Böhm

• Theatre

presented by the Hamburg Theater Festival

by Paulus Hochgatterer

This work is being presented in Hamburg for the first time. Experience the Nestroy Theatre Prize-winning puppeteer Nikolaus Habjan, whose "F. Zawrel – Hereditary and Socially Inferior" was the surprise success of the 2018 festival. This time, he once again focuses on the era of National Socialism, this time on the aspect of the artist as a follower – with no less a protagonist than the conductor Karl Böhm.
Conductors must possess both sensitivity and leadership skills and are sometimes tyrannical, autocratic despots whose finger-pointing can set hundreds of conductors in motion. Like Karl Böhm, one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. Böhm was a great artist, but also a man who, for the sake of his career, came to terms with National Socialism. At Hitler's intercession, he was appointed to the Semperoper in Dresden in 1934 to succeed Fritz Busch, whom the Nazi regime had forced to resign and emigrate.
In 1935, Böhm wrote: "It is certainly in the government's interest for me, as a German conductor, to go to Vienna to give new inspiration to the numerous supporters of the National Socialist idea, all the more so since I am a native Austrian. [...] Heil Hitler!" In 1943, Böhm became director of the Vienna State Opera.

With: Nikolaus Habjan

Director: Nikolaus Habjan, Assistant Director: Martina Gredler, Stage Design: Julius Theodor Semmelmann, Costume Design: Cedric Mpaka, Lighting Design: Robert Grauel, Puppet Design: Nikolaus Habjan, Marianne Meinl, Dramaturgy: Karla Mäder, Elisabeth Geyer

A production of the Schauspielhaus Graz, a guest performance of the Deutsches Theater Berlin