Why German State and City Theatres Love Refugees. A Critical Discourse Analysis of the debate surrounding Alvis Hermanis and Thalia Theater Hamburg (2015).

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Andreas Donders

Student Number: 11104201 E-Mail: andreas.donders@web.de

Why

German State

and City Theatres

Love Refugees.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of

the debate surrounding Alvis Hermanis

and Thalia Theater Hamburg (2015).

Master’s Thesis

Arts and Culture: International Dramaturgy

University of Amsterdam Faculty of Humanities Theatre Studies Summer 2017 Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jan Lazardzig

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1. Introducton

1.1 The debate surrounding Alvis Hermanis and Thalia Theater Hamburg

On 4 December, 2015, a press release by Thalia Theater Hamburg announced Latvian theatre director Alvis Hermanis's cancellaton of an upcoming show at the German city theatre. “In every war you must pick one side,”1_{and Hermanis and Thalia Theater stand on opposite sides, the}

director is paraphrased in the press release. What had caused Hermanis to rhetorically go to “war” like this? Part of the answer lies in the politcal and social conditons in Europe at the tme. In the summer of 2015, the so-called “European refugee crisis” peaked. As a reacton to rising numbers of refugees stranded in Hungary in early September, the German and Austrian governments opened their countries' borders and let people enter without registraton.2_{According to}

chancellors Angela Merkel and Werner Faymann, these measures were supposed to defuse the situaton and prevent a humanitarian crisis.3_{German chancellor Merkel's asserton “We can do it”}

(“Wir schafen das”), frst expressed a few days before the border opening, set the tone for an extensive Willkommenskultur.4_{This welcoming culture towards refugees found expression}

partcularly in humanitarian aid given by large parts of German civil society. Besides the efort of the general public, the Willkommenskultur was also refected in an increased engagement of German state and city theatres in the topic of refugees. Not only were numerous stage productons created that dealt with refugees and contguous topics. Many theatres also hosted public discussions, actvely opposed ant-refugee rallies, or provided humanitarian aid. Actons like this were maintained over the following months.5

Alvis Hermanis, the aforementoned press release reads, does not support the

1 Hanna Klimpe, “Alvis Hermanis sagt Inszenierung am Thalia Theater ab. Grund: das Engagement des Thalia Theaters in der Flüchtlingsfrage.” Thalia Theater Hamburg Pressemiteilung. Web, 04.12.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htps://www.thalia-theater.de/uploads/Absage%20Alvis%20Hermanis(1).pdf>. (The press

release can also be found in the appendix: chapter 6.1.1).

2 “Unterbringung in Deutschland. Oberbayern rechnet mit bis zu 10.000 weiteren Flüchtlingen.” Spiegel Online. Web, 07.09.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.spiegel.de/politk/deutschland/muenchen-rechnet-mit-bis-zu-10-000-weiteren-fuechtlingen-a-1051739.html>.

3 Nico Fried, “Merkel zu Flüchtlingspolitk. '... dann ist das nicht mein Land'.” Süddeutsche Zeitung. Web, 15.09.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.sueddeutsche.de/politk/merkel-zu-fuechtlingspolitk-dann-ist-das-nicht-mein-land-1.2648819>.

4 “Mitschrif Pressekonferenz: Sommerpressekonferenz von Bundeskanzlerin Merkel.” bundesregierung.de. Web, 31.08.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17):

<htps://www.bundesregierung.de/Content/DE/Mitschrif/Pressekonferenzen/2015/08/2015-08-31-pk-merkel.html>.

5 “Die Türen sind ofen. #refugeeswelcome – Wie die Theater in der Flüchtlingshilfe aktv werden.” nachtkritk.de. Web, 23.09.2015 (inital publicaton; last updated on 28.01.2016). Online (last accessed 07.06.17):

<htps://www.nachtkritk.de/index.php?opton=com_content&view=artcle&id=11497:immer-mehr-theater-engagieren-sich-fuer-fuechtlinge&catd=1513&Itemid=85>.

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humanitarian aid for refugees given by Thalia Theater and many other German city theatres, and he does not want to be associated with it. Hermanis allegedly sees a connecton between immigraton as well as the Willkommenskultur on the one hand, and terrorism, partcularly the terrorist atacks in Paris three weeks earlier, on the other. The next part of the press release is a statement by Joachim Lux, the Intendant (theatre director) of Thalia Theater, in which he expresses his astonishment and regret about Hermanis's cancellaton and what he calls a divide across both Europe and the cultural sphere. Although claiming that he respects Hermanis as an artst, Lux makes clear that Thalia Theater does not share the director's current politcal positon. The press release provoked a lot of harsh critcism in German media and online comments on the theatre website nachtkritk.de, mostly directed at Hermanis. Shortly afer, the critcized director released a statement through nachtkritk and a few other media outlets with his own account of the events.6_{In it, he accuses Thalia Theater of releasing the press statement without his consent,}

of quotng him out of context, and of atemptng to silence his opinion. Moreover, he defends and further explains his reasoning for the cancellaton. Two days later, Lux countered Hermanis's accusatons and reafrmed Thalia Theater's stance on the issue in a second statement published on nachtkritk.7_{Both Hermanis's and Lux's follow-up statements further fueled the lively debate}

taking place in both the press and online comments.

In the days and weeks following the press release, numerous commentators discussed diferent aspects of the controversy surrounding Alvis Hermanis and Thalia Theater,8_{including the}

validity of Hermanis's arguments and whether Thalia Theater should have made Hermanis's statements public. In this thesis, however, I want to focus on an aspect that was neglected by most, namely the queston why the debate occurred in the frst place. The Hermanis/Thalia incident emanated from the conduct of many German state and city theatres in the summer and fall of 2015 with regard to the topic of refugees. But why did so many theatres take acton in the so-called “refugee crisis”? Rarely have that many theatres turned to one topic so uniformly and devotedly, though. It seemed like theatres virtually love (the topic of) refugees, as I suggest in the

6 “Miten im Krieg? Alvis Hermanis sagt aus Protest gegen Flüchtlings-Engagement Thalia-Inszenierung ab.”

nachtkritk.de. Web, 04./06.12.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htps://www.nachtkritk.de/index.php?

opton=com_content&view=artcle&id=11864:alvis-hermanis-sagt-aus-protest-gegen-fuechtlings-engagement-thalia-inszenierung-ab&catd=126:meldungen-k&Itemid=100089>. (Hermanis's statement can also be found in the

appendix: chapter 6.1.2).

7 “Miten im Krieg?” (Lux's statement can also be found in the appendix: chapter 6.1.3).

8 With the expressions the debate or the controversy surrounding Alvis Hermanis and Thalia Theater I refer to Hermanis's cancellaton of his job in Hamburg, Thalia Theater's publicaton of Hermanis's cancellaton, and all public contributons to the ensuing debate. For the sake of brevity, however, I will in most cases refer to the

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ttle of this thesis.9_{I argue that the cause of this devoton is that the so-called “refugee crisis” also}

served as a means to negotate another confict. From my analyses of the Hermanis/Thalia incident, the events in theatre in the months before, and the general history of German state and city theatres, I have developed a working hypothesis:

Besides the obvious aims of debatng the topic of refugees and giving humanitarian aid, the diverse engagement of many German state and city theatres in the so-called “refugee crisis” was also an expression of another issue. This underlying confict is the state and city theatre system's crisis of legitmacy between the poles of autonomy and heteronomy.

