Zurich city theatre, a sanctuary and sign of resistance, turns 100

View from the stage of the auditorium and the stage machinery at the Schauspielhaus Zürich Pfauen. Keystone / Gaetan Bally

During the Second World War, the Schauspielhaus Zürich, Switzerland's largest theatre, becomes one of the most important places of refuge for persecuted artists from German-speaking countries. Ferdinand Rieser, a Zurich wine merchant, laid the foundation for this.

Rieser had a great passion for theatre, but little experience. Nevertheless, in 1926 he took over the theatre and renovated it. He enlarged the auditorium and created the stage in its current form – a so-called peep-box stage.

It was thanks to the Jewish businessman that the Schauspielhaus Zürich became the most important theatre for emigrants in the German-speaking world during the Second World War.

Ferdinand Rieser, director of the Schauspielhaus Zürich, was originally a wine merchant. Schauspielhaus Zürich

From variety theatre to ‘island fortress’

However, the origins of the theatre go back further. Initially, they had little to do with sophisticated theatre. Around the turn of the century, the “Volkstheater zum Pfauen” was a kind of variety theatre with a beer garden and bowling alley. The early years were characterised by financial difficulties and frequent changes of ownership.

In the years that followed, the theatre served as a side stage of the municipal theatre, today’s opera house, but this concept was also unsuccessful. Zurich was not yet a theatre metropolis.

But Ferdinand Rieser had big plans: he wanted to prove that a theatre could be run successfully from an economic point of view and at the same time give it international appeal. In the first few years, success remained modest. However, political developments in Europe fundamentally changed the situation.

The émigré theatre ensemble is formed

In 1933 the Nazis came to power and expelled Jewish, regime-critical and left-wing artists from German theatres.

One of the leading figures at the Zurich Schauspielhaus: dramaturg Kurt Hirschfeld, who was recently the subject of a documentary film. Photopress-Archiv / Str

Rieser reacted decisively. He brought numerous well-known actors and directors to Zurich, including Wolfgang Langhoff, Therese Giehse, Kurt Horwitz, Ernst Ginsberg, Leonard Steckel and Karl Paryla. Stage designer Theo Otto, director Leopold Lindtberg and dramaturg Kurt Hirschfeld also had a decisive influence on the theatre.

Hirschfeld in particular became a central figure, through his choice of artists and his clear focus on political theatre.

The Schauspielhaus Zürich staged plays that were banned in Germany because they were critical of National Socialism. Die Rassen (Race) by Ferdinand Bruckner and Professor Mannheim by Friedrich Wolf – both works about the persecution of the Jews – were premiered there.

A theatre under pressure

The theatre’s political stance provoked strong reactions. Nazi spies and the pro-Nazi National Front in Switzerland tried to intimidate the theatre. Threats and protests piled up; individual performances were under police protection.

But it was not only the Nazis and their Swiss sympathisers who put pressure on the theatre. The Swiss Writers’ Association called for more local plays and criticised the “un-Swiss” theatre. Even Max Frisch, an unknown architecture student at the time, expressed his misgivings. Years later, he would celebrate his breakthrough as an author here of all places.

Max Frisch was not always fond of the Schauspielhaus Zürich, where he later made his breakthrough as a playwright. Keystone / AP

Rieser initially stuck to his course, but in 1938 he was forced to withdraw: political pressure, financial problems and anti-Semitic hostility drove him and his family into exile in the United States.

The heyday of the exile theatre

The theatre was then transformed from a private to a municipal institution. With the support of the mayor Emil Klöti, the “Neue Schauspiel AG” was founded and the theatre was protected from the Nazis.

Oskar Wälterlin, director of the Schauspielhaus from 1938 to 1961, turned it into a hub for German-language theatre in exile. KEYSTONE/PHOTOPRESS-ARCHIV/Str

Oskar Wälterlin became director and Kurt Hirschfeld remained as dramaturg. Together, they focused increasingly on classical material by Schiller, Goethe and Lessing, but they combined this with a clear anti-fascist stance and “spiritual national defence”. Productions such as Wilhelm Tell and Götz von Berlichingen, both with Heinrich Gretler in the leading role, became legendary.

Memory and the present

During the war years, the Schauspielhaus Zürich offered numerous persecuted artists a stage – and a voice. The theatre’s anti-fascist resistance became visible and audible.

Big names, critical theatre reviews: *We Have Escaped Once Again* by Thornton Wilder, 1944 – starring Therese Giese and Anne-Marie Blanc._ KEYSTONE/Privatbesitz Anne-Marie Blanc

Even today, 100 years after the major remodelling, this history is still present. Co-director Pinar Karabulut and head dramaturg Hannah Schünemann sense it in the theatre – in the rooms and the photographs that hang everywhere.

For the anniversary, this past is once again coming into focus: the 2026/27 season opens with The Threepenny Opera, as a tribute to Bertolt Brecht, who had a decisive influence on the Schauspielhaus. Several of his works were premiered there during the war years.

Translated from German with AI/ts

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