Volkstheater

The Volkstheater in Vienna (roughly translated as “People’s Theatre”) was built in 1889 at the request of Vienna residents, including writer Ludwig Anzengruber and furniture maker Thonet, to provide a popular counterweight to the Hofburgtheater. It was built following the designs of Ferdinand Fellner and Hermann Helmer, who tried to harmonize their intentions with historicism. It is located in Neubau, Vienna’s seventh district.

The creators of this stage envisioned a theatrical stage in order to educate larger circles of Vienna’s populace to classical and modern literature while playing it alongside more conventional plays. Even now, the theatre adheres to this practice. New performances of classics are constantly in the works, as are frequent reinterpretations of works by Ferdinand Raimund and Johann Nestroy, as well as several new plays and reruns. Austrian playwrights, both ancient and young, are given special attention.

Michael Schottenberg was appointed art director of the Volkstheater in 2005.

In 2005, the Volkstheater established the “Volkstheater Hundsturm” alternative theater stage in Margareten, Vienna’s fifth district. It is a venue for experimental theater (for example, Wojtek Klemm, Dejan Dukovski, and monochrom).

The Volkstheater station of the Vienna U-Bahn lines U2 and U3 is located here.