Swiss director of German Theatre exits stage left
The Swiss director of the German Theatre in Berlin, Thomas Langhoff, has left his post after a decade at the helm of the prestigious national centre for performing arts.
Berlin’s minister of culture, Peter Radunski, had decided in 1999 not to renew Langhoff’s contract.
The theatre was crowded on Saturday with well-wishers who came to bid its director farewell.
The decision to terminate Langhoff’s contract shocked the theatre establishment two years ago, since the Swiss had been expected to remain in the post until at least 2003.
During a valedictory performance, Langhoff and a company of actors read and performed extracts from the works of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe on the theatre’s main stage.
Sixty-three-year old Langhoff, who was born in Zurich, has announced he plans to work as a freelance director for theatres in Munich, Salzburg and Vienna.
Langhoff’s successor at the German Theatre, which achieved worldwide fame under the direction of Max Reinhardt (1873-1943), will be Bernd Wilms, currently director of the Maxim-Gorki theatre in Berlin.
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