On 3 July 2016, a monument was erected to a famous citizen of Ulm. At the former Ulm railway station, directly on the Ulm Valley Cycle Path, the bronze head of the Erwin Piscator monument looks over the village and the landscape of his childhood. Erwin Piscator was born in Ulm on 17 December 1893. He studied art history, German language and literature and philosophy and completed his traineeship at the Court and National Theatre in Munich. Badly wounded in the First World War, he became a convinced pacifist and participated in a Belgian front theatre. After the end of the war, he first founded the theatre "Das Tribunal" in Königsberg, then in 1920 the "Proletarian Theatre" in Berlin, which, however, closed again in 1921. Piscator then took over the Central Theatre in Berlin-Kreuzberg and expanded its repertoire to include 19th century authors. From 1924 to 1927 he directed political theatre at the Berlin Volksbühne in his own style using new methods. For example, he projects films or uses motorised bridges and develops a revolving stage for his performances. His political playbill eventually leads to a rupture. From 1927 to 1931, three Piscator stages were built in succession. In 1931 Piscator takes on a film assignment in the Soviet Union and cannot return to Germany after the National Socialists seize power in 1933, as he is on the Gestapo wanted list as a communist. It was not until 1936 that he left the Soviet Union and travelled to Paris on behalf of the International Revolutionary Theatre Association, from where he left for the USA via London in 1938. In 1939 Piscator founded the Dramatic Workshop at the New School for Social Research in New York. Its most famous graduates include Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Tennessee Williams, Tony Curtis, Peter Falk and Walter Matthau. In 1951, Piscator left the USA and worked as a director in various German cities. In 1962 he became artistic director of the Freie Volksbühne in West Berlin. Erwin Piscator dies in Starnberg on 30 March 1966. He is buried at the Waldfriedhof in Berlin-Zehlendorf. The erection of the memorial in the 50th year of Piscator's death was initiated by the Heimatverein Ulm. The bronze head was created by the sculptress Gela Dömland and the pedestal by the versatile local artist Siegfried Fietz.
Translated with DeepL (www.deepl.com).
Text: Gemeinde Greifenstein
Memorial to the important theatre director Erwin Piscator, who was born in 1893 in the Greifenstein district of Ulm.
Contact and directions
Am Ulmtalradweg, Rastplatz Ulm
35753 Greifenstein