Willi Thaller . They all received the title in the anniversary year of 1926. In later years the title was no longer restricted to members of the Burgtheater, but was also awarded, albeit rarely, to members of the Theater in der Josefstadt and other Austrian theaters.

The Nestroy Theater Prize

The winners of the Nestroy Theater Prize 2010 , including director Matthias Hartmann, on the stage of the Burgtheater

The Burgtheater (including the Akademietheater ) has been the most successful theater at the Nestroy Theater Prize with its productions since 2000 .

Nestroy Theater Prize	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018
Nominations / victories	10/5	15/6	10/3	9/4	13/5	12/2	12/6	10/4	8/1	6/4	10/6	8/3	11/3	10/3	6/2	12/7	12 /		13 /

The Burgtheater at home and abroad

Every year there are productions for the Salzburg Festival and for the Wiener Festwochen in coproduction with the Burgtheater, the castle and academy theaters are also an important venue for the latter. These productions are usually added to the repertoire after the festival season.

Burgtheater productions are regularly invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen at other international theater festivals and the castle is also welcomed in guest performances abroad, especially in German-speaking countries, of course, but also in other countries. In the last decades Burg productions have made guest appearances in Amsterdam , Avignon , Berlin , Bogotá , Edinburgh , Merano , Moscow , Mülheim an der Ruhr , Prague , Venice , Rome , Warsaw and Zagreb . Major tours through Japan and the Soviet Union as well as guest performances in Israel and New York are worth mentioning . Productions from important European houses are also often invited to the Burgtheater, such as the Thalia Theater in Hamburg .

In summer the Burgtheater serves as a venue for the ImPulsTanz dance festival , which is now the largest European dance event.

The Burgtheater was voted Theater of the Year in 2015 and 1995 by the theater magazine Theater heute .

The management of the Burgtheater

When Emperor Joseph II elevated the theater next to the castle to the court and national theater, he created the three-person construction consisting of top management, administration and artistic direction, which has essentially been preserved to this day. In the monarchy, the top management was in the hands of the Obersthofmeisteramt or the Oberstkämmereramt . The administration had changing titles, theater director or general director . In addition, the Burgtheater was leased for a number of years, whereby the tenants only had to deal with the highest authority, but were independent in financial management and personnel matters. They were only responsible to the censors for the selection of plays and the schedule . The artistic direction, on the other hand, was once in the hands of a directing board , then again it was entrusted to an artistic secretary or an artistic director, but was also carried out on an interim basis by the general manager or by an actor's board.

According to the law of April 3, 1919, the so-called Habsburg law , after the end of the monarchy, the so-called courtly property of the House of Habsburg-Lothringen became the property of the Republic of Austria. This also included the court theaters, i.e. the kk Hofburgtheater, the court opera and the Schönbrunn Palace Theater. This law became part of the federal constitution in 1920.

On May 21, 1920, the Austrian state government subordinated the "Austrian State Theater" (that was the official name at the time) to the State Office for Internal Affairs and Education. The State Theater Administration was used as the administrative body. Here a tripartite division began again. The top management lay with the Minister of Education, the administration with the State Theater Administration (later: Federal Theater Administration; briefly also: General Director; finally Federal Theater Association; today Federal Theater Holding). The artistic direction lay with the director (with differently regulated powers).

