Der Hauptmann von Köpenick

A German fairy tale by Carl Zuckmayer

• Cottbus State Theater
• Premiere: September 20, 2025

Wilhelm Voigt, who has just been released from prison, is not allowed to work because he has no papers. And to get those papers, he needs a job. When all efforts to outwit the bureaucracy fail, his only option is to try to beat the system using his own means. He disguises himself, takes the stage once more—and suddenly he’s playing along. But in what game? Or is this life?

Sebastian Hartmann is known for seeking fundamentally new approaches to source material together with his ensemble and for creating points of connection to the here and now. His Captain of Köpenick therefore plays not only with the actual source material but also with the audience’s expectations. For this high-energy, visually striking, and imaginative puppet theater drags dependencies and the brutality of human existence into the glaring spotlight.

Jury Statement

“What does one do with a 95-year-old ‘German fairy tale’ in which a shrewd cobbler marches into Köpenick Town Hall with the help of a secondhand uniform? And which, at the latest since the 1956 film adaptation starring Heinz Rühmann, seems to have been lost to highbrow television comedy—though it’s often forgotten that the subject matter it draws upon—namely the soldierly aspect of human nature—isn’t just funny? Sebastian Hartmann and his magnificent ensemble have a brilliant idea: they conceal neither the abysmal nor the comedic aspects of the material—without, however, reproducing the comedy in the narrower sense. Hartmann has recreated the façade of the Cottbus Theater on stage. “German Art” is written there, and what now unfolds is a puppet theater (not only) of German mental history, in which a gifted cast with a knack for (self-)irony examines Carl Zuckmayer’s play for its relevance to the present. On the surface, it looks as though the crew has casually enhanced a backstage farce with substantive discourse. In reality, however, it delves deep into the essence and present reality of the soldierly—even in the theater.”

– Christine Wahl for the Theatertreffen Jury

Artistic Team

• Sebastian Hartmann – Direction and Set Design
• Adriana Braga Peretzki – Costumes
• Lothar Baumgarte – Lighting Design
• Leonie Hahn – Dramaturgy

Cast

Torben Appel, Gunnar Golkowski, Benjamin Kühni, Charlotte Müller, Ariadne Pabst, Markus Paul, Charlie Schülke, Lucie Luise Thiede

WITH ENGLISH SURTITLES