In the 1970s, when there was still largely silence about fascist perpetrators in German society, the cultural scientist Klaus Theweleit presented a groundbreaking analysis of the connections between masculinity and fascism with men's fantasies:
Image gallery
Deutsches Theater
Based on Freikorps literature from the 1920s, he clairvoyantly thought about the destructive self-image and female image of the “soldier man” and, with its combination of sexuality, gender and violence, put the emergence of National Socialism in a new light.
Around 45 years after its first release, director Theresa Thomasberger takes Theweleit's work as a spoken text for the stage: For Thomasberger and her team, the epoch-making investigation forms the basis for a survey of today's manifestations of fascist masculinity, the devaluation of women* in the media-driven world Reality up to current abysmal forms of collectivity.
Because: While the ideal of the “strong man” seems outdated on the one hand, wars produce new fighters; Self-empowered hordes are storming political institutions and fueling the authoritarian backlash.
Equality is also perceived as oppression online: the incel community - men who live involuntarily without sex - believes they have a right to women and sexuality because of their gender; Angry alpha males and misogynistic pick-up masters conjure up unattainable ideas of masculinity and despair of them at the same time. Instead of declaring these ideals a problem, fear of feminist resistance is being fueled, which is occurring with great force today.
How do Theweleit's texts work today? What starting points do they offer?
In order to explore this, the authorship at the German Theater will be expanded to include three contemporary voices:
The playwrights Svenja Viola Bungarten, Ivana Sokola and Gerhild Steinbuch will textually complement the men's fantasies in an examination of Theweleit's work and think further from today's female perspectives.
Additional information
We do apologize that the following information is currently only available in German.
Participating artists
Svenja Viola Bungarten (Autor/in)
Ivana Sokola (Autor/in)
Gerhild Steinbuch (Autor/in)
Klaus Theweleit (Autor/in)
Theresa Thomasberger
Svenja Liesau
Daria von Loewenich
Abak Safaei-Rad
Caner Sunar
Steve Katona (Gesang)