The terms autonomy and heteronomy each have two dimensions that I will consider, namely what I call the aesthetc and the structural dimension. Although these diferent aspects are generally expressions of the same ideas, it is worth distnguishing between them. The aesthetc dimension

of autonomy is the autonomy of art.10_{According to Jacques Rancière, the idea of autonomy has}

been dominant in the arts for the last two centuries.11_{He characterizes this tme by the noton of}

“the singularity of art”12_{in relaton to everything else. Here art is not subject to a regime of utlity}

but it is contngent only upon itself.13_{The structural dimension of autonomy is the autonomy of}

theatre as an insttuton. A fully autonomous theatre would be independent in its decision-making. For example, it would not need to follow the directons of a rich donor in order to receive funding. With the aesthetc dimension of heteronomy I mean the variety of recent approaches in theatre concerned with social or politcal maters.14_{These are not autonomous but make use of aesthetc}

9 The topic of refugees had been an issue in Germany before, although in a diferent form. For examp le, from the late 1970s onwards, the FRG and the GDR were faced with the arrival of tens of thousands so-called boat people feeing Vietnam. Back then theatres did not deal with the subject as diligently as in 2015 by far. This assessment is supported both by a widespread lack of mentons of the issue in the relevant literature, and by theatre scho lars' observaton that most German theatres abandoned politcal topics in the 1970s and 80s. For an analysis of the implicatons of the boat people's emergency situaton on German refugee policy, see: Julia Kleinschmidt, “Die Aufnahme der ersten "boat people" in die Bundesrepublik.” Bundeszentrale für politsche Bildung. Web, 26.11.2013. Online (last accessed 29.06.17): <htp://www.bpb.de/geschichte/zeitgeschichte/deutschlandarchiv/ 170611/die-aufnahme-der-ersten-boat-people-in-die-bundesrepublik>. For an analysis of the recurring public discourses around the supposedly unprecedented arrival of “the other” in Germany, see: Fatma El-Tayeb,

Undeutsch. Die Konstrukton des Anderen in der postmigrantschen Gesellschaf (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2016).

10 See chapter 1.3 for my working defnitons of theatre as an insttuton and as an art form.

11 Rancière calls this the “aesthetc regime of art.” However, the reality of German theatre in the last 200 years has not been that homogenous with regard to autonomous and heteronomous characteristcs, as I will show in chapter 2. See : Jacques Rancière, The Politcs of Aesthetcs (London and New York: Contnuum Internatonal Publishing Group, 2004), 81.

12 Ibid.

13 Yuriko Saito suspects that “that the reason why functonality of an object was generally shunned from the realm of the aesthetc is because exclusive atenton to functonality steers us away from atending to the sensuous surface of the object.” Yuriko Saito, Everyday Aesthetcs (Oxford: OUP, 2007), 27.

14 For a critque of such developments, see for example: Claire Bishop, Artfcial Hells. Partcipatory Art and the

Politcs of Spectatorship (London and New York: Verso, 2012). Or: Shannon Jackson, Social Works. Performing Art, Supportng Publics (London and New York: Routledge, 2011).

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strategies that are not traditonally considered part of the realm of art and theatre, such as direct audience partcipaton.15_{The structural dimension of heteronomy refers to the idea that theatre as}

an insttuton is not autonomous in the sense described above.

As I will show, theatre in Germany is currently (and has ofen been) in a state of crisis – a crisis of its place in society, to be exact. I argue that during the so-called “refugee crisis,” theatre makers atempted to fnd a soluton to this problem. This took place through a negotaton – both among theatre makers and with the public – of the queston whether (a) theatre can preserve its autonomy, or (b) if it needs to be open for change emanatng from events outside of theatre, such as politcal crises or social upheavals. I argue that this negotaton becomes most apparent in the debate surrounding the Hermanis/Thalia incident, which is why I will analyze it in partcular detail.

1.2 Methodology

The events surrounding Alvis Hermanis and Thalia Theater include hardly any material actons.16

Instead, most of what happened took place through language alone. Diferent agents made statements or commented on the issue, mostly in writen form. Even Hermanis's cancellaton was a verbal act performed through writen text in a number of e-mails. Owing to the text-based character of the incident, I chose to conduct a Critcal Discourse Analysis (CDA) of the debate, based on Machin and Mayr's How To Do Critcal Discourse Analysis17_{. CDA is not to be confused} with other approaches to discourse analysis, such as the Foucauldian one, although it does draw on some of Michel Foucault's ideas.18_{CDA has its origins in descriptve linguistc approaches in the}

late 1970s.19_{It was developed in reacton to the critcism that Critcal Linguistcs was faced with}

regarding its lack of proper “development of the nature of the link between language, power and ideology.”20_{CDA comprises a variety of diferent methods that serve a common goal, namely “to}

reveal buried ideology,”21_{and it is “openly commited to politcal interventon and social}

change.”22_{The word critcal in Critcal Discourse Analysis refers to the act of “'denaturalising' the}

15 Rancière traces back the idea of the autonomy and heteronomy of art to a statement by Friedrich Schiller. See: Jacques Rancière, “The Aesthetc Revoluton and Its Outcomes. Emplotments of Autonomy and Heteronomy.” New

Lef Review 14 (2002): 133.

16 “Material processes describe processes of doing. Usually, these are concrete actons that have a material result or consequence.” David Machin and Andrea Mayr. How to Do Critcal Discourse Analysis. A Multmodal Introducton. (London and Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publicatons, 2012), 106.

17 Ibid.

18 Such as Foucault's noton of discourse. See: Ibid., 20. 19 Ibid., 2.

20 Ibid., 4. 21 Ibid., 1. 22 Ibid., 4.

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language to reveal the kinds of ideas, absences and taken-for-granted assumptons in texts”23_and

thereby unveiling the power interests hidden in the language.

The most central concepts of CDA are discourse, ideology, and power. Machin and Mayr defne them as follows: discourses are “the broader ideas communicated by a text [...] [that] can be thought of as models of the world.”24_{They “comprise partcipants, values, ideas, setngs, tmes}

and sequences of actvity.”25_{Ideologies are “representatons of the world, they are worldviews.”}26

Although everybody has a certain ideology, “the analysis of ideology is generally associated with those views of the world that are associated with power and exploitaton.”27_{Power is “at the core}

of the CDA project”28_{and is “transmited and practsed through discourse.“}29_{It “comes from}

privileged access to social resources such as educaton, knowledge and wealth, which provides authority, status and infuence to those who gain this access and enables them to dominate, coerce and control subordinate groups.”30_{In general, carrying out a CDA starts with an in-depth}

linguistc analysis of a number of selected texts in order to reveal the discourses they make use of. Then the ideologies buried in these discourses are uncovered and examined with regard to the power relatons they establish or sustain. What I will do in this thesis is examine theatre's engagement in the so-called “refugee crisis” and the Hermanis/Thalia incident with regard to the manifestatons of the confict between autonomy and heteronomy. The notons of autonomy and heteronomy will serve as the representaton of two opposing ideologies regarding theatre. I will draw out these ideologies from diferent texts and events and then interpret them in terms of the power relatons that are at play.

