Schauspielhaus Zürich

In 1888/89, the “Volkstheater am Pfauen” was built on the current site (the name of the adjacent pub was “Zum Pfauen”), and in 1901 the building was reopened as a playhouse with Goethe's “Mitschuldigen”. The Schauspielhaus remained a private theater until 1938, when it was upgraded artistically by emigrants from Nazi Germany such as Leopold Lindtberg and Therese Giehse and the “Neue Schauspiel AG” was founded. This is where the glorious history of the Schauspielhaus begins: Under the direction of Oskar Wälterlin, some of Bertolt Brecht's most important plays had their world premiere, and after 1945, numerous plays by Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt were premiered at the Pfauen. Incisive authors and directors as well as outstanding actors still characterize the artistic image of the theatre today. Nobody will believe it: Switzerland's most important spoken theater, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, was a private theater until 1938. Its director and owner, Ferdinand Rieser, put the theater up for sale that same year because he wanted to emigrate to the USA. A one-off campaign was launched to save it and its ensemble from certain destruction. On the initiative of the publisher Emil Oprecht, the dramaturge Kurt Hirschfeld and with the courageous support of the then Social Democratic mayor Emil Klöti, the “Neue Schauspiel AG” was founded. “It was a foundation of social democracy with the capital of liberal citizens,” wrote Peter Löffler, director of the Schauspielhaus in the 1969/70 season.