Berlin – Volksbühne director René Pollesch dies at the age of 61
imago images/Sabine Gudath
Video: rbb24 Abendschau | 02/27/2024 | Christian Titze | Image: imago images/Sabine Gudath
The director of the Berliner Volksbühne, René Pollesch, has died at the age of 61. Politics and culture reacted with dismay to the early death on Tuesday.
The author and playwright René Pollesch is dead. The Berliner Volksbühne announced this on Monday. He died suddenly and unexpectedly in the morning at the age of 61, it said. The theater initially did not provide any further information.
Pollesch took over the management of the stage in 2021. He previously worked as an author and director at the Volksbühne at Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz since 2001 under the direction of Frank Castorf. From 2001 to 2007 he managed the small Prater venue of the Volksbühne Berlin on Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz.
Consternation in politics and culture
Berlin’s governing mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) reacted with dismay to the news of the death of the Volksbühne director. “It fills me with deep sadness to lose such a great artist and visionary too soon,” said Wegner on Tuesday. “We have lost a great theater man whose work and spirit will live on in Berlin.”
Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) was also dismayed. With Pollesch, “the German-speaking theater world is losing one of its most influential author-directors and an incredibly human artist,” she explained on Tuesday. He will be “missed” by everyone who loved the theater and was close to Pollesch.
The Berlin Senator for Culture Joe Chialo (CDU) visited the Volksbühne on Tuesday and spoke to the grieving employees. “René Pollesch was a thoughtful voice that we needed so much right now, in this city, at this time. He leaves a painful gap in the Berlin cultural landscape, in society and beyond,” said Chialo.
“Formative theater maker”
Other Berlin theaters also reacted with disbelief. “We are completely shocked by the shocking news of René Pollesch’s sudden death,” said the director of the Berliner Ensemble, Oliver Reese. Pollesch was undoubtedly one of the most important voices in contemporary theater, who created his own, distinctive theatrical language. “As a director and, above all, as an incredibly productive playwright, he has shaped theater throughout the German-speaking world over the last 30 years,” says Reese.
The German Theater spoke of a valued colleague and a formative theater maker of our time. Under the direction of Ulrich Khuon, Pollesch performed many of his productions at the Authors’ Theater Days at the Deutsches Theater before joining the circle of artists firmly associated with the house in 2018. Even after he began his directorship at the Volksbühne, the two theaters remained friendly.
Pollesch has received multiple awards
René Pollesch was born in Friedberg, Hesse, in 1962. He studied applied theater studies at the University of Giessen and was then, among other things, 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.
Most recently, Pollesch staged his text “nothing is ok” together with Fabian Hinrichs.
Broadcast: rbb24, April 27, 2024, 1:00 p.m