Theater landscapes

Goethe and Schiller worked together on the Weimar stage from 1799 to 1805.
Goethe made it possible for authors to have a decisive influence on the staging of their works and he ensured that the formerly disreputable reputation of the art of acting gave way to high esteem and social recognition for actors.
In addition to drama, Goethe also promoted musical theater.
Over the course of time, Weimar became the home of Hummel, Liszt, Wagner, Berlioz and Richard Strauss.
In 1919, the German National Assembly met in the theater building and adopted the republican imperial constitution on July 31.
The theater was renamed the "Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar".
For supporters and opponents of the republic, the theater became a stage for political self-presentation.

From 1924, the National Socialists held their party meetings here, and two years later the first Nazi Party Congress was held in the theater after the ban was lifted.
During the period of Nazi rule, mainly classical repertoire was performed.
The ensemble performed to entertain the SS men in the casino at Buchenwald concentration camp.
In 1945, a bombing raid destroyed the building; it was the first German theater to be rebuilt after the war and reopened in 1948 with "Faust I".
During the GDR era, Weimar's music theater and the Weimar State Orchestra gained a reputation that extended far beyond the city.

In the 2000/2001 season, the Swiss Stephan Märki took over as General Director of the Deutsches Nationaltheater.
Since the beginning of his term of office, he has been fighting - supported by the citizens of Weimar and politicians such as Antje Vollmer and Richard von Weizsäcker - against plans by the state government of Thuringia to merge the theater in Weimar with that of the nearby state capital Erfurt.
In the summer of 2002, the National Theatre was once again the scene of politics: Russian President Vladimir Putin met with former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder there.