Conductng a CDA to approach my investgaton has some clear advantages. Since I argue that the Hermanis/Thalia incident is rooted in an underlying, larger issue, a discourse analysis will more likely help me understand the debate than, for example, looking at it as an isolated incident. The in-depth linguistc analysis that is part of CDA allows me to draw out subtle details in the language that could otherwise be easily overlooked. Analyzing the diferent discourses employed in the debate will enable me to understand the ideologies regarding the issue of autonomy and heteronomy that are revealed in the Hermanis/Thalia incident. As mentoned above, what makes

23 Ibid., 5. 24 Ibid., 20. 25 Ibid., 219. 26 Ibid., 220. 27 Ibid. 28 Ibid., 24. 29 Ibid., 4. 30 Ibid., 24.

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CDA preferable to other types of discourse analysis is the fact that CDA as a linguistc approach matches the linguistc nature of the events I look at.

I also want to address some shortcomings of CDA and other possible points of critcism this thesis may atract.31_{First, I am unable to properly analyze “the social conditons of text producton}

and consumpton.”32_{I try to base my interpretaton of the diferent agents' stance on autonomy}

and heteronomy on conclusive fndings. Stll, my interpretaton may be fawed for a number of reasons. For instance, the selecton of materials I analyze could possibly be misleading; some agents might have acted or made a statement for reasons that are not at all linked to my investgaton – which may or may not afect the validity of my interpretaton; and there might be a disconnect between my expectatons and interpretatons on the one hand and the actual behavior of diferent agents on the other. Second, the debate I examine involves a number of aspects that cannot be dealt with in this thesis. I will point out some of them in the conclusion. One, however, is so important that it also needs to be addressed here. Although I look at various diferent power relatons linked to the Hermanis/Thalia incident, I will not consider those between theatre and refugees. In this thesis, refugees are not looked at as actve subjects but only as passive objects of theatres' actons and of the debate around Hermanis and Thalia Theater. This actually refects how refugees were mostly treated in said actons and this debate. The queston whether theatres have used or even abused large numbers of human beings for their own beneft certainly calls for further investgaton. It cannot be considered here, however, as this study essentally deals with a crisis of theatre and not specifcally with refugees. Lastly, social change – critcized for being too ambitous a goal for CDA – is not what I aim at. By pointng out how recent developments in German theatre relate to its history and to its current crisis, I want to deepen the understanding of these developments rather than give impulses for concrete acton. At most, my eventual fndings may be rated as being supportve of the prevailing heteronomous approach to theatre.

1.3 Key terms and the issue of language

As my use of the expression the so-called “refugee crisis” has already indicated, there has been a controversy around allegedly correct or appropriate terminology.33_{The term has been used}

31 For a discussion of other common critcisms of CDA (most of which are not applicable to this thesis), see: Ibid., 207f.

32 Ibid., 211.

33 For an analysis of these terminology issues, see: Nicholas De Genova et al., “'Migrant Crisis' / 'Refugee Crisis'.”

Near Futures Online. Web, 2016. Online (last accessed 07.06.17):

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extensively in the media and in politcs, thereby cementng the expression and its implicatons in public discourse. This has arguably led to a certain way of speaking and thinking about the events. The use of the term crisis constructs the events it refers to as a potental problem for a country or a society,34_{which entails the politcal and social demand to react to and avert the presumed}

danger. At the same tme the expression is very unspecifc with regard to what the alleged crisis is or who is afected by it. It stands to reason that there is a connecton between this linguistc unspecifcity and the much-cited uncertainty among the public in Germany and Europe regarding the appropriate way to react to the so-called “refugee crisis.” Arguably, the implicatons of the term crisis also facilitated politcal instrumentalizaton of the events by partes of all politcal colors, for example resultng in a reform of EU asylum policies.35_{Bearing all this in mind, I will use}

the hedged expression the so-called “refugee crisis” (sometmes shortened to the “crisis”) to reference the term's common usage in public discourse while at the same tme drawing atenton to the problems it entails. Although it is a provisional soluton, a certain degree of linguistc awareness seems necessary given that I will be conductng a CDA.

Another terminological issue revolves around the term refugees. Strictly speaking, a person is only a refugee when they have been ofcially recognized as one. This defniton has not been consistently used in recent years, though. Instead, in public discourse the term refugees has been used to generally refer to the heterogenous group of people whose arrival in large parts of Europe (and Germany in partcular) has been subject to extensive public debates at least since mid-2015. In spite of a beter alternatve – migrants or asylum seekers are similarly problematc36_{–, this}

incorrect yet common defniton will be the one employed in this thesis, too.

There are a few other crucial concepts for which working defnitons are needed. With the frst of them, theatre, I will be dealing in two diferent ways. When talking about state and city

theatres (plural), I refer to theatre as a publicly fnanced insttuton with a specifc structure. I will

elaborate on this in chapter 2.1. Theatres are concerned with the second noton of theatre, namely theatre (singular) as an art form. While various diferent concepts of theatre in diverse contexts have been developed over tme,37_{I will use the term to refer to the kind of a that has}

historically been produced at West German state and city theatres in the 20th_{century. From this}

34 Other common expressions such as refugee wave or stream have similarly been critcized for their negatve connotatons of natural disasters.

35 “Completng the reform of the Common European Asylum System: towards an efcient, fair and humane asylum policy.” European Commission Press Release Database. Web, 13.07.2016. Online (last accessed 14.06.17): <htp://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-2433_en.htm>.

36 See: Genova et al., Migrant Crisis.

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perspectve, theatre can very generally be called a presentaton, with an aesthetc purpose, of at least one person's involvement with a specifc topic to an audience.

Another terminological issue that needs to be considered relates to what exactly theatres were doing during the so-called “refugee crisis.” In public discourse,38_{their actons were}

sometmes given labels such as humanitarian aid, humanitarian engagement or social work. These terms were mostly used without a clear distncton or defniton,39_{which is problematc even}

though most actons were probably “[c]oncerned with or seeking to promote human welfare,“40_as

the term humanitarian is defned in the Oxford Dictonary. What all these labels appear to indicate is that theatres' actons were manifestatons of (aesthetc) heteronomy. On top of that, the widespread uncertainty about how to refer to these means of expression suggests that they possess a new, unprecedented quality of heteronomy in theatre. For lack of a beter opton, I will use the term humanitarian engagement rather loosely while acknowledging that its accuracy in relaton to theatres' actons is debatable. In fact, even when leaving the queston aside whether theatres engaged in humanitarian aid or not, it is hard to subsume all of their actons with regard to the so-called “refugee crisis” under one expression. When I refer to theatres' actons,

engagement, or campaigns, I try to approximate the rather vague German expression Aktonen (zum Thema Flüchtlinge). This would comprise most “events” ofstage, but can also include a

refugee-related stage producton.