Directorates and artistic directors of the Burgtheater

Heinrich Laube,
1849–1867

Franz von Dingelstedt,
1870–1881

Adolf von Wilbrandt,
1881–1887

Alfred von Berger,
1910–1912

Claus Peymann,
1986-1999

Surname	Beginning	The End
Artist republic	1776	1789
Johann Franz Brockmann	1790	1790
Directors	1790	1794
Peter von Braun	1794	1806
Cavaliership	1807	1817
Joseph Schreyvogel	1814	1832
Johann Ludwig Deinhardstein	1832	1841
Franz Ignaz von Holbein	1841	1849
Heinrich Laube	1849	1867
Eligius Freiherr von Münch-Bellinghausen; Pseudonym: Friedrich Halm	1867	1868
August Wolff	1868	1870
Franz Freiherr von Dingelstedt	1870	1881
Adolf von Wilbrandt	1881	1887
Adolf von Sonnenthal	1887	1888
August Förster	1888	1889
Adolf von Sonnenthal	1889	1890
Max Burckhard	1890	1898
Paul Schlenther	1898	1910
Alfred Freiherr von Berger	1910	1912
Hugo Thimig	1912	1917
Max von Millenkovich	1917	1918
College of Three	1918	1918
Albert Heine	1918	1921
Anton Wild Goose	1921	1922
Max Paulsen	1922	1923
Franz Herterich	1923	1930
Anton Wild Goose	1930	1931
Hermann Röbbeling	1932	1938
Mirko Jelusich	1938	1938
Ulrich Bettac	1938	1939
Lothar Müthel	1939	1945
Raoul Aslan	1945	1948
Erhard Buschbeck	1948	1948
Josef Gielen	1948	1954
Adolf Rott	1954	1959
Ernst Haeusserman	1959	1968
Paul Hoffmann	1968	1971
Gerhard Klingenberg	1971	1976
Achim Benning	1976	1986
Claus Peymann	1986	1999
Klaus Bachler	1999	2009
Matthias Hartmann	2009	2014
Karin Bergmann	2014	2019
Martin Kušej	2019

The Burgtheater in film and literature

Until 1918 there was a ban, after which actors from the Burgtheater were prohibited from appearing in films in any form. The cinema was seen as a threat to the continued existence of the theatrical stages, and so they did not want to play into the hands of the film producers. This situation only began to ease in 1913 with the productions of theater director Max Reinhardt .

In 1936 Willi Forst made the feature film Burgtheater , which tells of an aging castle actor who falls in love again - played by Werner Krauss . The time of the action was 1897, the characters - such as the "castle director" Franz Herterich or the actor Friedrich Mitterer, embodied by Krauss - were fictional characters, although the name Mitterer is an allusion to the name of the once celebrated actor Friedrich Mitterwurzer . The film takes up productions from the last years of the 19th century that actually existed, scenes from Don Carlos , Faust and Cabal and Love are re-enacted.

From 1956 the Ministry of Education financed a number of recordings of theater plays by the Burgtheater. The recordings should be shown in the cinema, which is why a film director was commissioned with Alfred Stöger . Interesting productions such as “ Wilhelm Tell ” (1956, with Ewald Balser as “Tell” and Albin Skoda as “ Gessler ”), “He wants to have a joke” (1957, with Josef Meinrad and Inge Konradi ), “ Don Carlos ” (1960, with Walther Reyer ) and “ The Farmer as Millionaire ” (1961, again with Josef Meinrad). Nevertheless, the cinema performances remained sparsely attended. Only one generation of schoolchildren was forced to be happy with it.

1982 themed Elfriede Jelinek in her piece Burgtheater the time of the Nazi dictatorship in the history of the Burgtheater. The play was premiered in Bonn in 1982 and premiered in Austria in the Graz Theater am Bahnhof and met with controversial reviews because it painted a negative image of the legendary ensemble members of the time, such as Paula Wessely and Attila Hörbiger , who are clearly recognizable in the main characters.

Thomas Bernhard repeatedly dealt with the theme of the Burgtheater in his works, for example in his novel Holzfalls (1984) - there he lets a saturated castle actor perform - or Old Masters (1985), where individual remarks, oscillating between admiration and contempt, apply to the Burgtheater . He wrote three dramas in which Claus Peymann appears personally, Claus Peymann leaves Bochum and goes to Vienna as Burgtheater director , Claus Peymann buys a pair of trousers and goes out to eat with me, and Claus Peymann and Hermann Beil auf der Sulzwiese , which appeared in 1990.

