Friedrich Schirmer (Artistic Director)

Friedrich Schirmer (born September 7, 1951 in Cologne ) is a German theater director and dramaturge .

Life

Friedrich Schirmer was born as the third son of the later commercial director of Bremer Vulkan Werner Schirmer, his mother had trained as a dressmaker. His older brothers are the physicist Jochen Schirmer and the publisher Lothar Schirmer . After graduating from high school in Bremen in 1970, “Fritz” Schirmer began his theater work, initially as an intern and after a few months as a dramaturge at the Westphalian State Theater in Castrop-Rauxel . In 1973 Kurt Hübner hired him as a dramaturge at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin . At the time, directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Wilfried Minks and Roberto Ciulli were working there . Hans Dieter Schwarze , his former director from Castrop-Rauxel, brought him to the theater of the Städtische Bühnen Nürnberg in 1975 as artistic director . His discovery of the piece Schweig, Bub! by Fitzgerald Kusz was in his production from 1976 to May 10, 2010 without interruption on the program and was played there 730 times. In 1976/77, at the age of 25, Schirmer was the sole responsible member of the acting theater management for one season. After a detour as a dramaturge at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (1978), he returned to Nuremberg a year later as chief planner of the opera under Hans Gierster .

Between 1982 and 1985 Schirmer was chief dramaturge at the Dortmund City Theaters . In 1985 he took over the management of the Württembergische Landesbühne in Esslingen , where he developed a program with local references. Among other things, he brought Friedrich Wolf's Der Arme Konrad and Heinrich Laubes Die Karlsschüler to a revival. From 1989 to 1993 he was artistic director at the Freiburg City Theater . There he worked with the GMD Donald Runnicles , the young director Jürgen Kruse became the director of the theater, and Günther Gerstner was a permanent guest director . Stephan Kimmig and Christof Loy developed their first productions in Germany there. Anne Tismer , Robert Hunger-Bühler , Manfred Meihöfer, Jürgen Rohe were permanent members of the acting ensemble. Pavel Mikulastik founded his choreographic theater there.

From 1993 Schirmer was first acting director, then from 1996 to 2005 director of the theater at the Stuttgart State Theater . Here he gave young directors the chance to distinguish themselves, among them Christof Loy , Martin Kušej , Hans-Ulrich Becker , Stephan Kimmig and Elmar Goerden , later Marc von Henning, Jacqueline Kornmüller, Sebastian Nübling , Krzysztof Warlikowski and Hasko Weber (who later became his Successor). He realized the idea of ​​ensemble theater and opened up numerous new venues for the city. The highlight and conclusion of his directorship was the Theater der Welt festival , which took place in Stuttgart in 2005 , at which the artistic director Marie Zimmermann covered the whole city with theater for four weeks.

In 2005 Friedrich Schirmer went to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg as artistic director . In addition to a new ensemble, he hired directors such as Martin Kušej , Jürgen Gosch , Karin Henkel , Ivo van Hove, Sebastian Nübling , Volker Lösch , Markus Heinzelmann and Roger Vontobel . Commissioned works for authors such as Roland Schimmelpfennig , Simon Stephens , Ad de Bont and Erik Gedeon with his genre song drama shaped Schirmer's work at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus. The premiere production of Simon Stephens' Pornography was invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen 2008. Volker Lösch's production Marat, what has become of our revolution after Peter Weiss (invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2009) sparked heated discussions in the city. A central project of his directorship was the establishment of the Junge Schauspielhaus with its own ensemble, which, under its director Klaus Schumacher, shows much-acclaimed children's and youth theater.

With the beginning of the 2010/11 season, the dramatic underfunding of the theater worsened: the moderate budget increase promised when the contract was extended in 2008 was not met for the second time. Instead, the city of Hamburg ordered a cut in funding. Friedrich Schirmer once again called on the incumbent Senator for Culture, Reinhard Stuth , to keep the financial commitments or at least to withdraw the cut. When Stuth did not comply with this demand, Schirmer resigned on September 30, 2010 and asked for a termination agreement .

Since September 2014, Schirmer has been artistic director of the Württemberg State Theater Esslingen again, from the 2019/20 season together with Marcus Grube .

Friedrich Schirmer was married to the general manager Marie Zimmermann († 2007) since 1999 . Since 2014 he has been married again to the doctor Andrea Güstrau.

literature

• C. Bernd Sucher (Hrsg.): Theater-Lexikon. People. 2nd Edition. Deutscher Taschenbuch-Verlag, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-423-03322-3 , page 609.
• Otto Paul Burkhardt a . a. (Ed.): 12 years of the Red Corner. The book from the 1993–2005 seasons. State Theater, Stuttgart 2005, ISBN 3-00-016381-6 .
• Friedrich Schirmer , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 10/2011 of March 8, 2011, in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Schauspielhaus director Schirmer resigns - Signal fatal Gerhard Stadelmaier in FAZ.NET from September 14, 2010, accessed on September 15, 2010.
2. ↑ [1] “I broadcast fear”, Spiegel online , October 18, 2010.
3. ↑ In the old home on May 10, 2014. Südwest Presse , accessed on February 4, 2015 .