Documenta

Guest Editors: Lily Climenhaga (UGent; lily.climenhaga@ugent.be) and Christine Korte (Freie Universität Berlin/NYU Berlin; christine.korte@nyu.edu) 

Born from the workers’ movement of the late 1800s, opened in the first year of the First World War, Berlin’s Volksbühne has long served as a lightning rod for political, social, and cultural conflict. The theatre stands on a politically charged public square, the site of political murders and mass demonstrations. The square it stands upon has been inscribed and reinscribed by fluctuating political regimes: Babelsberger Platz (1907-1910), Bülowplatz (1910-1933), Horst-Wessel-Platz (1933-1945), Liebknechtplatz (1946-1947), Luxemburgplatz (1947-1969), and finally Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz (1968-present). Yet despite the changing borders, regimes, and violent clashes at the theatre’s doorstep, Oskar Kaufmann’s imposing neoclassical structure has endured the country’s volatile political regimes of the twentieth century and weathered the economic turbulence of the first quarter of the twenty-first. And while the theatre has experienced internal strife and transformation throughout its long history, Berlin’s Volksbühne - its floor has remained a constant in the dynamic neighbourhood of Berlin Mitte.

Over the past 111 years, the theatre has hosted work from Max Reinhardt, Erwin Piscator, Bertolt Brecht, Heiner Müller, Frank Castorf, Christoph Schlingensief, Florentina Holzinger, René Pollesch, and many more. It has hosted audiences of Weimar Berlin’s leading left-wing artists and intellectuals, SS officers, pre- and post-unification GDR workers, Neonazis, artistic occupiers, and a new, globalized elite. Volksbühne is a palimpsest: a cultural stronghold, a site of conflict, a bastion of high culture, a space of artistic experimentation, a vehicle for different states’ propagandas, a beacon of lost histories and yet-to-be-imagined futures. 

2027 will mark ten years since the departure of former artistic director Frank Castorf and the troubled beginning of Belgian curator Chris Dercon’s disastrous, short-lived tenure; and 100 years since the original Volksbühne Affair, which resulted in Erwin Piscator’s much-discussed departure as house director from the theatre in 1927. Leading up to the auspicious occasion of these crisis anniversaries and in anticipation of Matthias Lilienthal’s first season (2026/27) as artistic director, this thematic issue of Documenta invites authors to consider the past, present, and future of the palimpsestic institution that is Berlin’s Volksbühne. 

This special edition invites reflections and contributions that use Volksbühne to consider: What stories might lurk in the theatre’s Kantine and offices? What is it about the Volksbühne that has grasped Berlin’s public consciousness and elicited such strong reactions to productions, projects, and changes in leadership? What model of leadership best embodies the theatre’s emancipatory aims? What moments have embodied inclusions, diversity, and class consciousness? What can be made of the institution’s many scandals and crises over the past 111 years? How do we connect the current crisis of leadership with the theatre’s long history? How has the theatre’s position in Berlin shifted and changed? What directors, actors, productions, and actions stand at the heart of the institution’s cultural memory? How has and will the Volksbühne overcome its existential threats? What will the theatre do in response to funding cuts and existential threats? How have directors radicalized the spirit of the space over the institution’s long history? How have figures such as Carl Hegemann and Matthias Lilienthal invite us to (re)consider the role of dramaturgy in addressing the discontents of the times, fueling alternative narratives, and in connecting theatre and the streets? Does the Volksbühne still have a position and place as a social/political actor in Berlin or would it better serve the community as public infrastructure, as Castorf famously stated in an interview with Junge Welt in January 1995, “as a swimming pool”? [1]

Contributors might consider, but are not limited, to such topics as:

• Production analyses, reviews, and responses
• Questions of diversity within and around the Volksbühne
• Volksbühne within changing political, social, funding, and national contexts
• Scandals/conflicts/crises
• Comparative analyses of Volksbühne with other institutions, artists, etc.
• History of the theatre in context of: the historic Volksbühne movement, WWI, Weimar Republic, NS Regime, Post-War Period, GDR, post-Wende, financial crisis, present
• Interviews with Volksbühne directors, actors, choreographers, designers, associated artists etc.
• Reflections on institutional dramaturgy/curation
• Volksbühne’s status within Berlin’s cultural scene
• Book reviews of existent literature about Volksbühne
• Critical responses to Volksbühne
• Critical fabulations for the future 

Select Bibliography:

Boenisch, Peter. “Struggles of singularised communities in German theatre: The ‘culture war’ around the Volksbühne.” Theatre Institutions in Crisis: European Perspectives. Routledge, 2020, pp. 27-40.