Today the Burgtheater is often used as a popular setting for television films. In the crime comedy Wiener Blut by Dirk Regel with Ottfried Fischer in the lead role, a castle actor (played by Markus Hering ) is murdered. The last twenty minutes of the Austrian children's film Die drei Posträuber (director: Andreas Prochaska ), which was shot in 1998 based on a book by Christine Nöstlinger , play on the stage and in the props store of the Burgtheater.

The Burgtheater on TV

The most interesting productions of the Burgtheater are recorded by ORF and can be seen in its program, but also on 3sat or the ZDFtheaterkanal . The television director Peter Schönhofer makes theatrical films of a different kind instead of mere recordings. His two best known are the film adaptations of Don Carlos and King Ottokar's Glück und Ende . The shooting of his films takes several days and includes both regular performances and rehearsals, where the camera crews have the opportunity to shoot scenes directly on the stage. The theater film is thus cut from several performances and also includes close-ups and scenes filmed on the stage, which cannot be done with conventional live recordings. At the Berlin Theatertreffen 2005 , the theater film by Schönhofer was shown instead of Don Carlos, as no Berlin theater could meet the technical requirements required by the Burgtheater for Andrea Breth's production. Some productions are also available on DVD when the piece is no longer being played. From time to time, television viewers can gain a glimpse behind the scenes through documentaries, as in the film by ORF presenter Erna Cuesta (2005), Das Wiener Burgtheater - In front of and behind the scenes of a world stage .

Publications

The Burgtheater has a magazine, the vorspiel , which appears five times a year. It is distributed as a supplement to the daily newspaper Der Standard , but can be taken away free of charge in the Burgtheater venues and in the larger box offices. Every audition can be downloaded from the homepage . When Deuticke publishing regularly books are published about important directors, actors and the theater as " edition burgtheater" . So far, a total of eight volumes have been published.

World premieres at the Burgtheater (selection)

1771, June 2nd - Armida by Antonio Salieri

1782, July 16 - The Abduction from the Seraglio . Singspiel by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (music) and Johann Gottlieb Stephanie (libretto)

1785, October 12th - La grotta di Trofonio . by Antonio Salieri (music) and Giambattista Casti (libretto)

1786, May 1st - Le nozze di Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (music) and Lorenzo da Ponte (libretto)

1786, November 17th - Una cosa rara . by Vicente Martín y Soler (music) and Lorenzo da Ponte (libretto)

1788, January 8th - Axur, re d'Ormus . by Antonio Salieri (music) and Lorenzo da Ponte (libretto)

1789, December 11th - La Cifra by Antonio Salieri

1790, January 26th - Così fan tutte by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (music) and Lorenzo da Ponte (libretto)

1818, April 21 - Sappho by Franz Grillparzer

1821, 26./27. March - The golden fleece of Franz Grillparzer

1825, February 19 - King Ottokar's luck and the end of Franz Grillparzer

1831, April 3rd - The waves of the sea and love by Franz Grillparzer

1834, October 4 - The dream life of Franz Grillparzer

1838, March 6th - woe to him who lies! by Franz Grillparzer

1849, April 19 - Herod and Mariamne by Friedrich Hebbel

1874, January 21 - Libussa by Franz Grillparzer

1889, April 25th - Gyges and his ring by Friedrich Hebbel

1895, October 9 - flirtation of Arthur Schnitzler (with Adele Sandrock )

1899, March 1 - The Green Cockatoo by Arthur Schnitzler

1902, November 29th - Poor Heinrich von Gerhart Hauptmann (director: Hugo Thimig ; with Josef Kainz , Lotte Medelsky )

1913 October 16 - Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw

1929, December 3rd - Spook by Gerhart Hauptmann :

The black mask (director: Hans Brahm ; with Paul Hartmann , Else Wohlgemuth )
Witch ride. A satyr play (Director: Hans Brahm; with Hans Marr , Albert Heine )

