Theater am Turm

{{Short description|Theatre in Frankfurt, Germany}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2025}} {{Infobox venue | name = Theater am Turm | image = Volksbildungsheim Ffm.jpg | image_upright = | caption = Venue 1963 to 1995: the former Volksbildungsheim | image_map = | map_caption = | pushpin_map = | pushpin_map_caption =  | address = | city = Frankfurt, Hesse | country = Germany | designation = | coordinates = {{coord|50|7|15|N|8|39|7|E|region:DE-HE_type:landmark|display=inline,title}} | owner = | capacity = | built = | renovated = | closed = 2004 | type = Theatre | mapframe-marker = theatre }} {{Lang|de|'''Theater am Turm'''}} (theatre at the tower), styled '''TAT''', was a theatre in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1956. The tower in the title first meant the Eschenheimer Turm near an early venue, and could be applied to the Bockenheimer Warte after the theatre moved to the Bockenheimer Depot.

The theatre was widely recognised in the 1960s and 1970s, when it was close to the student movement and produced a series called ''experimenta''. The 1966 world premiere of Peter Handke's ''Publikumsbeschimpfung'' (''Offending the Audience''), directed by Claus Peymann, made theatre history. In the 1980s, after a period of restoration of the building, the theatre became a venue for experimental performances. From 1995 the TAT was run by the Frankfurt municipal stages and the venue moved, but it was closed in 2004 due to lack of funding.

== History == === Background === Frankfurt's municipal stages, the opera house and the Schauspielhaus were destroyed in World War II. When the Schauspielhaus was finally rebuilt in 1951, it was used for operas, while dramas were played on provisional stages; the Börsensaal and a school gym.<ref name="Frankfurt" />

Another theatre was founded in 1953, named Landesbühne Rhein-Main (State theatre Rhein-Main), by the Frankfurter Bund für Volksbildung, an association for adult education.<ref name="Frankfurt" /><ref name="broadview" /> Among the managers of the early period was the director and actor Georg Aufenanger.<ref>Walter Habel (ed.): ''Wer ist wer? Das deutsche Who's who.'' 24th edition. Schmidt-Römhild, Lübeck 1985, ISBN 3-7950-2005-0, p. 31.</ref>

=== TAT === in 1963 the theatre moved to the former {{ill|Volksbildungsheim, Frankfurt|de|Volksbildungsheim Frankfurt am Main|lt=Volksbildungsheim}} at the Eschenheimer Tor.<ref name="Frankfurt" /> It was named Theater am Turm (TAT), alluding to the Eschenheimer Turm, part of the historic city fortification. It presented classical plays, boulevard theatre and plays in Hessian dialect.<ref name="Frankfurt" />

In the mid-1960s, the standard was raised and the theatre became politically and socially relevant, with Felix Müller as Intendant and Claus Peymann first as director, later also Intendant.<ref name="Frankfurt" /> In 1966 Peymann directed, as part of the experimenta I, the world premiere of Peter Handke's ''Publikumsbeschimpfung'' (''Offending the Audience'').<ref name="Frankfurt" /><ref name="broadview" /> The play features four actors in jeans and sweaters addressing the mostly formally dressed audience, making them the topic of the production and telling them "You are not a nice idea. You are not a rewarding topic. You are a dramatic mistake."<ref name="Schreiber" /> In the final scene offending terms such as "warmongers" and "subhumans"<ref name="Frankfurt" /> were thrown at them in staccato speed, also "you outcasts of society, you gawkers, you neck-shooting specialists".<ref name="Schreiber" /> At the time of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, it was a revolt against the establishment. Part of the audience in the premiere was amused and offered long applause, but there was riot, hissing and booing; the second performance, recorded for television, ended in brawl in the audience, to the author's delight.<ref name="Frankfurt" /><ref name="broadview" /><ref name="DF" /> The production was recognised throughout Germany and discussed controversially.<ref name="Frankfurt" /><ref name="MZ" /> The theatre critic Günther Rühle regarded the performance as the beginning of modern theatre.<ref name="DF" /> It made the theatre, the author and the director trade marks; the theatre was called "politically courageous and innovative".<ref name="MZ" />

In the following years, the TAT was close to the student movement and the fight against the German Emergency Acts. In 1969 a {{ill|Mitbestimmungstheater|de|Mitbestimmungstheater}}, a model of collective decision-making, was established,<ref name="broadview" /><ref name="Barnett" /> and the program featured not only drama but also discussions and lectures in Marxism.<ref name="broadview" /> Rainer Werner Fassbinder's play ''Die bitteren Tränen der Petra von Kant'' had its world premiere at the TAT as part of the experimenta series in 1972 <ref name="DTM" /> Invited by Hilmar Hoffmann, responsible for culture in Frankfurt, he became Intendant of the TAT in 1974.<ref name="broadview" /><ref name="DTM" /> He began with an adaption of ''Germinal'', a novel by Emile Zola, which had roles for almost all ensemble members. He was initially impressed by the Mitbestimmungstheater, but became disillusioned by the tedious discussions that came with it.<ref name="Barnett" /><ref name="DTM" /> A productions of Strindberg's ''Fräulein Julie'', with him in the main male role, caused frictions, and the performance of his 1974 play ''{{ill|Der Müll, die Stadt und der Tod|de}}'', dealing with the {{ill|Frankfurter Häuserkampf|de}}, was cancelled after protests against antisemitic stereotypes, which made Fassbinder leave after only eight months.<ref name="broadview" />

