Cold War Theatres: Theatre Criticism and the Institutional Matrix of Dramaturgy in Post-War Germany

In this chapter, I analyse the role of East and West German theatre in the incipient Cold War from 1945 to the mid-1950s. To this end, I propose an expanded model of institutional dramaturgy, whose focus is not on individual theatres and productions, but on a broader matrix of dramaturgical work. This includes arts criticism, cultural policy, dramaturgical and literary societies, and public debates about the role of theatre. As I will argue, this institutional matrix has particular significance for post-war Germany, where its various nodes support competing visions of the post-war state. I make this argument through an analysis of theatre reviews by East and West German critics, focusing on the dramaturgical and socio-cultural figures that permeate these texts. My research concentrates on divided Berlin as a “showcase” for the competition between political and ideological systems. Especially there, post-war theatre criticism has historiographical, dramaturgical and political functions with which it supports the reconstruction of the nation through theatre.