Berliner Ensemble
Berliner Ensemble is a theatre company in Berlin, founded in East Berlin in January 1949 by Helene Weigel and Bertolt Brecht. You find it at the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm, a theatre built in 1892 beside the city’s historic centre.
The company first worked at Wolfgang Langhoff’s Deutsches Theater before moving here in 1954. This stage hosted the premiere of The Threepenny Opera in 1928. Brecht’s students, including Benno Besson and Egon Monk, directed previously unstaged works within the company. Long, meticulous rehearsals often produced a Modellbuch, a preview album recording scenes through action photographs.
After Brecht’s death in 1956, Weigel led the ensemble until 1971. Ruth Berghaus later expanded its repertoire with plays by other European dramatists. Claus Peymann took over in 2000, reopening the theatre after extensive renovations and strengthening its commitment to political theatre. In 2019, plans introduced a second auditorium through an annex to the historic building.
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