They have become an integral part of public spaces in all German cities, and there are two in front of the STAATSTHEATER KARLSRUHE so far: the stumbling stones by Cologne artist Gunter Demnig, which commemorate the victims of the Third Reich. The two stones in front of our building commemorate the singer Lilly Jankelowitz and the actor Paul Gemmeke. They commemorate the saddest chapter in German cultural history: theaters, which had just been places of freedom and the avant-garde, were the first major institutions to be brought into line immediately after the seizure of power. This was also the case in Karlsruhe - a city that today prides itself on being a place of tolerance, and yet was the capital of the "first Jew-free Gau".
Hans-Werner Kroesinger and Regine Dura are the most important independent documentary theater makers in Germany. Their productions are created after extensive material research as play developments with their actors, on topics such as the genocide in Rwanda, the European border agency Frontex or the South East European front of the First World War. In 2007, Kroesinger received the Brothers Grimm Prize of the State of Berlin for his youth theater production Kindertransporte at the Theater an der Parkaue. In 2011, Dura and Kroesinger created the streetcar performance Karlsruhe - City of the Righteous for the STAATSTHEATER.