The next issue I need to address is the politcal. Although it will only be a side issue of this thesis, the politcal appears in at least two diferent although interrelated forms. The frst one is

politcal theatre. A large number of scholars suggest that there is a rich traditon of politcal

theatre in Germany.41_{Stll, it is not always easy to tell politcal from non-politcal theatre, as}

Wolfgang Ismayr notes.42_{For my purposes, I will use Ismayr's defniton of politcal theatre in the}

narrower sense as theatre that has the notceable intenton of changing either politcal

38 With the term public discourse, I refer to the entrety of discourses that are discussed by the public at a given tme. 39 As Eva Spies notes, there is actually “no clear-cut defniton [...] of the noton of humanitarian aid.” She proposes that humanitarian aid be understood “as an umbrella term comprising diferent forms of aid, including diferent organizatonal forms and aid policies but joined together by a normatve discourse on helping the helpless.” See: Eva Spies, “Dilemmas of Partcipaton. Developers and the Problem of Doing the Right Thing.“ Dilemmas of

Humanitarian Aid in the Twenteth Century. Ed. Johannes Paulmann. (Oxford: OUP, 2016), 417.

40 “humanitarian.” Oxford Dictonaries. Web, n.d. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htps://en.oxforddictonaries.com/defniton/humanitarian>.

41 See for example: Brigite Marschall, Politsches Theater nach 1950 (Wien and Köln and Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, 2010). Or: Christoph Nix, Theater_Macht_Politk. Zur Situaton des deutschsprachigen Theaters im 21. Jahrhundert (Berlin: Verlag Theater der Zeit, 2016). Or: Wolfgang Ismayr, Das politsche Theater in Westdeutschland.

(Meisenheim am Glan: Verlag Anton Hain, 1977). 42 Ismayr, Das politsche Theater, 11.

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circumstances or people's moral-politcal consciousness.43_{From this perspectve, politcal theatre}

combines an aesthetc form with topics from outside the realm of theatre, and is therefore an expression of a heteronomous understanding of theatre. The second form is politcal reasons, namely the ones due to which Hermanis has allegedly cancelled his job at Thalia Theater.44

Politcal reasons thus refer to a specifc opinion regarding certain maters of public interest –

roughly meaning, what is relevant to people in a specifc area, such as a city or a country, depending on the context. It is possible although not necessary that this overlaps with certain party politcs.

Lastly, the issue of language itself needs to be addressed. Although the topic I investgate is a specifcally German one, and I as well as my supervising professor are German, this thesis is writen in English. This is owed to the fact that I am carrying out my investgaton as part of the Internatonal Dramaturgy MA program at University of Amsterdam. It seems plausible to write the fnal paper in an explicitly internatonal program in English. Stll, this choice may appear somewhat problematc given the fact that almost all the texts I analyze are writen in German, and even more so since the methodological approach I pursue includes an in-depth linguistc analysis. However, I see this as a challenge rather than a problem. I will approach it by not translatng the texts I analyze linguistcally, since with every translaton the original meaning of an uterance changes to a certain extent, for example in terms of its connotatons. However, as connotatons and subtle implicatons are exactly what I analyze, translatng the texts from German to English in order to match the language of this thesis seems counterproductve. I will therefore leave most German statements in their original form while analyzing them in English. In fact, the distance of a foreign language may actually prove useful when it comes to unearthing buried ideologies. I will, however, translate the secondary literature that I cite to support my argument. Whenever a quotaton in this thesis is in English while its original language is German, I have translated it myself unless noted otherwise. These translatons serve the purpose of keeping the text as homogeneous and easily readable as possible. At the same tme they avoid the need to explain all citatons from secondary literature. For any expression that loses a crucial part of its context or is ambiguous when translated, I will make clear what exactly it refers to by adding the original German term in parentheses.

43 Ibid.

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1.4 Structure

In order to examine my working hypothesis, I will frst (chapter 2) point out the historical and the contemporary context in which the Hermanis/Thalia incident occurred. This includes a historical sketch of (a) the German state and city theatre system and (b) the course of events, generally and in theatre, during the so-called “refugee crisis” untl December, 2015. In both subchapters I will pay partcular atenton to questons of autonomy and heteronomy. Next (chapter 3) I will conduct a detailed linguistc analysis of the most important documents in the Hermanis/Thalia incident. Primarily, these are Thalia Theater's, Lux's, and Hermanis's statements, all of which I will analyze rather extensively with partcular regard to any ideological manifestatons concerning autonomy and heteronomy. Then I will examine some other contributons to the debate in a more targeted and summarizing way, namely the coverage of the events in major online and print media and the user comments on nachtkritk. In chapter 4, I will relate the fndings of my analysis to the context established in chapter 2, and further scrutnize the Hermanis/Thalia incident and theatres' engagement in the topic of refugees. Among others, this also includes a close look at diferent power relatons connected to autonomous and heteronomous notons in theatre. In chapter 5, I will frst summarize my fndings and give an outlook on possible further developments. Then I will also address some points of critcism against this thesis before I eventually formulate some concluding thoughts.

To round of the introducton I want to briefy address the picture on the cover sheet of this thesis. It shows the front of the Thalia Theater building,45_{featuring a number of antque-like}

columns. Afer 1800, theatre buildings, just like many other public buildings, were ofen designed to resemble ancient Greek temples.46_{As representatve buildings, they were not only meant to}

show the new autonomy of the bourgeoisie in the 19th_{century when theatres were slowly moved}

from courts to the expanding cites.47_{They also point at the freedom and singularity of the arts by}

constructng an image of theatres as “temple[s] of art.”48_{Here the principle of autonomy in whose}

spirit the German state and city theatre system was established is literally set in stone.

45 It was built in 1911-12 (architects: Werner Lundt and Georg Kallmorgen) and had to be partly reconstructed afer an air raid in April, 1945. See: Christne Ratka, Das Thalia Theater. "Von morgens bis miternachts": Eine Zeitreise

durch Arbeit und Kunst (München and Hamburg: Dölling und Galitz Verlag, 2013), 31 and 51f.

46 Isabel Mathes, 'Der allgemeinen Vereinigung gewidmet'. Öfentlicher Theaterbau in Deutschland zwischen

Auflärung und Vormärz (Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 1995), 82.

47 Ibid., 1. 48 Ibid., 82.

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2. Portrayal: Background and context

2.1 The German state and city theatre system: a brief historical sketch

In this subchapter I will outline the structure of the German Stadtheatersystem, then give a (necessarily fragmentary) portrayal of the system's beginnings and its development untl 2015.49_In

my descripton I will also point out manifestatons of autonomous and heteronomous approaches to theatre throughout state and city theatre's history.

In accordance with the German consttuton, Kultur is primarily the concern of the states (Kulturhoheit der Länder) and the municipalites (kommunale Kulturhoheit), but not of the federaton (Bund). This organizatonal structure is a lesson learned from the Nazi era when the regime brought all theatres into line.50_{Besides “the school and university systems, educaton,}

broadcastng, [and] television,”51_{the cultural sovereignty of the states also comprises the arts.}

These include museums, public libraries, theatres, orchestras, and ballets. There are about 140 predominantly publicly fnanced in additon to between 200 and 22052_{private theatres in}

Germany.53_{The former are generally divided into Staatstheater (state theatres) and Stadtheater}

(city/municipal theatres). Due to historical developments, there are by far more city than state theatres.54_{The later (of which there are 20 in Germany) receive their funding}55_{from the federal}

state they are located in, city theatres from their municipality. Moreover, there are Landestheater o r Landesbühnen (regional theatres). Their distnctve feature is the high percentage of guest appearances, which means that they ofen have shows in cites that do not have a theatre

49 For a more comprehensive portrayal of the history of theatre in German, see for example: Erika Fischer-Lichte,

Kurze Geschichte des deutschen Theaters (Tübingen and Basel: Francke Verlag, 1993).

