Sophiensæle’s jubilee season, launched in November 2025, is no ordinary anniversary. The venue is marking a rare constellation of milestones: 120 years of the Handwerkervereinshaus, the historic building in the heart of Berlin’s Scheunenviertel, alongside 30 years of Sophiensæle as a theatre and 30 years of Tanztage. Over the course of 12 months, the house is staging an expansive programme of festivals, commissions and discursive projects – a celebration as bold as it is reflective. It looks back at a layered institutional history, while sharpening its vision for the future of independent performing arts.
For artistic and managing directors Jens Hillje and Andrea Niederbuchner, the jubilee is also a moment to reassess the institution’s founding principle: a house by artists for artists. As they look ahead, they’re asking how that mission can endure in today’s shifting cultural landscape. Their priorities include reconnecting with the building’s democratic roots, reinforcing the theatre’s role within Berlin’s artistic ecosystem and deepening their commitment to radical accessibility, even as financial pressures tighten.
Hillje and Niederbuchner discuss the conversations shaping this celebratory year: the historical threads they’re excavating, the future models they’re researching and the evolving vision guiding Sophiensæle into its next three decades.
In curating this anniversary programme, which historical threads did you consider most vital to engage with?
Hillje: We’ve initiated projects that will research the history of the building, and the history of the idea of the building, by diving into the 120 years of history connected to the area where the building is located. The area was already called the ‘infection of democracy during the revolution of 1848’ in the revolution of 1848, and it was an important building during the revolution of 1918 when Germany became a republic for the first time. It was built by an association of workers. It’s one of the oldest in Berlin, founded in 1844. It’s heavily connected to the reflection on the condition of working in a capitalistic republic, and so we’ll dig into that.
One piece of research was on the role of the Sophiensæle for Yiddish theatre groups before 1918. We can reconstruct the history of the theatre in this building because we have the reports of the Prussian theatre police who were in charge of censorship and who were active until 1918. They had to approve the theatre plays, and of course, it was especially problematic if the groups were performing in Yiddish, which is a language very closely connected to German, but difficult to understand. And of course, it was the language of the immigrants coming in from Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Some of them maybe had socialist or anarchist ideas that threatened a change to society and working conditions, so there was observation. It’s very artistic to reconstruct your own history as theatre people through the eyes of the theatre police who were created especially to observe you.
I think that’s one particular difference that Sophiensæle has: we’ve allowed for flexibility and given artists the chance to experiment.
And were these particular elements you aimed to bring into dialogue with the present?
Hillje: Keeping this in mind, you can see the artistic work of people who migrated to Berlin today. So they are, if they show their work here, part of a history that spans more than 100 years, one which goes from the revolution of the first Republic to the downfall of the Nazi era, Communist Germany (as we’re in former East Berlin) and unified Germany: a new, capitalistic, second-republic society. And so they inscribe themselves into the history and the reflection of that society. So it kind of gives a historic impulse of, ‘Okay, what we’re doing is important’. It might create conflict, but what artists do in a building like this is important for society. We take that as an inspiration and a source of energy today. There are a lot of conflicts in this city right now, so expressing yourself creates safety, because it secures the freedom to express yourself and gives meaning to what you communicate artistically.
Niederbuchner: We’re also celebrating 30 years of Sophiensæle as a theatre that choreographer Sasha Waltz and other artists established in 1996. It’s ‘from artists, for artists’ so we’re also really focusing on the development of artistic careers, which is precisely what Tanztage is doing as a festival with an open call. This year, we had over 200 applications, and out of those, 10 productions were chosen, seven of them premieres. Nevertheless, the festival has really developed over the last 35 years, having been produced by Sophiensæle since 2001.
Hillje: I think that’s one particular difference that Sophiensæle has: we’ve allowed for flexibility and given artists the chance to experiment. Here, you still have the ability to try things out – and you can also fail, but then you also have the safety of the structure we provide.
Sophiensæle is one of 50 cultural institutions included in the Übermorgen programme, supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. Can you give some background about the initiative behind that?
Niederbuchner: This is a research project that will allow us to look into what a cultural institution of the future can be. We got some money to really do the research ourselves, and to inspire ourselves through some trips to other cities. In the end, the best models or projects that come out of it will hopefully get funding to develop whatever they envision.
Hillje: We’re from the generation of people who started these houses in the 90s, and we’ve seen some locations have already gone, so it’s our mission to save this one and hand it over to the next generation. We’re using the jubilee anniversary to celebrate the last 30 years, and also to work on the future for the next 30 years. That’s why we’re part of the collection of cultural institutions of the future. We’re traveling to Marseille and to Manchester to learn from the future. We hope to find a model that will show us how to secure the space for different ways of working. The core idea is to figure out how you can and want to produce art in a different way – not within the state institution, but maybe as a collective, as a group, as more democratically and better paid, as fairly paid. It’s a reflection on 30 years of working in a freer way, which is integral to this building.
Next year, the building and its surrounding area will also become a focus for the Vienna-based, queer theatre group, Nesterval. Why did you invite them into the programme?
It’s a reflection on 30 years of working in a freer way, which is integral to this building.
Hillje: The actual birthday of Sophiensæle is in September and October 2026, so we’ve started a production that isn’t by Berlin artists. That’s another important function that we have: to have an exchange, invite work and get inspiration from the ‘free scene’ of artists from other places. In October, Nesterval will be performing in the whole building. Their work will be on the queer history of Berlin. It’s a four- to five-hour show with 100 different scenes and 20 performers. They’re inviting local performers to join the project. It’s really a very intense theatrical experience, acting and writing. They do extensive documentary research, and they write historical scenes that are quite accurate. As an audience, it’s kind of like binge watching. It’s intense! The title is Eldorado, which refers to the queer scene’s great liberation in the 1920s and the situation in the 1930s: the growing persecution, repression and oppression that was happening, and how people dealt with it. There are stories of resistance from people who survived and from people who didn’t make it. It’s a performance style that’s very interesting because it’s a little bit traditional, but it’s immersive, and you really get into the story. You follow your heroes or heroines. It’s going to be very emotional!
It sounds like a cyclical journey – the many facades of the Sophiensæle being repurposed and reanimated. Do you have any wishes for the next 30 years?
Hillje: What I really love about Sophiensæle is that you meet on eye level. The productions are owned by the artists. We present them here, we host them here; it’s a different relationship in terms of producing and owning work as an artist, and I think you feel that as an audience. It’s more open to experiment. I hope that within the next 30 years, Sophiensæle is seen as one of the major theatres in the theatre district. As a person who’s been doing theatre in the city for 30 years, during the coming years, I’d really like to use my autonomy to work on the future of my art form, which is performative, which is dance, which is transdisciplinary, which deals with conflict and what the situation is within our city – to see that reflected on stage.
Niederbuchner: To bring people together.
Hillje: We talk a lot about institutions and artists, but what we all do is work on our special chosen form of art, which is to perform in front of an audience. It’s very analogue, and it’s becoming more and more popular as it becomes more and more precious. Some years ago, it was all, “God, will the theatre survive with the digital future of the society?” The paradox is that meeting in a space, confronting yourself with a piece of art with others together in the same moment is so super real. It has become very precious, energetic and meaningful as an experience for all of the people involved.
Visit sophiensaele.com for the full programme.
