Thingstätten - Kunst- und Wissenschaftsprojekt zu den Freilichtbühnen des Nationalsozialismus

In the organizer's words:

Duration: 17.04.-29.05.2026

Dates:

Opening 17.04. 18:00

Bielefeld night views 25.04. 18-24 h

Artist Talk with Daniel Mirer (USA) 21.05. 6 pm

Opening hours: Thursdays 3-6 p.m.

The Thingstätten were built in 1933-36 as propagandistic open-air stages and meeting places for National Socialism. 400 were planned, around 60 were built, many of which can still be found today in Germany, Poland and Russia. Some have fallen into oblivion, others such as the Berlin Waldbühne are still actively used as open-air theaters today.

The project brings together 23 international artists and scientists to trace this history, which is still little known today. Art and documentation, text and images enable an interdisciplinary and pluralistic examination of the significance of the past for the present.

The exhibition was shown at the Deutsches Haus NYU in New York in 2023 and is now on display in Germany for the first time. It is based on the intensively researched photo book "Thingstätten" (Geymüller, 2021, 256 p.) and the interactive website www.thingstaetten.info.

The project was recognized by the European Heritage Award in the "Research" category.

Participants in the exhibition: Katharina Bosse (DEU), Rebecca Budde de Cancino (DEU), Doug Fitch (USA), Jan Merlin Friedrich (DEU), Jakob Ganslmeier (DEU), Andrea Grützner (DEU), Rebecca Hackemann (USA), Konstantin Karchevskiy (RUS), Hendrik Lüders (DEU), Daniel Mirer (USA), Felix Nürmberger (DEU), Ralph Pache (DEU), Abhijit Pal (IND), Philipp Robien (DEU), Jewgeni Roppel (DEU), Simon Schubert (DEU), Kuno Seltmann (DEU), Erica Shires (USA), Thomas Wrede (DEU)