50 Nix, Theater, 47.

51 “Staatliche Aufgaben sind grundsätzlich Ländersache.” Deutscher Bundestag. Web, 06.01.2013. Online (last accessed 29.06.17):

<htps://www.bundestag.de/dokumente/textarchiv/2014/47689345_kw02_grundgesetz_30/213968>. 52 Diferent sources cite diferent numbers: for 200, see: “Öfentliche Ausgaben für Kultur.” Bundeszentrale für

politsche Bildung. Web, 11.06.2014. Online (last accessed 07.06.17):

<htp://www.bpb.de/nachschlagen/zahlen-und-fakten/soziale-situaton-in-deutschland/61887/ausgaben-fuer-kultur>. For 220, see: “Theater- und Orchesterlandschaf.” Deutscher Bühnenverein. Web, n.d. Online (last accessed 07.06.17):

<htp://www.buehnenverein.de/de/theater-und-orchester/19.html>.

53 Theatre companies of the so-called freie Szene (independent theatre) ofen receive grants, too, and so do some private theatres. Only the state and city theatres get their funding predominantly from public means, though . The others receive much less public funding and the procedure for them to obtain it is ofen quite strenuous.

54 Gregor van der Beek, Kulturfnanzen. Ein volkswirtschaflicher Beitrag zur Reform der öfentlichen Museen und

Theater in Deutschland (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2002), 44f.

55 While theatres are ofen referred to as being subsidized, this is in fact incorrect, as Peter Grabowski explains. State and city theatres – just like schools, for instance – are not subsidized but publicly fnanced since they are not private but public insttutons. See: Peter Grabowski, “Am Anfang steht das Wort – und das Wort ist falsch!” der

kulturpolitsche reporter. Web, 08.01.2014. Online (last accessed 07.06.17):

<htps://derkulturpolitschereporter.wordpress.com/2014/01/08/am-anfang-steht-das-wort-und-das-wort-ist-falsch>.

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company of their own.56_{In terms of fnancing, most regional theatres work similarly to state}

theatres.

For my argument, I will focus on state and city theatres and not consider other organizatonal forms of theatre. This could be critcized as favoring insttutonalized theatres to the detriment of the independent scene, and thus as upholding the dominant discourse and consequently consolidate the structure of the German theatre scene. However, my decision to not include independent and private theatre groups is based on a practcal argument. Indeed large state and city theatres and a few prestgious companies from the freie Szene are favored by most newspapers' arts sectons and by theatre websites such as nachtkritk. Due to this underrepresentaton in the media it is much harder to obtain a lot of informaton on events at smaller city theatres and partcularly at most independent companies – which was one of the reasons for me to focus on state and city theatres.57_{Furthermore, the state and city theatres have}

a longer, richer history than independent theatre groups in Germany, which is why the former lend themselves more readily to my investgaton. Moreover, I will generally equate state theatres and city theatres and not distnguish between them, which is possible because I do not compare the conduct of individual theatres or the diferences between state and city theatres.

The precursors of today's city theatres evolved in the second half of the 18th_{century. Up}

untl that point, most theatre companies in Germany58_{were organized as touring companies led}

and shaped by their theatre director (Prinzipal). They had to request the permission of a city or a prince (Fürst) if they wanted to perform on their premises or in their theatre buildings, and can therefore be considered as structurally heteronomous.59_{Touring companies were subject to}

market-based principles and thus to their audiences' taste.60_{As a consequence, these companies}

were very much dependent on popular subjects and aesthetcs if they wanted to survive. In a fuent transiton in the last third of the 18th_{century, permanent theatres (stehende Bühnen) with}

their own proper buildings and companies of actors became the dominant form of organizaton in

56 “Landesbühnen bringen Kultur überall hin.” Die Landesbühnen im Deutschen Bühnenverein. Web, n.d. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.landesbuehnen.de/index.php?id=5>.

57 The vast majority of scholarly studies focus on state and city theatres, too. It was only recently that an atempt was made to comprehensively portray the history of the German freie Szene. See: Henning Fülle, Freies Theater. Die

Modernisierung der deutschen Theaterlandschaf (1960-2010) (Berlin: Verlag Theater der Zeit, 2016).

58 When referring to Germany in a historical context, I refer to the German cultural and language area that was politcally organized in diferent ways and had diferent names throughout history.

59 Jens Roselt, “Mythos Stadtheater. Vom Weh und Werden einer deutschen Insttuton.” Theater entwickeln und

planen. Kulturpolitsche Konzeptonen zur Reform der Darstellenden Künste. Ed. Wolfgang Schneider (Bielefeld:

transcript Verlag, 2013), 219. 60 Fischer-Lichte, Kurze Geschichte, 109.

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Germany. However, the vast majority of them were not yet city theatres but court theatres (Hofheater),61_{which soon became an integral part of court life. Only towards the end of the 18}th

century were they opened to a broader public.62_{By the beginning of the 19}th_{century, almost all}

German princes had their own court theatre in their residence that they fnanced and controlled. Much like the touring companies, court theatres were not autonomous, as their dependence on their princes illustrates.

Besides the aristocratcally fnanced Hofheater, the idea of a Natonaltheater (natonal theatre) arose in the mid-1700s among members of the bourgeoisie (Bürgertum). Natonal theatres were meant to stage challenging dramas in German, as opposed to French dramas or Italian operas that were ofen played in court theatres.63_{The general idea was to establish a sense}

of cultural unity through a common language in an environment that was characterized by politcal and religious fragmentaton. Moreover, proponents of natonal theatres “imagined the emerging bourgeoisie as the moral judges of the absolutstc authorites.“64_{There were a number of}

atempts by members of the bourgeoisie to fnance and run theatres like that. One notable example is the Mannheimer Natonaltheater, founded in 1777; another one is the short-lived Hamburger Entreprise (also known as Hamburg Natonal Theatre, 1766-1769) with Gothold Ephraim Lessing as its main fgure and the world's frst dramaturg.65_{The Hamburger Entreprise,}

like most other similar atempts, failed rather quickly due to bankruptcy.66_{They tried to stage}

more progressive and educatonal plays and fewer shallow entertainment pieces than were usually performed at court theatres. However, this did not fnd enough approval in the public. Just like the Wanderbühnen, natonal theatres had to take the audience's taste into account to not fall victm to bankruptcy. They consttuted an early atempt at making theatre more autonomous – and although short-lived, they actually had a lastng impact on the common idea of the city theatre (the “myth of the city theatre,”67_{as Jens Roselt describes it).}

The fnancially more secure court theatres remained dominant during the 19th_century

61 Roselt, Mythos Stadtheater, 219. 62 Van der Beek, Kulturfnanzen, 27.

63 Peter Simhandl, Theatergeschichte in einem Band (Berlin: Henschel Verlag, 1996), 136. Some theatres are stll called Natonaltheater today. In that case, the term merely refers back to this historic development, serving as part of the name of some theatres that are otherwise organized as state or city theatres.

