From 27-29 June 2024, the German State Theatre Timisoara invites you to celebrate together the 70 years of existence of the institution, and the 467 performances produced in the decades since its foundation.


For three days, at TGST, together with the public and distinguished guests, we will celebrate how, since 1953, the German State Theatre has decisively influenced Timișoara's multiculturalism and the survival of the identity of the German community in Banat and Romania. There will be exceptional artistic moments, exhibitions and film screenings, as well as essential encounters between generations of artists, directors, producers and spectators.

"Today we are celebrating a theater whose continued existence was not self-evident: for after the great upheavals of the 70s and 90s, times could have been different. But this theatre has had and continues to have not only committed people, but also many reliable helpers and a great dose of luck." says Lucian Vărșăndan at this anniversary moment.


On January 1, 1953, the German Section of the Timișoara State Theatre was founded, with the inaugural performance on June 27, 1953 of Heinrich Laube's play Die Karlsschüler [The Cadet School Students]. After three years, the German section was separated from the administrative structure of the State Theatre and became the German State Theatre Timișoara. The hall in which the TGST carries out its activities is the old Reduta hall in the former "Franz Joseph" Theatre - today the Palace of Culture - a building which, together with the Romanian National Opera Timișoara, houses drama theatres in three languages: Romanian, German and Hungarian, a unique fact in the world.

Starting in the 1970s, the emigration of many Germans from Romania - which became a massive phenomenon in the decades before the collapse of communism - will affect the institution's functional activity, the number of spectators and actors falling dramatically. After the mid-1990s, the theater had to chart a new course. After difficult years of reconstruction - especially after the emigrations of the 1990s - under the direction of the actress Ildikó Jarcsek-Zamfifirescu, 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.


Among the directors who have staged here are Radu Afrim, Clemens Bechtel, László Bocsárdi, Alexandru Dabija, Victor Ioan Frunză, Alexander Hausvater, Yuri Kordonsky, Radu Alexandru Nica, Silviu Purcărete, Niky Wolcz, Pascal Rambert, Volker Schmidt, Eugen Jebeleanu, Gábor Tompa, Mădălin Hîncu, Irisz Kovacs, etc., set designers Dragoș Buhagiar, Adriana Grand, Velica Panduru and Helmut Stürmer, actors Miklós Bács and Sorin Leoveanu, choreographers Florin Fieroiu and Răzvan Mazilu.

At the same time, an important place in the theater's strategy is occupied by performances for children and young people as well as theatrical pedagogy. Every year, the theatre is the host of the International Festival of Youth Theatre in German, organized in collaboration with the "Nikolaus Lenau" Theoretical High School Timișoara.


In the decades since the Revolution, the theater's performances have been presented in Austria, Croatia, France, Georgia, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Serbia and Poland. Since 2009 the German State Theatre has been organizing the European Theatre Festival "Eurothalia", now in its 10th edition, which brings some of the most valuable performances from Romania and other countries of the continent to Timisoara every autumn.

Programme of the celebrations for the 70th anniversary of the German State Theatre Timișoara



Thursday, June 27, 2024

19:30 Festive opening & Welcoming words

٠ Film by Christel Ungar-Țopescu about 70 years of TGST

٠ Performance: Leonce and Lena by Georg Büchner

Directed by Niky Wolcz, Set design by Helmut Stürmer,

Costumes: Ioana Popescu

around 22:30 Reception in the theater foyer



Friday, June 28, 2024

19:00 TGST foyer: Opening of the photography exhibition

Stage Lights. Photographs by Corina Fratuțescu & Ovidiu Zimcea

19:30 Performance: Cloud Tectonics by José Rivera

First performance in German

Directed by Bocsárdi László, Set design by Bartha József

around 21:45 Reception in the theater foyer



Saturday, June 29, 2024

12:00 Round table with former GSTT artists

19:30 Performance: The Theater

Text and direction: Pascal Rambert

around 21:30 Reception in the theater foyer



More details on https://www.teatrulgerman.ro/ro/


See you at the TGST celebration! Romania and from various countries of the continent.