Periods of precarious adjustment: Some notes on the theater's situation at the beginning and after the end of the socialist German state

Abstract

The current restructuring of the German theatrical establishment, especially budget cutbacks, are threatening to bring an end to the long history of socially activist German theater, and particularly the theaters of the former GDR. Meanwhile, the availability of formerly unobtainable archival material has made possible new research into the roots of GDR theater. The Soviet‐inspired campaign against Formalism in the early 1950s victimized writers and composers who were themeselves dedicated Marxists, as in the Lucullus and Faustus affairs involving Brecht, Dessau, and Eisler. The latter case, which ended unhappily with the near‐silencing of Brecht and Eisler, is traced in detail. The contemporary scene, despite ideological changes, resembles the unstable situation of the early GDR as a period of readjustment and uncertainty as to the future.