64 Kat Rötger, “Todesstoß des August von Kotzebue: Politsches Atentat, Fanal einer Krise. Zur Theatralität der Öfentlichkeit zwischen moralischer Bühne und politscher Gewalt.” Agenten der Öfentlichkeit. Theater und

Medien im frühen 19. Jahrhundert. Ed. Meike Wagner (Bielefeld: Aisthesis Verlag, 2014), 138.

65 Roselt, Mythos Stadtheater, 220f. 66 Ibid., 226.

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although the politcal infuence of the Fürsten gradually dwindled.68_{In the second half of the}

century, afer the German revoluton of 1848/49, the Bürgertum became more important, which led to rising numbers of private theatres.69_{Afer the Bürger were unsuccessful in taking over the}

politcal system, they focussed on sciences and the arts and slowly started to obtain the power over theatres.70_{Stagecraf was stll used to entertain and distract spectators. Widespread}

reservatons against politcal motfs in theatre were based on the by then common belief that art should be purposeless and not have a politcal agenda.71_{However, theatre was also used to be}

intellectually and morally uplifing to the audience. The values of the bourgeoisie and enlightenment that could not be realized in the politcal environment at the tme were idealized in theatre, partcularly through classical dramas.72_{For the frst tme in German theatre history, the}

idea of autonomy was getng popular on a larger scale.

By the end of the 19th_{century, most princely residences and larger cites had their own}

theatre building.73_{Just like the private theatres – some of which had already been calling}

themselves Stadtheater and were run by collectves of wealthy members of the bourgeoisie – these court theatres were turned into structurally and aesthetcally autonomous city theatres in the early 20th_{century. This transformaton marked the beginning of a short avant-garde period in}

theatre.74_{The German Revoluton of 1918/19 brought an end to the monarchic system in Germany}

and with it all remaining court theatres.75_{By the beginning of the Weimar Republic, almost all}

court theatres had been taken over by the state and the municipalites.76_{When censorship was}

generally abolished afer the revoluton, this included theatre censorship, which had in fact been shaping German theatre for a long tme. Theatre, it could be said, was “at the heart of democratc change.”77_{Reformers like Georg Fuchs and Peter Behrens renounced former naturalist design and}

actng traditons and instead addressed themselves to more “artstc” approaches. Aesthetcally, they led theatre away from literature and turned it into a more autonomous art form78_{that drew}

68 Ibid., 225. 69 Ibid.

70 Simhandl, Theatergeschichte, 182. 71 Ismayr, Das politsche Theater, 2f. and 8f. 72 Simhandl, Theatergeschichte, 183f. 73 Roselt, Mythos Stadtheater, 225. 74 Nix, Theater, 31.

75 Knut Lennartz and Deutscher Bühnenverein, Vom Aufruch zur Wende. Theater in der DDR (Velber: Erhard Friedrich Verlag, 1992), 10.

76 Van der Beek, Kulturfnanzen, 27. 77 Nix, Theater, 30.

78 Manfred Brauneck, Theater im 20. Jahrhundert. Programmschrifen, Stlperioden, Reformmodelle (Reinbek bei Hamburg: Rowohlt Taschenbuch Verlag, 1982), 63.

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much inspiraton from the fne arts.79_{What also emerged in the afermath of the revoluton with}

directors such as Erwin Piscator and Leopold Jessner was lef-wing politcal theatre. Here the structural autonomy of theatre was joined by the more heteronomous idea of debatng current topics and politcal ideas onstage. This led to the curious situaton that this lef-wing politcal theatre mostly did not reach the working class, because paradoxically it was predominantly taking place in bourgeois theatres.80

With the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Hitler's Nazi regime in the 1930s, the tme of the avant-garde, the structural autonomy of theatre, and the lef-wing politcal aspiratons came to an end. All publicly fnanced theatres were brought into line by the regime. Among other measures, liberal Intendanten were replaced by ones who were true to party principles, and repertoires were aligned to the Nazi ideology. Theatres were basically turned into propaganda tools.81_{In the frst years of the Second World War, theatres were mainly given the task of}

entertaining their audience and providing distracton from the war.82_{This situaton lasted untl}

1944, when Reich Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels shut down all German theatres so that their employees could partake in the “total war” he had declared.83

The tme of the Nazi regime had a permanent detrimental efect on German theatre. The modern theatre that had been evolving since the German revoluton of 1848/49 came to an abrupt end.84_{Atempts of the Allies afer 1945 to take up the traditons from the Weimar Republic}

mostly failed since many important fgures of German theatre had either fed the country or had been killed.85_{Only a few weeks afer Germany's unconditonal surrender, many artsts started to}

make theatre again, although in auxiliary facilites since about three quarters of the theatre buildings had been destroyed.86_{Stll, the “innovaton and politcal explosiveness of the 20s”}87_could

not be restored, which became partcularly clear afer the division of Germany in 1949. West German theatre88_{was neither innovatve nor politcal for decades afer the Nazi era, as “the}

79 Ibid., 459. 80 Ibid., 309f. 81 Nix, Theater, 31f.

82 Ratka, Thalia Theater, 48.

83 Interestngly, the directve demanded that artsts should not be employed in a way that would afect their future capability to pursue their profession. See: Ibid., 50.

84 Nix, Theater, 31. 85 Ibid., 35.

86 Lennartz and Deutscher Bühnenverein, Aufruch, 121. 87 Nix, Theater, 38.

88 I will focus on West Germany here. While the GDR was home to many publicly fnanced theatres, the politcal situaton in the oppressive socialist country gave rise to a theatre culture that was in many aspects diferent from theatre in the FRG, partcularly so with regard to questons of autonomy and heteronomy. Theatre in the GDR was considered a means to promote the socialist state ideology. Although some theatre makers found ways to reveal

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impulse to block out what had happened was more powerful than the willingness of the survivors to scrutnize the history of Natonal Socialism in theatre.”89_{While a formal and aesthetc richness}

was developing,90_{politcal theatre was mostly rejected.}91_{Theatre makers returned to the}

autonomy in whose traditon city theatres had evolved.

It was only in the late 1960s that a re-politcizaton of German theatre – which also means, the emergence of aesthetcally heteronomous ideas – took place.92_{From 1967 on, directors like}

Peter Palitzsch, Erwin Piscator, and Claus Peymann, and authors such as Peter Handke revolutonized German theatre with new aesthetc approaches and organizatonal experiments in the spirit of the protests of 1968. However, Christoph Nix claims that “the tme of terror from 1933 to 1945 and the tme of silence from 1945 to 1966”93_{in theatre could not be compensated}

by the new perspectves during the movement of the late 60s. In the 70s and 80s, theatres returned from the “dominance of the politcal to private topics, to sheer play as play.”94_They

started to recycle old myths rather than elaboratng on the new subjects that had evolved in the late 60s.95_{At the same tme, most playwrights seemed to lose their ambitous aims of politcal or}

social change and instead focussed on polishing their style.96_{Theatre makers had, again, mostly}

turned away from any heteronomous approaches.

