Sandra Prechtel
Einar Schleef – No Germany Did I Find
27 Sept 2026, 7 pm

Einar Schleef was a theatre director, set designer, writer, photographer, painter and filmmaker. A total artist. Born in 1944 in Sangerhausen, Saxony-Anhalt, he lived in both East and West Germany, under four different political systems. He found no home in either Germany – and is therefore its most accurate chronicler. He delved into German reality and its abysses using every artistic means at his disposal. He chose a life of extremes straddling the arts.

He initially studied painting at the Academy of Fine and Applied Arts, was expelled, took up photography, and became a master student in stage design under Karl von Appen, who had previously worked with Brecht. His very first production at the Volksbühne caused a sensation; he then moved to the Berliner Ensemble, co-directing with B. K. Tragelehn. His production of Miss Julie was met with acclaim – and led to his dismissal. In the West, he began to write. In 1980, Gertrud, a novel about his mother, was published.

Productions in Frankfurt and, after the fall of the Berlin Wall, once again at the Berliner Ensemble – such as Wessis in Weimar and Puntila – sparked fierce debates. Dismissals were followed by new engagements. On stage, he – who suffers from a severe speech impediment – finds a way to speak through the text. With every production, Schleef pushes the boundaries of German spoken theatre. His use of choruses, borrowed from ancient theatre, remains influential to this day. For him, the war into which he was born is not over, but rather the very foundation of everything; the alienation between East and West has never been resolved for him. “Tragedy is the world as it is,” says Schleef. “Comedy is the respite from it.”