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Puppet show Schicklgruber”: Hitler’s end in the bunker critically examined!
New production of "Schicklgruber" in the Josefstadt Vienna: A puppetry drama about Hitler, premiere on May 28, 2025.
Puppet show Schicklgruber”: Hitler’s end in the bunker critically examined!
The play “Schicklgruber”, which focuses on Adolf Hitler in his last days in the Führerbunker, is currently enjoying great success in Josefstadt Vienna. The new production, directed by Nikolaus Habjan, takes the audience into the depressing last hours of the “Thousand-Year Reich”. In a fascinating mix of puppetry and critical examination of one of history's darkest figures, Hitler is portrayed as a "nervous heap of misery", surrounded by his loyal followers and the constant threat of the enemy. This reports Small newspaper.
Neville Tranter's play, which has been performed successfully since 2003, is now increasingly aimed at a younger generation. The new director Nikolaus Habjan has set himself the goal of changing the production stylistically, while the puppets themselves remain unchanged. In addition to Hitler, the main characters are Eva Braun, Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Göring, all of whom act within the narrow confines of the bunker. Death appears as a central figure and reinforces the dark mood of the story, which takes place in April 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War. These details added Night review.
A look at the premiere
The premiere on May 28, 2025 was a complete success. The performance lasted 1 hour and 35 minutes without an intermission, and the audience rewarded the performers with standing applause. Critics reacted overwhelmingly positively to the production. Eberhard Spreng from Deutschlandfunk described Tranter's original version as having "risen back from the trash of history", while Peter Zander from the Berliner Morgenpost praised the remake as "evening fine" and pointed out the current shift to the right in society. Irene Bazinger from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung emphasized the mobility and expression of the dolls. The piece encourages you to refresh your historical knowledge because the crimes of the characters portrayed are not explicitly discussed.
Critical examination of history
With its blunt look at Adolf Hitler and the circumstances of his end, “Schicklgruber” becomes a deep insight into the madness that reigned in the last days of the Nazi regime. Habjan and his puppeteer Manuela Linshalm showed no sympathy for the characters, which reinforces the critical distance and makes the audience think. In this valley of tears behind four meters of concrete, not only is the historical figure exposed, but a passionate discourse about the past and its relevance to the present also arises.
In summary, “Schicklgruber” is not just a play, but an important artistic medium for reflecting on one of the darkest periods of history and its aftermath in today's context. The success at Josefstadt clearly shows that the artistic approach to the topic is met with great interest and invites critical discourse.