The next deep cut in the history of German theatre was caused by the German reunifcaton in 1989/1990. Although the state and city theatre system at large could be preserved,97_{some (smaller) theatres in both former West and East Germany were either merged}

the gap between the ideological ideal and politcal reality, politcal operatves generally enforced the state ideology in theatre. Rather than standing in the autonomous traditon that West German theatre can be traced back to, theatre in the GDR therefore had a distnct heteronomous agenda that would need to be examined in greater detail than is possible here. For more informaton on theatre in the GDR, see for example: Lennartz and Deutscher Bühnenverein, Aufruch. For an example of how the socialist ideology infuenced the work of theatre scholars, see theatre historiographer Rudolf Münz' 1969 essay on the idea of a natonal theatre. In critcizing the aristocracy, the clergy, the bourgeoisie, and capitalism, Münz writes a history of theatre that clearly stands in the traditon of the state ideology of the GDR. See: Rudolf Münz, “Zwischen 'Theaterkrieg' und Natonaltheateridee. Zu den Anfängen der bürgerlichen deutschen Theaterhistoriographie.” Wissenschafliche Zeitschrif der Humboldt-Universität zu

Berlin, Gesellschafs- und sprachwissenschafliche Reihe, XVIII (1969) 1: 15-36.

90 Lothar Schirmer and Gesellschaf für Theatergeschichte, Aus Trümmern entstanden. Theater in Deutschland nach

dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (Berlin: Gesellschaf für Theatergeschichte e.V., 1991), 5.

91 For example by infuental absurdist theatre makers. See: Ismayr, Das politsche Theater, 3. 92 Nix, Theater, 38f.

93 Ibid., 40.

94 Georg Hensel, Spiel's noch einmal. Das Theater der achtziger Jahre (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1990), 9. 95 Ibid., 21.

96 Ibid., 12.

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or closed for economic reasons.98_{Audience numbers started to dwindle.}99_{Since then, budget cuts}

have posed an existental threat to many city theatres, partcularly the smaller ones, through the closure of individual branches or entre theatres100_{– a crisis that has been ongoing ever since. Its}

reasons are partly rooted in politcal, social, and economic developments (such as the fnancial crisis of 2007-08101_{) that have facilitated a rather parsimonious cultural policy. However, theatre's}

difcult situaton can in part also be traced back to the very structure of state and city theatres. The system is ofen critcized as too expensive and cumbersome. Thomas Schmidt argues that one third of German city theatres will have to close in the next 40 years if the system is not reformed fundamentally.102_{Furthermore, critcs from the theatre scene – who have for example organized in}

groups such as the ensemble-netzwerk103_{or art but fair}104_{– argue that the state and city theatre}

system is too conservatve, that structures are too hierarchical, that Intendanten have too much power, and generally that working conditons at theatres need improvement. Despite the system's many problems, news from the world of theatre do not usually receive a lot of atenton outside of their own realm. As a result, a larger public debate about the future of theatre in Germany and thus the need for reforms have long failed to take place. This suggests the existence of a third type of crisis besides the fnancial and the structural one, namely a crisis of legitmacy.

Generally, theatre's “structure has survived the historical, politcal, and artstc changes of the last 200 years relatvely unscathed.”105_{Even today it is stll dedicated to the idea of structural}

autonomy. The crisis that has started afer the German reunifcaton has found its way into

99 Franziska Schößler and Christne Bähr, “Die Entdeckung der 'Wirklichkeit'. Ökonomie, Politk und Soziales im zeitgenössischen Theater.” Ökonomie im Theater der Gegenwart. Ästhetk, Produkton, Insttuton. Eds. id. (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2009), 9.

100See for example: Roselt, Mythos Stadtheater, 216. Or: “Aus für die kleinen Experimenterstäten? Die

Nebenspielstäten der Theater stehen in mehreren Städten vor der vorübergehenden Schließung.” nachtkritk.de. Web, 22.11.2011. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htps://nachtkritk.de/index.php?

opton=com_content&view=artcle&id=6306:die-nebenspielstaeten-der-theater-stehen-in-mehreren-staedten-vor-der-voruebergehenden-schliessung&catd=392&Itemid=110>.

101“The global fnancial crisis — that started in 2007 as a housing crisis […] in the U.S. — has led to a strikingly weakened economic expansion or to a recession in almost all parts of the world,” quoted from: “Globale Finanz- und Wirtschafskrise.” Bundeszentrale für politsche Bildung. Web, 25.09.2010. Online (last accessed 29.06.17): <htp://www.bpb.de/wissen/913DGH,0,Globale_Finanz_und_Wirtschafskrise.html>.

102Thomas Schmidt, Theater, Krise und Reform. Eine Kritk des deutschen Theatersystems (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2016).

103See for example: Maja Ellmenreich, “Schauspieler-Bewegung 'Ensemble-Netzwerk'. Mit Charme für bessere Arbeitsbedingungen.” Deutschlandfunk. Web, 27.05.2016. Online (last accessed 13.06.17):

<htp://www.deutschlandfunk.de/schauspieler-bewegung-ensemble-netzwerk-mit-charme-fuer.691.de.html? dram:artcle_id=355395>.

104See for example: Christne Lemke-Matwey, “Art But Fair. Revoluton der Künstler.” Die Zeit 40 (2013). Web, 26.09.2013. Online (last accessed 14.06.17): <htp://www.zeit.de/2013/40/oper-elisabeth-kulman-revoluton-musikbetrieb/kompletansicht>.

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theatre's aesthetcs, though. Against the backdrop of “current processes of neoliberalizaton, mass unemployment, and the reducton of hard-won social protecton systems,”106_{the precarious has}

found its way onto the stage. In the same way, the “virulant topic of (disappearing) work [has] extended the aesthetc range of expression and theatrical forms of producton.”107_{This can either}

mean that theatres have drawn inspiraton from their own situaton, or from the social one in Germany in general. Either way, these new approaches are manifestatons of a new tendency towards heteronomous aesthetcs.108_{Director Volker Lösch's use of choirs of amateur actors who}

appear in their (actual) capacity as homeless people or prosttutes is just one of many examples of this.109

When theatre makers turned toward heteronomous aesthetc approaches in the Weimar Republic and in the late 1960s, it was a reacton to social and politcal upheavals. I argue that the trend towards heteronomous aesthetcs since the Germany unifcaton is a reacton to the state and city theatres' own current crisis, partcularly the crisis of legitmacy. This became partcularly obvious in the so-called “refugee crisis.” In its early days, Sophie Diesselhorst claimed that theatre is currently willing to take a step away from the arts and to prove itself “in the turmoil of reality.”110_{Similarly, elsewhere on nachtkritk it is noted that “the trend away from a mostly}

aesthetc positoning to social interventon has been notceable for some tme.”111_{It is further}

stated that this new emphasis manifests in theatre's aid to refugees. While I agree, I would rephrase this in terms of notons of autonomy and heteronomy. I argue that theatres have turned to aesthetcally heteronomous means that are new and diferent in comparison to anything that came before. In the following I will examine said new kind of aesthetc heteronomy by tracing theatre's actons in the so-called “refugee crisis.”

106Evelyn Annuß, “Tatort Theater. Über Prekariat und Bühne.” Ökonomie im Theater der Gegenwart. Ästhetk,

Produkton, Insttuton. Eds. Franziska Schößler and Christne Bähr (Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2009), 25.

107Schößler and Bähr, Entdeckung, 10.

108It seems worthwhile to relate autonomous and heteronomous aesthetcs at state and city theatres since the 1960s to Hans-Thies Lehmann's concept of post-dramatc theatre. However, due to lack of space this is unfortunately not possible here.

