Theater am Kurfürstendamm

The theatre stands in the heart of Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, a wide boulevard once lined with cafés and galleries. Built in 1921 inside the shell of the old Berlin Secession gallery, it was designed by Oskar Kaufmann, a master of theatre architecture whose other Berlin works include the Hebbel Theatre and the Renaissance Theatre. The opening night featured Ingeborg by Kurt Goetz, with Adele Sandrock on stage and the architect himself called back repeatedly by the audience. The house has hosted many firsts, from Bertolt Brecht’s Mahagonny in 1931 to the Berlin premiere of Eduard Künneke’s operetta Glückliche Reise in 1932. After war damage it reopened in 1947 with A Midsummer Night’s Dream and later became home to the Freie Volksbühne, where directors such as Giorgio Strehler and Erwin Piscator staged plays with actors like Tilla Durieux and Therese Giehse. In the 2000s Martin Woelffer led the theatre, presenting modern comedies with stars such as Bastian Pastewka and Christoph Maria Herbst. Today the stage is silent while the building is rebuilt, but the tradition continues nearby. Since 2025 the company performs in the Ernst-Reuter-Saal in Rathaus Reinickendorf, a temporary home until the new theatre beneath the Kurfürstendamm courtyard is finished. The spirit of Oskar Kaufmann’s colourful auditorium lives on in every production, even as the bricks are laid for its successor.