The director of the Berliner Volksbühne, René Pollesch, is dead. The Hesse native wrote over 200 plays and was awarded several prizes for his work.
At the age of 61, director René Pollesch died suddenly and unexpectedly on Monday morning, the Berliner Volksbühne announced in the evening. Volksbühne spokeswoman Lena Fuchs has not yet provided any information about the exact circumstances of death. “We are all shocked,” she told the German Press Agency.
Pollesch, who was also an author and director, took over the stage in 2021. At that time, the theater at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz had had turbulent years behind it. Before taking over the directorship, Pollesch had worked as a director at the Volksbühne, and before that he had directed for various theaters.
First stages of his theater career in Hesse
The playwright and director was born in Friedberg in 1962. He grew up in the Dorheim district. He studied applied theater studies at the University of Giessen and then worked at the Frankfurt Theater am Turm, among other places. He later became artistic director of the Prater of the Berliner Volksbühne. His teachers included George Tabori and Heiner Müller.
As an author, he wrote over 200 pieces, most of which were short. He staged his own plays at the Burgtheater Vienna, the Deutsches Theater Berlin and the Munich Kammerspiele, among others.
Pollesch has received several awards for his work. Among other things, he received the Mühlheim Dramatist Prize in 2001 and 2006. He was most recently awarded the Arthur Schnitzler Prize in Vienna in 2019.
Further information
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