The German Theatre in Oslo

In this essay, Heinrich traces the history of the German theatre in Oslo. The author starts by locating the role of Norway and the Norwegians in Nazi Germany’s political and racial theories before discussing the setting up and running of the German language theatre in Oslo in detail. Heinrich foregrounds its repertoire and funding arrangements and the discrepancies between significant political and artistic demands and a meagre theatrical output of questionable quality. Although this created uneasiness among the Nazi hierarchy, it did not question the principles on which this theatre was funded, i.e. that it will be able to create and sustain closer ties between Norway and Germany as nations whose populations belonged to the same racial family, according to Nazi theorists.