1934, October 21 - The Rogue of Bergen by Carl Zuckmayer

1939, November 11th - Ulrich von Lichtenstein by Gerhart Hauptmann (director: Lothar Müthel ; with Ewald Balser , Käthe Dorsch )

1943, November 15 - Iphigenie in Aulis by Gerhart Hauptmann (director: Lothar Müthel ; with Ewald Balser , Käthe Dorsch )

1952, March 8th - Herbert Engelmann by Gerhart Hauptmann . Editing: Carl Zuckmayer (Burgtheater in the Akademietheater; director: Berthold Viertel ; with OW Fischer )

1974 - May 4: The hunting party of Thomas Bernhard (directed by Claus Peymann , stage design and costumes Karl-Ernst Herrmann , with Judith Holzmeister , Joachim bite Meier , Werner Hinz , Rudolf Wessely , also recorded TV for the ORF )

1976 - March 31: Magnetic kisses by Wolfgang Bauer (direction Fritz Zecha ; set design Thomas Richter-Forgách , costumes Alice-Maria Schlesinger ; with Gertraud Jesserer , Wolfgang Hübsch , Tom Krinzinger , Franz Morak , Ulli Fessl , Wolfgang Gasser , Gabriele Buch , Bibiana Zeller )

1976 - June 26: The famous by Thomas Bernhard (first in the Theater an der Wien , then in the Akademietheater; directed by Peter Lotschak , stage design and costumes by Gian Maurizio Fercioni ; with Horst Christian Beckmann , Franz Morak , Johanna Matz , Angelika Hauff , Wolfgang Gasser , Bibiana Zeller , Rudolf Wessely )

1979, November 17th - Protest by Václav Havel

1986, May 23rd - Pokouseni by Václav Havel

1988, June 1 - The underachiever by Peter Turrini

1988, November 4th - Heldenplatz by Thomas Bernhard (Director: Claus Peymann )

1990, November 10th - Death and the Devil by Peter Turrini

1991 April 12th - Babylon Blues by George Tabori

1992, May 14th Fernando Krapp wrote me this letter from Tankred Dorst

1993, February 17th - Alpenglow by Peter Turrini

1998, January 23rd - A sports piece by Elfriede Jelinek (director: Einar Schleef )

2000 - Viridiana by Luis Buñuel (Direction: Dimiter Gotscheff )

2003 - Transdanubia dreaming by Bernhard Studlar, directed by Nicolas Brieger

2004 - Schwarzenbergplatz by Rimini Protokoll (Casino on Schwarzenbergplatz)

2006 - Boulevard Sevastopol by Igor Bauersima (Academy Theater)

2011, December 21 - Froschfotzenlederfabrik by Oliver Kluck (Director: Anna Bergmann , Kasino am Schwarzenbergplatz)

2013 - Schatten (Eurydike says) by Elfriede Jelinek (Director: Matthias Hartmann , Akademietheater)

2016 - The innocents, me and the stranger on the edge of the country road by Peter Handke (Director: Claus Peymann )

Picture gallery

View from the auditorium towards the stage (around 1880). On the right in the rank the imperial box.
Entrance to the old Burgtheater with theater posters (around 1880). The actual entrance between the candelabra is still in the Michaelerkuppel area and has a memorial plaque on it.
Emergency stairs of the old Burgtheater (around 1880)
Image from the old portrait gallery at Michaelerplatz, in the lower part the subsequent "extension" can be seen
Palais Archduke Ludwig Viktor , today houses the Casino Burgtheater, Schwarzenbergplatz

