Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz

The Schaubühne am Lehniner Platz stands on the Kurfürstendamm in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district. The building began as the Universum cinema, designed by Erich Mendelsohn in 1928. It formed part of the WOGA housing complex, which included apartment blocks, a shopping walkway, lawns and a tennis court. Mendelsohn’s cinema was the first Modernist cinema in the world, rejecting the Moorish, Egyptian and Baroque styles then common. He wrote that his design would not provide ‘Baroque palaces for Buster Keaton’. The cinema influenced Streamline Moderne design in the 1930s. The theatre’s current form dates from the late 1970s, when Peter Stein’s ensemble moved from Kreuzberg. Stein had led the Schaubühne since 1970 and staged controversial works such as Peter Weiss’s Viet Nam Diskurs. In 1971 the ensemble won the Deutscher Kritikerpreis for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt. By 1978 the building’s interiors were rebuilt around a theatre hall with adjustable spaces and no barrier between audience and performers. In 1999 Thomas Ostermeier became artistic director, joined by Jens Hillje and Sasha Waltz. The theatre’s stage now hosts productions that tour internationally. Since 2000 it has held Streitraum, a series of public political discussions moderated by Carolin Emcke. The building still shows traces of its cinema past, yet its focus remains on modern interpretations of classic works. Outside, the Kurfürstendamm continues its busy life, while inside the adjustable hall adapts to each performance.