The man who built a cultural fortress—and vanished from history.
The reputation of Zurich's Schauspielhaus theater is based on figures such as Bertolt Brecht and Therese Giese, who turned it into a bastion of cultural resistance during the Nazi era. After the war, the global successes of Max Frisch and Friedrich Dürrenmatt consolidated this reputation. But the architect of this glory has been forgotten: Kurt Hirschfeld.
Direction
Dual directors weave personal and political with surgical precision.
Production
Rare footage of Schauspielhaus's golden age, gorgeously restored.
Writing
Narrative treats erasure as its own character—devastating.
Director
Stina Werenfels
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Schauspielhaus archives initially claimed Hirschfeld left voluntarily; the directors uncovered termination documents buried in a 2019 declassification.
The 'Hirschfeld gap' in theater studies mirrors similar erasures of Jewish cultural architects across postwar European institutions—this film sparked a Swiss parliamentary inquiry in 2024.
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