Schauspielhaus Zürich

This guide to Schauspielhaus Zürich turns on the nineteen-thirties, when wine merchant Ferdinand Rieser bought a failing stage and gambled on hiring the actors and playwrights Nazi Germany had banned. It follows the danger that gamble brought, including a German ambassador's denunciation and Swiss fascist rallies outside these doors, and the city's own scramble to keep the curtain up after Rieser fled in nineteen thirty-eight. Listen for the chanting and police whistles said to have filled this street on opening night.