literature

Minna Alth: Our Burgtheater . Youth and People, Vienna 1955.
Hermann Beil (Hrsg.): World Comedy Austria. 13 years Burgtheater. 1986-1999 . 3 volumes. Zsolnay, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-552-04946-0 .
Helene Bettelheim-Gabillon: Under the sign of the old Burgtheater . Vienna Literary Institute, Vienna 1921.
Klaus Dermutz: The Burgtheater 1955–2005 , with an essay by Klaus Bachler. Deuticke in Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-552-06022-7 .
Franz Severin Berger, Christiane Holler: The Burgtheater. A guide around and through the Haus am Ring . LinkDachs-Verlag, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-85191-236-5 .
Margret Dietrich (Ed.): The Burgtheater and its audience . Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1976.
Management of the Burgtheater (Ed .; compilation: Josef Franz Ratislav): 175 years of the Burgtheater 1776 to 1951, continued until the summer of 1954 . Tomanek, Wiener Bücherwurm-Verlag, Vienna 1955.
Elisabeth Großegger: The Burgtheater and its audience . 2 volumes. Verlag der ÖAW, Vienna 1989, ISBN 3-7001-1616-0 .
Franz Hadamowsky: The Wiener Hoftheater (State Theater) 1776 to 1966 . List of the listed pieces with inventory and daily repertoire, part 1, 1776–1810. Prachner, Vienna 1966.
Ernst Haeussermann: The castle. The all-round horizon of a world theater . German, Vienna 1964.
Ernst Haeussermann: The Vienna Burgtheater . Molden, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-217-00517-1 .
Andrea Harrandt: Burgtheater. In: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon . Online edition, Vienna 2002 ff., ISBN 3-7001-3077-5 ; Print edition: Volume 1, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7001-3043-0 .
Fred Hennings: Twice Burgtheater . Vienna 1955.
Fred Hennings: Heimat Burgtheater , 1–3. Herold, Vienna 1972–1974.
Michael Jahn : The Vienna Court Opera from 1794 to 1810. Music and dance in the Burg- and Kärnthnerthortheater . (= Publications by RISM Austria B / 11). Vienna 2011.
Claudia Kaufmann-Freßner: The Burgtheater. Architecture, history and stories . FOLIO VerlagsgesmbH, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-85256-328-3 .
Heinz Kindermann: The Burgtheater. Legacy and mission of a national theater . Luser, Vienna and Leipzig 1939.
Rudolf Lothar: The Hof-Burgtheater 1848 to 1898 . Steyrermühl, Vienna 1898.
Rudolph Lothar: Das Wiener Burgtheater , EA Seemann, Leipzig-Berlin-Vienna 1899 ( online in the Google book search USA )
Austrian Federal Theater Association (ed.): Burgtheater 1776–1976 . Performances and casts spanning two hundred years. (Collection and processing of the material: Minna von Alth, editing: Gertrude Obzyna, correction and register work: Rudolf Holaubek) Ueberreuter, Vienna undated (possibly published in 1978)
Robert Pyrah: The Burgtheater and Austrian Identity , Legenda, Oxford 2007, ISBN 1-904350-67-4 .
Otto Rub (Ed.): The Burgtheater . Statistical review 1776–1913. Knepler, Vienna 1913.
Justus Schmidt and Hans Tietze: DEHIO - HANDBUCH, Die Kunstdenkmäler Österreichs. Anton Schroll & Co, Vienna - Munich.
Friedrich Schreyvogl : The Burgtheater . F. Speidel, Vienna 1965.
Konrad Schrögendorfer: Fate Burgtheater . Alfred Freiherr von Berger and the dawn of modernity. Stiassny, Graz 1966.
Eduard Wlassack: Chronicle of the kk Hof-Burgtheater . L. Rosner, Vienna 1876.
Gustav Zechmeister: The Vienna theaters next to the castle and next to the Kärntnerthor from 1747 to 1776 . Böhlau, Vienna 1969, ISBN 3-205-03205-5 .

