
Michael Kohlhaas
by Heinrich von Kleist
‘Around the middle of the sixteenth century, there lived a horse dealer on the banks of the River Havel by the name of Michael Kohlhaas. He was the son of a schoolmaster, one of the most righteous and yet appalling men of his time.’
So begins Heinrich von Kleist’s story about the politically motivated criminal Kohlhaas who is forced to leave two horses as a deposit at a border post. When he returns, he finds the noble beasts half-starved and ruined by working in the fields. Denied compensation, he embarks on a campaign of revenge that begins as a defenceless person’s act of resistance and ends in a bloodbath. So, Kohlhaas progresses directly from ‘model citizen’ to ‘robber and murderer’. Heinrich von Kleist’s novella poses questions about the nature of culpability, justice, the individual and society, laying bare the mechanisms of terror and the maelstrom of escalating violence.
So begins Heinrich von Kleist’s story about the politically motivated criminal Kohlhaas who is forced to leave two horses as a deposit at a border post. When he returns, he finds the noble beasts half-starved and ruined by working in the fields. Denied compensation, he embarks on a campaign of revenge that begins as a defenceless person’s act of resistance and ends in a bloodbath. So, Kohlhaas progresses directly from ‘model citizen’ to ‘robber and murderer’. Heinrich von Kleist’s novella poses questions about the nature of culpability, justice, the individual and society, laying bare the mechanisms of terror and the maelstrom of escalating violence.
Director Andreas Kriegenburg
Stage Harald Thor
Costumes Andrea Schraad
Lights Cornelia Gloth
Dramaturgy Juliane Koepp, Franziska Trinkaus
Berlin-Premiere
30 October 2021
Deutsches Theater
Co-production with Bregenzer Festspiele and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
30 October 2021
Deutsches Theater
Co-production with Bregenzer Festspiele and Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg
Duration: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Paul Grill

Lorena Handschin

Peter René Lüdicke

Bernd Moss

Markwart Müller-Elmau

Max Simonischek

Caner Sunar

Max Thommes

Brigitte Urhausen

Niklas Wetzel

What's on
DT Kontext: Talk and Discussion
Der Traum ist aus? Zur Geschichte und Gegenwart utopischen Denkens
guest:Tobias Brück (Journalist)
Rangfoyer
17.00 - 18.00
With English surtitles
Weltall Erde Mensch
An improbable journey by Alexander Eisenach and Ensemble
Director: Alexander Eisenach
DT Bühne
18.00 - 21.40
Performance has been cancelled
Revival
Director: Jessica Weisskirchen
Box
19.00
Revival
A DT Jung* Production
In the Hall of Mirrors (Im Spiegelsaal)
Director: Katharina Bill
Box
19:00 - 20:35
Revival
Director: Hanna Rudolph
Kammer
19.30 - 20.45