Kleines Theater in der Praterstraße

The Kleine Theater in der Praterstraße was a theatre opened in 1933 at Praterstraße 60 in Vienna’s second district, Leopoldstadt. It began as the Jüdische Bühne before Ernst Lönner, a pupil of Erwin Piscator, renamed it and ran it as an avant-garde stage. The house presented works by writers such as Ödön von Horváth, André Gide and Jaroslav Hašek. The opening night featured the world première of Hašek’s Die Moldau-Schiffer, with the entire ensemble taking part. Among the cast were Carl Merz, Marianne Gerzner and Gustav Manker, who also designed the sets.

The theatre’s brief but intense life included Austrian premières and Christmas shows. In November 1935 Ernst Lönner directed the Austrian première of Horváth’s Kasimir und Karoline with sets by Gustav Manker and music by Josef Carl Knaflitsch. That Christmas the stage hosted Kurt Braun’s Onkel Emil, Onkel Kuno und der Onkel Hannibal, a satirical mix of grotesque comedy and farce. Another highlight was the musical clown comedy Tross und Tobby by Norbert Garai, one of Vienna’s most successful Jewish playwrights of the 1920s and 1930s.

Today the building houses a supermarket, but its stage once echoed with political satire and experimental drama. Gustav Manker’s stage designs and the ensemble’s performances shaped a short-lived yet remarkable chapter in Vienna’s theatrical history. The theatre’s repertoire reflected the bold, socially engaged spirit of its time.