Web links

Commons : Burgtheater - collection of images, videos and audio files

Wikisource: Burgtheater (Hofburgtheater) - sources and full texts

Literature by and about Burgtheater in the catalog of the German National Library
Burgtheater website
Burgtheater: history, current affairs, side stages
Theater in Exile, information about displaced theater professionals, including at the Burgtheater during the Nazi era
Entry on Burgtheater in the Austria Forum (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
Satirical contribution and "building plan" of the Burgtheater
Historical Burgtheater premieres to listen to: Recordings of performances from 1955 in the online archive of the Austrian Media Library
Federal Geological Institute : Burgtheater - Vienna
Early documents and newspaper articles on the Burgtheater in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

↑ burgtheater.at - The Burgtheater ( Memento from April 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Matthias Hartmann fired at the Burgtheater. In: Tagesspiegel, March 11, 2014.

↑ Martin Kušej becomes the new Burgtheater director In: Der Standard, June 30, 2017.

↑ A theater near and far from the castle. In: derStandard.at. October 7, 2013, accessed December 3, 2017 .

↑ cf. on this: Klaus Dermutz: Das Burgtheater 1955–2005. With an essay by Klaus Bachler. Deuticke in Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, pp. 135ff.

↑ on this ibid p. 153f

↑ Kurt Stimmer: May 1, 1945: Vienna's new life begins in four theaters. In: Wien.at aktuell , employee magazine of the city of Vienna, publisher of the press and information service of the city of Vienna, July 2010, p. 24.

↑ ^a ^b Peter Truschner : What the Burgtheater really suffers from . In: Die Presse of March 27, 2014

^ Accident on the stage In: Süddeutsche Zeitung , December 10, 2008.

↑ CULTURAL BRAND OF THE YEAR 2011: Burgtheater Vienna ( Memento from January 16, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on the Causales page, accessed on January 24, 2012

↑ Ostermayer: “Close the gap in ensemble” , report on the ORF website from March 11, 2014

↑ Thomas Trenkler: Dismissal without notice as a Burgtheater premiere , on the website of the daily newspaper Der Standard , Vienna, on March 11, 2014

^ Chronology of the crisis on the website of the state-owned daily Wiener Zeitung of March 11, 2014

↑ APA OTS: Burgtheater dismisses vice director

↑ Annual report Burgtheater GmbH 2011/2012 (PDF) ( Memento from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ ^a ^b Tiroler Tageszeitung: Burgtheater - The Chronology of the Crisis ( Memento from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ News: Burgtheater dismisses vice director

↑ Urgent request from NEOS on the Burgtheater cause ( memento from March 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive )

↑ APA OTS: complaint filed against Burg deputy director

↑ Die Presse: Burgtheater: Suspicion of numerous criminal offenses

↑ Die Presse: Burgtheater: "That says common sense!"

↑ Berliner Zeitung: What nothing helped and nothing helps , March 11, 2014

^ Frankfurter Rundschau: Third act for Hartmann ( memento of March 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), March 4, 2014

^ ORF online: Burgtheater: Hartmann lets office rest , March 10, 2014

↑ ORF online: Burgtheater drama never ends , March 11, 2014

^ Spiegel online: Financial affair: Burgtheater director Hartmann fired , March 11, 2014

↑ http://www.apa.at/News/6517537156/bergmann- Follow-hartmann-am- burgtheater.html

^ Die Presse (Vienna): Burgtheater represented twice at the Berlin Theatertreffen , February 2, 2015, accessed on September 29, 2016.

^ Die Presse (Vienna): Nestroy: Burgtheater leads the dance of nominees , September 27, 2016, accessed on September 30, 2016.

↑ Martin Kušej becomes the new Burgtheater director In: Der Standard, June 30, 2017.

↑ cf. also technical data of the Burgtheater stage ( Memento from December 31, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF) Waagner-Biro

↑ cf. to inland falls 28 seconds the iron process , by Ulrike Spann in foreplay 2007 / No. 38 page 24

↑ burgtheater.at: Guided tours

↑ Plans to use it as a theater already existed in the early 1920s: a new Vienna theater. Great difficulties of the planned “Schwarzenberg Casino Theater”. In: Wiener Sonn- und Mondags -Zeitung , No. 27/1921 (LIX. Volume), July 4, 1921, p. 5 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wsz.