Bogusz, Tanja. Institution und Utopie. Ost-West-Transformationen an der Berliner Volksbühne. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2007.

Castorf, Frank and Peter Laudenbach. Am liebsten hätten sie veganes Theater. Interviews 1996-2017. Theater der Zeit, 2017. 

Davies, Cecil. The Volksbühne Movement: A History. Routledge, 2000.

Korte, Christine. “‘What Might Have Been’: The GDR as Speculative Utopia at the Post-Wende Volksbühne.” In Michel Mallet, Maria Mayr, and Kristin Rebien (eds.). Postsocialist Memory in Contemporary German Culture. De Gruyter, 2024. pp. 51-74.

Lederer, Klaus, Harald Müller, and Erik Zielke. Vorsicht Volksbühne! Das Theater. Die Stadt. Das Publikum. Theater der Zeit, 2018.

Raddatz, Frank (ed.). Republik Castorf: Die Berliner Volksbühne seit 1992. Alexander Verlag, 2016.

Stebbins, Amy. “Eine Aufgekratzheit im Theater: Acting the Agon at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.” 51:4 Seminar. 2015. pp. 378-397.

Woolf, Brandon. Institutional Theatrics: Performing Arts Policy in Post-Wall Berlin. Northwestern University Press, 2021.

Timeline:

• Proposals: May 1, 2025
• First Drafts: August 1, 2025
• Second Drafts: November 1, 2025
• Publication: March 2026

Format: 

Alongside long-form, in-depth articles, we encourage short articles, thoughts, and provocations. As with previous editions of Documenta, we welcome artist pages and other contributions that use distinctive layouts and typographies for our portfolio section, as well as more conventional essays. Informal suitability checks are recommended.

General guidelines for proposals: 

• Proposals should be emailed directly to the edition’s editors, Christine Korte and Lily Climenhaga: lily.climenhaga@ugent.be and christine.korte@nyu.edu 
• Proposals will be accepted by email (Microsoft Word).
• Proposals should not exceed one A4 side (approximately 300 words).
• Please include your surname in the file name of the document you send.
• Please provide a short biography (approximately 100 words) in a separate document.
• Submission of a proposal will be taken to imply that it presents original, unpublished work not under consideration for publication elsewhere.

General guidelines for submissions (first drafts): 

• Submissions should be submitted directly on Documenta’s website: https://documenta.ugent.be/submissions/
• Before submitting a proposal, we encourage you to visit our website (https://documenta.ugent.be/site/richtlijnen/) and familiarize yourself with the journal’s citation style (Chicago style - author, date). 
• Final drafts should be anonymized 
• Final drafts should contain the following: title, abstract, main text, endnotes, bibliography
• Submissions should not exceed the 8000-word count, notes and bibliography excluded
• Submission of images and other visual material is welcome. Please note that Documenta only publishes illustrations in black and white (unless otherwise agreed). It will be the author’s responsibility to obtain permission for copyright and to use the material in print. Authors may find further information on permissions and copyright here: https://documenta.ugent.be/about/submissions
• The first step upon receipt of the paper will be a preliminary review by our editorial board committee. If the paper passes this stage, it will be sent for peer review.

Documenta currently enjoys an A1.2 status and is VABB-listed. In recent years, there has been a shift in focus as we are increasingly working – not to say exclusively – with thematic focuses. These special issues are entrusted to guest editors who are responsible for recruiting articles, contacting the authors, and providing all the necessary materials.

At Documenta, the peer review system is an integral part of the submission and evaluation process. The system of double-blind peer review ensures that published research is rigorous and meets the international standards set by each discipline. We engage in a collaborative refereeing process, which ensures that the work submitted is evaluated by and commented upon by two independent referees selected by the editors based on their areas of expertise. The editors will make the final decision about publication or assess the need for further revision. Feedback is then shared with the author. However, the reviewer’s name is not disclosed.

 
[1] Transcript of interview from Tageszeitung Junge Welt with Frank Castorf from January 1995/Volksbühne Archive. 

Photo Credit: Thomas Aurin/Volksbühne Berlin