"Bayreuth of the North" it was called because at the beginning of the last century it took special care of the Wagner legacy. In GDR times, the overseas port in Rostock is built and the theatre under artistic director Hanns Anselm Perten becomes an important theatre centre. Together with the workers' poet Kurt Barthel, the largest theatre spectacle to date is staged on Rügen around the privateer Klaus Störtebeker, agitprop theatre is made, but GDR first performances by American and West German authors also take place in Rostock.

The film features general director Steffen Piontek, theatre director and director Johanna Schall and actors Katrin Stephan, Florian Rummel and Manfred Schlosser. The Rostock-born writer Walter Kempowski talks about his special connection to the city and its theatre, and Horst Klinkmann, chairman of the supervisory board of FC Hansa Rostock and member of the theatre's circle of friends, describes Intendant Perten from a private perspective.