Theater landscapes

Kiel's theater is one of the big ones with five divisions: opera, drama, orchestra, ballet and children's and youth theater.
Around 500 employees provide "proper" theater in the three permanent venues in the capital of Schleswig-Holstein, and again and again at locations that are symbolic of Kiel's history.
In the 2008 season, the theater is playing in a naval barracks, in the footsteps of the sailors' uprising of 1918.
An undertaking steeped in history in every respect, as it is thanks to the navy that Kiel became a major city in the first place.

Of course, great theater careers also began here in Kiel: The tool mechanic and shipyard worker Ernst Busch took part in the sailors' uprising and sang red songs.
He was then engaged as an actor by theater director Max Alberty.
At the beginning of the 1920s, another "great" of the German theater made his debut in Kiel: Gustaf Gründgens.
He took on no less than 21 roles in just one season, including Mephisto for the first time, the role of a lifetime.

Busch and Gründgens go to Berlin, and Kiel grows with its shipyards.
The "Kiel Week", a highlight of city life since 1882, always shows its military side.
At the end of the Second World War, the city therefore becomes a major target of attacks and is heavily destroyed, the old town almost completely.
The destruction is followed by reconstruction.

The municipal theater was also rebuilt in the 1950s as an opera house with the "look" of the new era.
It is now a listed building, and the theater people are proud to have restored the interior to its original state in their own workshops.
The kidney-shaped tables and starry sky are beautiful to look at: This opera is truly "retro".

The stage is avant-garde.
In the 60s and 70s, director Joachim Klaiber focused on modern music and modern productions.
This did not always meet with the approval of the Kiel audience.
Until the turn of the millennium, Kiel Opera still had to overcome several crises: There were disputes with the other sections and frequent changes of management.

Since 2007, all sections of Kiel's theater have been successfully managed centrally by General Director Daniel Karasek.
The repertoire ranges from "West Side Story" to ironically spiced-up Rossini operas.
A touch of irony is allowed, as is a touch of the present: modern, narrative theater forms the focus of the repertoire.
Unbridled avant-garde is avoided because the "Kieler an sich" prefers it traditional.

This can also be seen to some extent in Kiel Week, the city's trademark.
It has hardly changed since its beginnings.
Today, however, it is less military and more of a tourist event.
Up to 2 million guests come, because Kiel is worth a visit.

First broadcast: Sun, August 30, 2009, 12:30 p.m., 3sat.