Producer
Leopold Hoesch
Director
Matthias Schmidt
Producer
Vera Bertram
Genre
Culture
Broadcaster
ZDFtheaterkanal / 3sat / ZDFdokukanal
Length
1 x 30'
Editor
Mike Brandin
Year
2007
Theatrescapes
Theater Bielefeld

A white powder made the city famous. It was in Bielefeld that the pharmacist Dr. Oetker invented his famous baking powder more than 100 years ago. In this episode of Theatre Landscapes, Esther Schweins introduces the city of Bielefeld and its theatre through archive footage, memories of contemporary events and conversations.

She also gets to the bottom of the cliché that East Westphalians are supposedly stubborn people. The entrepreneur August Oetker comments on this, as does the Berlin author Moritz Rinke, who is often in Bielefeld and whose plays are premiered at the theatre there. The actor Ulrich Wildgruber was a famous son of the city and made his debut at the Bielefeld theatre; his daughter Olga Wildgruber is now a director at the theatre and remembers her father. The artistic directors Heiner Bruns and Michael Heicks, the historian Hans-Jörg Kühne and the actors Carmen Priego and Oliver Baierl talk about their impressions of Bielefeld theatre. The American opera director John Dew, whose visually stunning productions brought critical and public success to the three-division theatre in the 1990s, has his say, as does Christine Pfitzner from the "Friends of Bielefeld Theatre and Concert" association.

A strong civic interest has accompanied and supported the theatre since its opening until today. In 1904 the Stadttheater Bielefeld was founded by a citizens' initiative, rebuilt after the Second World War with the help of the "Theatre and Concert Friends" and reopened in autumn 2006 after extensive renovation thanks to many private donations.

Theatrescapes: Theatre Bielefeld

A white powder made the city famous. It was in Bielefeld that the pharmacist Dr. Oetker invented his famous baking powder more than 100 years ago. In this episode of Theatre Landscapes, Esther Schweins introduces the city of Bielefeld and its theatre through archive footage, memories of contemporary events and conversations.

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