Volksbühne

Volksbühne, or People's Theatre, organization which originated in Berlin in 1890 with the Freie Volksbühne, formed to bring good plays, preferably with a pronounced social content, to the working class at prices they could afford. In 1914 the organization opened its own theatre on the Bülowplatz, which soon became one of the leading Berlin playhouses, and by 1930 the movement had spread all over Germany, having over 300 branches with nearly half a million members, tickets being allocated by lot as they had been from the beginning. Dissolved by the Nazis in 1933, the movement was revived in 1948 and by the end of the 1950s had about 90 local centres in West Germany, the corresponding East German groups being absorbed into the state system which embraced all theatrical enterprises. From 1949 the Freie Volksbühne had its own theatre in West Berlin (the original site then being in East Berlin), and in 1962 it moved into new premises under Piscator. The Volksbühne in East Berlin reopened after rebuilding in 1954, and was revitalized under Benno Besson's directorship from 1969 to 1978. Heiner Müller directed his adaptation of Macbeth there in 1982.