WHO WE ARE
Not nostalgic, but progressive.
Not an archive, but a laboratory for new ideas.
From left to right: Behzad Karim Khani, Uros Pajovic, Inna Frank, Thomas Fasbender, Holger Friedrich
Maurice Weiss/Ostkreuz for the Weltbühne
Founded in 1905 by the young Berlin critic Siegfried Jacobsohn as the theater magazine Die Schaubühne, the weekly publication soon began covering politics and economics as well. In 1918, it was renamed Die Weltbühne. With the end of the Empire, an unwavering commitment to the fledgling Republic and its values moved to center stage.
The fiery and at times brilliantly written attacks by the magazine’s countless contributors — many of whom remain well-known today — targeted stubborn militarism and the reactionary thinking of the era.
Banned by the Nazis in early March 1933, Die Weltbühne continued in exile until 1939, appearing successively in Vienna, Prague, and Paris. From 1946 to 1993, the magazine was published again in East Berlin.
„As far as I remember, I was born on January 9, 1890, as an employee of Die Weltbühne in Berlin.“
– Kurt Tucholsky
Die Weltbühne returns to a present that — in many ways — resembles the complacent imperial era more than the feverish ferment of Germany’s first republic.
Standing in resistance to that is the program.
The Kaiser and his history. A lasting embelm.
