Deutscher Herbst

Theatre

17.9.-20.9.2026

Jahrhunderthalle Bochum

In the vertigo between history and the present

In the fall of 1946, the young Swedish author Stig Dagerman travels through devastated Germany. In his literary travelogue German Autumn, he probes Berlin, Hamburg, and the Ruhr region – places marked by hunger, ruins, and exhaustion. Dagerman describes a country teetering between ending and beginning and asks an uncomfortable question: Is this country ready for freedom? Exactly 80 years later, a human lifetime, the celebrated director Christopher Rüping takes up this question. The winner of the 2025 Theatre-Award-Berlin, together with the ensemble of the Deutsches Theater Berlin, turns his ear to German history: 1946, 1977, and other autumns – times of transition, uncertainty, responsibility. When memory vanishes and history becomes a search, the question arises again: How much freedom do we carry within us? Who are we when all certainties fall away?

Co-produced by Ruhrtriennale and Deutsches Theater Berlin.

„Fear is the deepest state of this country.“

Stig Dagerman

Cast

Direction
- Christopher Rüping
Set Design
- Jonathan Mertz
Costumes
- Lene Schwind
Video Design
- Emma Lou Herrmann
Lighting Design
- Robert Grauel
Dramaturgy
- Bernd Isele
With
- Svenja Liesau,
- Benjamin Lillie,
- Wiebke Mollenhauer,
- Steven Adjei Sowah,
- Komi Mizrajim Togbonou,
- Almut Zilcher
Live Music
- Christoph Hart,
- Rike Huy,
- Shih-Che Lee

Supporters Ruhrtriennale

Funded by Kunststiftung NRW

Expert Talk

Herbst und Taumel

With Ruth Anderwald & Leonhard Grond

What causes us and our society to lose our balance? And what can this sense of dizziness tell us about our present? Taking Christopher Rüping’s Deutscher Herbst as its starting point, this event explores the phenomenon of dizziness from artistic, philosophical and physiological perspectives. It focuses as much on our vestibular system and the physical experience of instability as it does on autumn as a state of transition, uncertainty and change. The event opens up new perspectives on central themes of the theatre performance and on topics that have emerged in dialogue with the artistic research project Iliggocene – The Age of Dizziness. Free of admission.

> Information for visitors

Ruth Anderwald and Leo Grond, sitting side by side at a table and turning to one side with a laugh. Ruth Anderwald, at the front right of the picture, is holding a microphone. — © eSeL, Joanna Pianka

A person with closed eyes shouts as their hair flies through the air, while several other people stand in the background on a rehearsal stage.

Behind the Scenes

The first rehearsals for “Deutscher Herbst” took place at the Deutsches Theater Berlin from mid-May to early July. Emma Lou Herrmann has captured some impressions for us.

Pictures from the rehearsals