==== 1980s ==== The TAT was rebuilt and opened again in 1980 with a new concept.<ref name="MZ" /> It had no ensemble but offered a stage for free experimental groups and international performers<ref name="MZ" /> such as the dance company of Vivienne Newport. From 1986, inspired by dramaturge {{ill|Tom Stromberg|de}}, the theatre showed again more house productions.<ref name="MZ" />

==== Bockenheimer Depot ==== [[File:Bockenheimer Depot.JPG|thumb|Last venue: Bockenheimer Depot, 1995 to 2004]] In 1995 the TAT moved to a new location of the Frankfurt municipal theatres, the Bockenheimer Depot,<ref name="Frankfurt" /><ref name="FAZ" /> because the former venue was rebuilt as a cinema, Metropolis. It was located next to the {{ill|Bockenheimer Warte|de}} tower, leaving the name fitting. At the time, the TAT became part of the Städtische Bühnen Frankfurt. It was close to being closed several times because of reduced financial support from the city.<ref name="MZ" /> From 1999 a team of choreographer William Forsythe as artistic director and Tom Kühnel and Robert Schuster as drama directors ran the theatre.<ref name="broadview" /> In May 2004, it was closed for financial reasons.<ref name="Frankfurt" /><ref name="FAZ" />

== References == <references>

<ref name="Barnett">{{cite web |last=Barnett |first=David |url=https://assets.cambridge.org/052185/5144/excerpt/0521855144_excerpt.htm |title=Rainer Werner Fassbinder and the German Theatre |work=Cambridge University Press |date=8 June 2016 |access-date=2 August 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="Schreiber">{{cite news |last=Schreiber |first=Justina |url=https://www.br.de/radio/bayern2/sendungen/kalenderblatt/0806-handkes-publikumsbeschimpfung-uraufgefuehrt-100.html |title=Handkes Publikumsbeschimpfung uraufgeführt |work=BR |date=8 June 2016 |language=de |access-date=2 August 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="broadview">{{cite news |url=https://www.broadview.tv/en/all-movies/theaterlandschaften-theater-am-turm-frankfurt/ |title=Theater landscapes / Theater am Turm Frankfurt |website=broadview.tv |date= |language=de |access-date=29 July 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="DF">{{cite news |url=https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/50-jahre-publikumsbeschimpfung-von-peter-handke-peymann-100.html |title=Peymann erinnert an Skandal-Aufführung |work=Deutschlandfunk |date=8 June 2016 |language=de |access-date=2 August 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="DTM">{{cite news |url=https://www.deutschestheatermuseum.de/de/ausstellungen/rainer-werner-fassbinder |title=RWFs Theaterkarriere |work=Deutsches Theatermuseum Munich |date=2025 |language=de |access-date=2 August 2025}}</ref>

<ref name="FAZ">{{cite news |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/kultur/theater-tod-des-tat-traditionsreiche-frankfurter-buehne-schliesst-endgueltig-1158229.html |title=Theater: Tod des TAT: Traditionsreiche Frankfurter Bühne schließt endgültig |newspaper=FAZ |issn=0174-4909 |date= |language=de |access-date=16 March 2019}}</ref>

<ref name="Frankfurt">{{cite web |url=https://www.stadtgeschichte-ffm.de/de/veranstaltungen/ausstellungen/352/publikumsbeschimpfung-theater-in-frankfurt |title="Publikumsbeschimpfung": Theater in Frankfurt |website=stadtgeschichte-ffm.de |date=2025 |language=de |access-date=16 March 2019}}</ref>

<ref name="MZ">{{cite news |url=https://www.muensterschezeitung.de/nachrichten/kultur/skandalerfolg-publikumsbeschimpfung-im-tat-1966-1664174 |title=Peymann erinnert an Skandal-Aufführung |newspaper=Münstersche Zeitung |date=7 June 2016 |language=de |access-date=2 August 2025}}</ref>

</references>

== Further reading == * Bayerl, Sabine: [https://de.book-info.com/isbn/3-89487-785-5.htm Das TAT: Das legendäre Frankfurter Theaterlabor] (in German) ''Henschel Verlag'' 2016, ISBN 978-3-89-487785-9

== External links == * {{official|https://web.archive.org/web/20040604041650/http://www.dastat.de/}} 2003

{{authority control}} Category:1956 establishments in Germany Category:2004 disestablishments in Germany Category:Culture in Frankfurt Category:Organizations disestablished in 2004 Category:Organizations established in 1956 Category:Theatre companies in Germany