109See for example: Christne Wahl, “Theater muss wie Koks sein! Doku-Book auf der Bühne. 4. Teil: Hartz-IV-Empfänger, Migranten, Wutbürger – Volker Lösch.” Spiegel Online. Web, 16.01.2011. Online (last accessed 29.06.17): <htp://www.spiegel.de/kultur/gesellschaf/doku-boom-auf-der-buehne-theater-muss-wie-koks-sein-a-739347-4.html>.

110Sophie Diesselhorst, “Ist das noch Kunst oder ist das schon Sozialarbeit? Empathie-Schulung, konkrete Hilfe oder Flagge zeigen: Wie die Theater sich in der Flüchtlingsdebate positonieren.” nachtkritk.de. Web, 02.09.2015. Online (last accessed 29.06.17): <htps://www.nachtkritk.de/index.php?

opton=com_content&view=artcle&id=11429>. 111“Die Türen sind ofen”.

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2.2 The so-called “refugee crisis” in Germany from a theatre perspectve

In this subchapter I will establish a selectve tmeline of the so-called “refugee crisis.” This includes not only the general course of events during the “crisis” but also those actons of theatres that received greater media atenton. As for the later, I will analyze why they caught the atenton of the media in the frst place. Lastly, this subchapter also serves to illustrate the immediate background of the Hermanis/Thalia incident.

Many German state and city theatres had begun to occupy themselves with the topic of refugees even before the so-called “refugee crisis” peaked and started to be considered a crisis. The frst tme a theatre received widespread coverage in the media for one of their works on the topic was in May, 2014, with Nicolas Stemann's producton of Elfriede Jelinek's Die

Schutzbefohlenen. The show was developed against the backdrop of the Lampedusa in Hamburg

protest campaign that had been unfolding since March, 2013. Most of the approximately 300 members of the so-called Lampedusagruppe had had to fee from Libya afer the end of the Libyan Civil War in 2011. Afer staying in Italy for some tme, they arrived in Hamburg in March, 2013. The goal of their protest campaign was to receive German residence and work permits. The refugees' presence and the apparent unwillingness of politcians to help them caused a public debate in Hamburg and throughout Germany.112_{In the course of the debate various diferent groups}

declared their solidarity with the refugees, among them Thalia Theater and director Nicolas Stemann. In September, 2013, a frst reading of Jelinek's text about the current European refugee policy and its consequences took place in Hamburg. The show that evolved in the following months was a co-producton of the Theater der Welt festval, the Holland Festval, and Thalia Theater Hamburg. Afer its premiere in Mannheim, it was incorporated into the Thalia Theater repertoire. One of the most controversial aspects of Stemann's Schutzbefohlene was that it featured members of the Lampedusagruppe onstage even though they were not legally allowed to work in Germany. Stemann and Lux, however, took a stand for the refugees and, afer consultng with a lawyer and public authorites, had them partcipate anyway for an expense allowance.113

In 2014, a considerable increase in the numbers of asylum seekers in the European Union was noted. From 435,000 registratons in 2013, the number rose to 626,000 (+191,000/44%).114

112See for example: Federica Benigni and Marika Pierdicca, “Migratonspolitk made in Italy. Aspekte von Souveränität und Bürger*innenschaf anhand von 'Lampedusa in Hamburg'.” Migraton, Asyl und (post-)migrantsche

Lebenswelten in Deutschland. Bestandsaufnahme und Perspektven migratonspolitscher Praktken. Eds. Miriam

Aced, et al. (Berlin and Münster: LIT Verlag, 2014), 29-46.

113Ludwig Greven, “Flüchtlinge: Hamburger Asyl-Theater.” Zeit Online. Web, 15.09.2014. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.zeit.de/hamburg/kultur/2014-09/lampedusa-thalia-hamburg>.

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While the reasons for this increase are complex, it can at least partly be explained by the worsening politcal situaton in Syria. This is refected in the fact that Syrians consttuted 20 % of the total number of asylum seekers.

Against the backdrop of this development asylum and migraton policies began to come under fre. On 3 July, 2014, 80 theatre makers and creatve artsts published an open leter demanding of politcians to make both the German and the European asylum policy more humane.115_{The leter ends with a voluntary agreement to give a voice to all those facing}

deportaton from Europe, and to create a shared forum for those afected, the mainstream society (Mehrheitsgesellschaf), and politcs. Although many famous theatre makers were among the signees, the leter did not receive much atenton outside of the realm of theatre.

On 20 October, 2014, the politcal movement PEGIDA (Patriotc Europeans Against the

Islamizaton of the West/Occident) came together for the frst of their weekly rallies in Dresden.116

Ofshoots of PEGIDA were soon formed in other cites in Germany and abroad. The protesters claimed to be critcal of an alleged Islamizaton of “their” countries and the migraton and asylum policy of Germany and the EU. The largest rallies in Dresden were those between 15 December, 2014, and 25 January, 2015, drawing from 15.000117_{up to 25.000}118_{partcipants each Monday. On}

22 December, the Semperoper in Dresden switched of their exterior illuminaton in protest against the rally in front of their building.119_{Afer the number of protesters had temporarily}

dropped, it went up again between September and November, 2015, peaking at 15.000-20.000120

partcipants in mid-October. Both PEGIDA and the counter-demonstratons (that drew up to 100.000 protestors across Germany121_{) were covered extensively in the media. Some observers}

<htp://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/2995521/6751783/3-20032015-BP-DE.pdf>.

115“Ofener Brief von Künstlerinnen und Kulturschafenden an die Politk und sich selbst.” nachtkritk.de. Web, 03.07.2014. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.nachtkritk.de/index.php?

opton=com_content&view=artcle&id=9756:theatermacher-fordern-veraenderte-asylpolitk&catd=126&Itemid=100089>.

116For extensive studies on PEGIDA, see for example: Werner J. Patzelt and Joachim Klose, PEGIDA. Warnsignale aus

Dresden (Dresden: Thelem, 2016). Or: Hans Vorländer, Maik Herold, and Steven Schäller, PEGIDA. Entwicklung, Zusammensetzung und Deutung einer Empörungsbewegung (Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2016).

117Thomas Geithner, “Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Polizeieinsatz.” Polizei Sachsen. Web, 15.12.2014. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.webcitaton.org/6V1XPc8c7>.

118Thomas Geithner and Marko Laske, “Landeshauptstadt Dresden, Polizeieinsatz.” Polizei Sachsen. Web, 12.01.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.webcitaton.org/6VXHmpPl7>.

119“Gegenveranstaltungen zu Pegida. Semperoper schaltet das Licht aus.” Süddeutsche Zeitung. Web, 22.12.2014. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htp://www.sueddeutsche.de/politk/gegenveranstaltungen-semperoper-schaltet-pegida-das-licht-aus-1.2279428>.

120“Statstk zu Pegida in Dresden.” Durchgezählt. Web, n.d. Online (last accessed 07.06.17): <htps://durchgezaehlt.org/pegida-dresden-statstk>.

121“Ant-Ant-Islam-Demos. 100.000 Menschen demonstrieren gegen Pegida.” Spiegel Online. Web, 13.01.2015. Online (last accessed 07.06.17):