Stefan Bachmann
Stefan Bachmann, born in Zurich in 1966, studied German language and literature and general literary studies at the University of Zurich from 1986 to 1988. At the same time, he was involved as an extra and observer at the Schauspielhaus Zürich and already worked as a journalist for Die Weltwoche and the Tages-Anzeiger. In autumn 1989, he continued his studies in German, theatre, and religious studies at the FU in Berlin. In 1992, he co-founded, together with chief dramaturg Thomas Jonigk among others, the independent theatre group «Theater Affekt». The group gained wider recognition through Bachmann's productions of «Titus Andronicus» after William Shakespeare, «Lysistrate» after Aristophanes, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Singspiel «Lila», for which the off-theatre group received the Berlin Friedrich-Luft-Preis in 1995. From 1993 onwards, directing engagements followed at the Schauspiel Bonn, the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin, the Züricher Theater am Neumarkt, and the SchauSpielHaus Hamburg. At the start of the 1998/99 season, Stefan Bachmann became, at the age of 32, artistic director of the Theater Basel for five years. Already in the first season, the theatre was voted Theatre of the Year in the critics' poll of the magazine Theater heute. From 2013 to 2024, Stefan Bachmann was Intendant at the Schauspiel Köln; from the 2024/25 season, he is artistic director of the Burgtheater in Wien.
Since 2001, he has also worked as an opera director, staging productions including «Cosi Fan Tutte» at the Opéra National de Lyon and «Die Zauberflöte» at the Theater Basel. After a year-long trip around the world, Stefan Bachmann has been working again as a freelance director since 2005, directing at the Burgtheater Wien, the Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus, the Maxim-Gorki-Theater Berlin, and the Thalia Theater Hamburg. In 2008, he received the Austrian theatre prize Nestroy for Best Direction for his production of Wajdi Mouawad's «Verbrennungen» (Burgtheater Wien), and again in 2013 for the best German-language production of Elfriede Jelinek's «Winterreise» (Burgtheater Wien). Stefan Bachmann has been invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen a total of five times: in 1996 with «Wahlverwandschaften» by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, in 1997 with «Triumph der Illusionen» by Pierre Corneille, in 2000 with «Jeff Koons» by Rainald Goetz, in 2011 with «Die Beteiligten» by Kathrin Röggla, and most recently in 2021 with the Resi production «Graf Öderland» by Max Frisch.
He also directed «Erfolg» here, after the novel of the same name by Lion Feuchtwanger. In the 2026/2027 season, he will return to the Residenztheater with «Die Geschwister Oppermann», a further Feuchtwanger adaptation, in a co-production with the Burgtheater.
Performing in
With «Success», we journey into the inner workings of a society in which everything is measured in terms of personal career advantage, the demands of embittered contemporaries, hatred of one’s neighbours, anger at those with a different political opinion and one’s own lack of any sense of direction.
Erfolg (Success)
»The Oppermanns« was the first German novel to present an almost photographically accurate description of the radical changes in everyday life in Germany between November 1932 and the summer of 1933: based on newspaper and eyewitness accounts, Lion Feuchtwanger uses an analytical eye and literary skills to relate how the Nazi regime goes about systematically reorganising society and step by step undermines everything that one dynasty of an assimilated Jewish family have built their lives on.
Die Geschwister Oppermann (The Oppermanns)