Troubled Volksbühne Theater Announces Another New Director

Berlin city officials announced Friday that the theater maker Matthias Lilienthal would take over leadership of the Volksbühne, one of Europe’s most influential playhouses.

Lilienthal is an established figure in German theater, having previously led major institutions in Berlin and Munich. He is set to take up the role in 2026, with a contract until 2031.

At a news conference, Lilienthal announced plans to expand the theater’s dance offering. He also said he planned to feature a slate of works by international directors — a decision he described as “a conscious resistance” to rising nationalism in Germany.

“Hopefully it is a joyful resistance,” he added.

Many theater lovers are hoping that Lilienthal’s appointment marks the end of a prolonged period of turmoil at the Volksbühne, which has long been known for its formally daring and politically provocative works. But in recent years, the theater has been plagued by scandal and tragedy, as well as vicious conflicts about its creative direction that have mirrored broader debates about Berlin’s identity.

Lilienthal is no stranger to the Volksbühne. He served as its chief dramaturg in the 1990s, when it was led by Frank Castorf, a towering figure in German theater. It was Castorf, the Volksbühne’s director from 1992 to 2017, who put the playhouse on the international map and established its reputation for high-minded, no-holds-barred performance.

Castorf, who grew up in the former East Germany, drew widespread acclaim for his Marxist reworking of literary classics like “The Brothers Karamazov” and “The Master Builder,” which could last up to seven hours.

The theater has cycled through directors since Castorf left in 2017. His successor, Chris Dercon, a former director of the Tate Modern museum in London, drew scorn from many in the German theater world after he refocused the Volksbühne away from in-house works performed by a staff ensemble and toward visiting international productions.

For many observers, Dercon’s decision was a betrayal of the theater’s political roots and a flashpoint for a broader debate about how to preserve Berlin’s countercultural ethos in the face of gentrification and globalization.

Critics and activists complained that Dercon was turning the Volksbühne into a theater geared toward tourists, and the conflict grew so heated that feces were left in front of Dercon’s office door. At one point, activists occupied the playhouse for days.

Dercon resigned after only six months, but the turbulence at the theater has continued. Klaus Dörr, the theater’s next director, resigned in 2021 after female co-workers accused him of sexual misconduct, including claims of inappropriate touching and text messages. In his departure statement, Dörr said: “I take full responsibility for the accusations against me.”

René Pollesch, Dörr’s successor, died unexpectedly in February. Pollesch, a respected playwright and longtime associate of Castorf’s, had drawn praise for his democratic approach to the job. Writing in Die Zeit newspaper, the critic Peter Kümmel argued that Pollesch had “managed to make the Volksbühne attractive to audiences again.”

Pollesch was applauded for many of his creative choices, including signing a deal with Florentina Holzinger — a high-profile Austrian performance artist known for creating outrageous spectacles featuring naked performers — to create original works for the theater. (One of Holzinger’s pieces, “Tanz” has a short run at the Skirball Center in New York next week.)

At Friday’s news conference, Berlin’s culture senator, Joe Chialo, announced that Holzinger will have a formal advisory role at the theater, together with the Cape Verdean choreographer Marlene Monteiro Freitas.

Lilienthal also inherits some practical challenges. Berlin’s government implemented drastic cuts in January, slashing 130 million euros, around $135 million, from the municipal culture budget. The cuts have left a €2-million gap in the Volksbühne budget and this week the theater announced it would to cut one production set to premiere this year and another in the next season.

“I strongly disapprove of the cut in the Volksbühne’s budget,” Lilienthal told reporters on Friday. “We will see what the next five years bring.”