The Piscator-Bühne was the name given to several avant-garde theatre enterprises founded and directed by the German theatre director Erwin Piscator in Berlin between 1927 and 1931. These theatres became a major symbol of experimental and political theatre during the Weimar Republic.

Piscator opened the first Piscator-Bühne on 3 September 1927 at the Theater am Nollendorfplatz with the premiere of Ernst Toller’s play Hoppla, wir leben!. Financial support from the industrialist Ludwig Katzenellenbogen enabled Piscator to take over the theatre. However, the expansion to a second venue, the Lessing-Theater, led to financial difficulties and bankruptcy in 1928.

A second Piscator-Bühne was launched in 1929, also at the Theater am Nollendorfplatz, opening with Walter Mehring’s play Der Kaufmann von Berlin. From 1930, Piscator attempted a third Piscator-Bühne, operating at the Wallner-Theater and the Lessing-Theater, but the enterprise ended in 1931 when financial problems forced Piscator to accept a film contract in the Soviet Union.

The Piscator-Bühne became renowned for its innovative and politically engaged theatre. Piscator integrated advanced stage technologies such as moving belts, revolving stages, mechanical bridges, film and image projections, and documentary footage to comment on contemporary political and social issues. These productions aimed to create a new form of “political theatre” that encouraged critical reflection rather than passive entertainment.

Many prominent artists and intellectuals were associated with the Piscator-Bühne, including Bertolt Brecht, Walter Mehring, Ernst Toller, George Grosz, John Heartfield, and actors such as Tilla Durieux and Ernst Busch. Their collaboration made the theatre one of the most influential experimental stages of the 1920s.

Reference
Biography text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA), German edition. Retrieved March 16, 2026.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piscator-Bühne