Thingspiele

A Thingspiel (plural Thingspiele) was a kind of multi-disciplinary outdoor theatre which enjoyed brief popularity in pre-war Nazi Germany during the 1930s. A Thingplatz or Thingstätte was a specially-constructed outdoor amphitheatre built for such performances. About 400 were planned, but only about 40 were built between 1933 and 1939.

The idea of the Thingspiel movement was that the Volk would gather for völkisch meetings and for theatre and propaganda presentations. A Thing was an ancient Nordic/Germanic gathering of the people, in an outdoor setting. The Thing sites were to be built as much as possible in a natural setting, incorporating rocks, trees, bodies of water, ruins, and hills of some historical or mythic significance. The term Thingspiel was first put forward by the academic Carl Niessen () in a speech on 29 July 1933; he had Tacitus' Germania in mind. The Thingspiele were to be immersive multi-disciplinary theatre of a new type. As set out in a 1934 speech by Reich drama advisor Rainer Schlösser, the objective was "a drama that intensifies historical events to create a mythical, universal, unambiguous reality beyond reality." The performances were to be choric, to involve the audience as a realisation of the Volkgemeinschaft, and in this respect had antecedents in socialist Laienspiele and other movements seeking to open up theatre, including both Protestant and Catholic amateur traditions as well as Ernst Wachler's neo-pagan drama of the early 20th century. The dramas characteristically interwove audience and action, especially through the choruses, and sought to have the audience identify with the National Socialist revolution depicted. Thingspiele were as much ritual as drama, and the theatres were often referred to as "cult places". They were also intended from the start to be used to celebrate the cycle of Nazi national holidays.

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