↑ cf. to inland falls 28 seconds the iron process , by Ulrike Spann in foreplay 2007 / No. 38 p. 111

^ Theater: Vienna and its Ifflandring . In: Die Zeit , No. 11/1996, about the funeral of Josef Meinrad.

↑ see Georg Markus: Die Hörbigers , Amalthea Signum, Vienna 2006 p. 306

↑ see Georg Markus: Die Hörbigers , Amalthea Signum, Vienna 2006 p. 238

↑ cf. Free to the Burgtheater , report on the ORF website

↑ cf. Euro 2008: Little enthusiasm in the Burgtheater over the Fan Mile , Der Standard, February 9, 2007 and panic at the shot at the Vienna Castle, Der Standard, February 15, 2007

↑ The participation paper presented in the Burgtheater: Democratization, but not a collective . In: Arbeiter-Zeitung . Vienna October 7, 1971, p. 8 , middle right ( berufer-zeitung.at - the open online archive - digitized).

↑ Burgtheater: 2014/15 Works Councils and Ensemble Representation ( Memento from March 31, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved March 31, 2015.

↑ Burgtheater: Actors 2014/15 . Retrieved March 31, 2015.

↑ orf.at: Burgtheater honorary membership for Peter Simonischek . Article dated May 27, 2019, accessed May 27, 2019.

↑ Bergmann is an honorary member of the Burgtheater. Retrieved June 20, 2019 .

↑ cf. also foreplay , Magazin des Burgtheater, 2005/29, p. 10

↑ The world crashes outside In: NZZ , September 19, 2005, about the employees of the Burgtheater

^ Kurier: Elisabeth Orth is the new doyenne of the Burgtheater . Article dated February 2, 2015, accessed February 2, 2015.

↑ ORF : 200 years of theater cult: Burgtheater stars from then to now , March 28, 2012, accessed on September 26, 2016.

↑ Ilse Korotin (ed.): BiografıA. Lexicon of Austrian Women. Volume 1: A-H. Böhlau, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2016, ISBN 978-3-205-79590-2 , pp. 1016-1018.

↑ Person encyclopedia - Paula Wessely . Retrieved December 16, 2014.

↑ diepresse.com - Burgtheater-Doyenne Annemarie Düringer dies . Article dated November 26, 2014, accessed December 16, 2014.

^ "Theater awards in Austria - history, structure and social status" . Retrieved September 26, 2016.

↑ The pictures of the new portrait gallery ( Memento from November 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Report on guest performances up to 2007 ( Memento from November 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )

↑ Theater heute: Highlights of the 2014/15 season . Retrieved August 27, 2015.

↑ derStandard.at - Critics' survey: Burgtheater voted Theater of the Year . APA notification dated August 27, 2015, accessed August 27, 2015.

↑ cf. on this: Klaus Dermutz: Das Burgtheater 1955–2005 , with an essay by Klaus Bachler. Deuticke in Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, p. 113ff

48.210333333333 16.361138888889Coordinates: 48 ° 12 ′ 37 ″ N , 16 ° 21 ′ 40 ″ E

This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on May 25, 2006 .

[1] urgtheater.at - The Burgtheater ( Memento from April 1, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

[:0-2] Matthias Hartmann fired at the Burgtheater. In: Tagesspiegel, March 11, 2014.

[3] Martin Kušej becomes the new Burgtheater director In: Der Standard, June 30, 2017.

[4] A theater near and far from the castle. In: derStandard.at. October 7, 2013, accessed December 3, 2017 .

[5] . on this: Klaus Dermutz: Das Burgtheater 1955–2005. With an essay by Klaus Bachler. Deuticke in Paul Zsolnay Verlag, Vienna 2005, pp. 135ff.

[6] this ibid p. 153f