Looking back over the 70 years of GSTT's existence, we realize that the history of this East-Central European German scene, which essentially dates back to the 18th century and has been very eventful, remains as fragile as it is worthy of protection.
The first evidence of the presence of actors in the city dates back to 1746, and in 1753 the city administration authorized a German touring theater company to perform. German theatrical activity continued to be supported by touring German theater companies and became one of the city's attractions. In 1758, a theater hall was set up in the former Serbian magistrate's building - on the site of today's Nikolaus Lenau Theoretical High School. In the period 1852-1870, the touring performances, especially from Vienna, often lasted for entire seasons.
In 1875 the Franz Joseph Theater - today the Palace of Culture - was inaugurated. In 1899, the German-language theatrical activity was discontinued due to an administrative decision, but single performances with Viennese troupes took place until the second decade of the 20th century.
After 1920, professional German-language theatrical activity was carried out again - with varying consistency - first with the authorization of the German Cultural Office in Sibiu, then through the German National Theatre in Sibiu, which produced performances that were then performed in all parts of the country inhabited by Germans. In 1940 this theater was taken over by the National Socialist ideology, and before the end of the Second World War it was abolished.Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
On January 1, 1953, the German Section of the Timișoara State Theatre was established, the inaugural performance being staged on June 27, 1953 with the play Die Karlsschüler [[The Students of Karl School] by Heinrich Laube. After three years, the German section was separated from the administrative structure of the State Theatre and became the German State Theatre Timișoara, following the Decision of the Council of Ministers of the Romanian People's Republic no. 1530/31.07.1956. The performance hall is the old Reduta hall in the former "Franz Joseph" Theater - today's Palace of Culture - a building which, together with the Romanian National Opera Timișoara, houses drama theaters in three languages: Romanian, German and Hungarian, a unique feature in the world.
Since its founding, the theater has produced over 400 performances, playing to more than 2.5 million spectators. It has performed in almost every town with German communities in Romania, as well as in the former German Democratic Republic.
Under communism, the German State Theater Timișoara had to divide its mission between two directions: on the one hand to serve the ideology of the party-state that coordinated its existence, the theater had to produce performances with content approved by the communist system, on the other hand to contribute to the preservation of the language and identity consciousness of the Germans in Romania, whose numbers were constantly decreasing, especially since the 70s. The emigration of many Germans from Romania - which became a massive phenomenon in the 1970s and 1990s - would affect the institution's functional activity, as the number of spectators and actors fell dramatically.
After the mid-90s the theater had to define a new path. After hard years of reconstruction - especially after the emigrations of the '90s - under the direction of the actress Ildikó Jarcsek-Zamfirescu, the search for a new specificity and the search for a new identity resulted in an aesthetic reorientation that constantly drew the attention of the public and specialized critics to the work of this institution.
Thus, especially the improvement of the troupe and the attraction of some of the most appreciated creators from Romania and abroad have been able to recommend the German State Theater as one of the most dynamic and interesting theaters in the country. In recent years, important creators such as the directors Radu Afrim, Clemens Bechtel, László Bocsárdi, Alexandru Dabija, Victor Ioan Frunză, Alexander Hausvater, Yuri Kordonsky, have worked with this collective, Radu Alexandru Nica, Silviu Purcărete, Niky Wolcz, set designers Dragoș Buhagiar, Adriana Grand, Velica Panduru and Helmut Stürmer, actors Miklós Bács and Sorin Leoveanu, choreographers Florin Fieroiu and Răzvan Mazilu.
The current target groups are the German-speaking audience in the majority population, members of the German community and foreigners in the German-speaking area. People who do not speak German can also watch performances with simultaneous translation. An important part of the theater's strategy are performances for children and young people as well as theater pedagogy. Every year, the theatre is the host of the International Festival of Youth Theatre in German, organized in cooperation with the "Nikolaus Lenau" Theoretical High School Timișoara.
In addition to its on-site activities, the theater is constantly touring and performing at festivals at home and abroad. Since 1990, its performances have been presented in Austria, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Poland. Since 2009 the German State Theatre organizes the European Theatre Festival "Eurothalia", which has brought to Timisoara, until 2023, some of the most interesting performances from Romania and from various countries of the continent.
The German State Theater Timișoara is a public performing arts institution in Romania funded by the Municipality of Timișoara. With a total of 108 seats and a large number of collaborators, the theater produces between 5 and 7 premieres per season, playing in front of an average of 10,000 spectators annually. In recent years, the theater's occupancy rate is 80%.