Sturm auf Berlin

It's March 1920 and the young Weimar Republic is facing one of its biggest challenges. After the end of the First World War and the Treaty of Versailles entering into force, parts of the military refuse to disband. The Ehrhardt Naval Brigade of the Freikorps marches towards Berlin to overthrow the democratically elected government. What becomes known as the Kapp Putsch forces the members of the Reichstag to go on the run – but a countrywide general strike foils the coup. Around 100 years later, in August 2021, a member of the Bundestag leads former elite soldiers through the Reichstag. Did this group plan to violently storm the parliament? Since 2023, 25 defendants belonging to what is known as the Reuß Group have faced trail in three different places – including ex-soldiers, a former member of parliament and judge, a nobleman and an ex-policeman. This evening of documentary theatre investigates what happens when the state is attacked from within, from the parliament, the justice system, the military and the police: a play about rightwing extremism, conspiracy narratives and the fragility of democracy.

Director Marie Schwesinger studied performing arts in Hildesheim and directing for theatre in Frankfurt and works at the intersection of documentary theatre and journalism. She has been researching right-wing extremism since 2021 and has accompanied a large number of trials as a press observer. "Sturm auf Berlin" is based on more than 1200 pages of notes that Schwesinger made during the trial in Frankfurt.