CONTACT AND INFORMATION
An International Theatre Institute Festival
THEATER DER WELT
The international theater festival THEATER DER WELT is held every three years in a different German city.
Project Links
Inspired by the ITI festival Theater der Nationen, which took place in Hamburg in 1979, THEATER DER WELT was founded by the ITI Germany in 1981 and since then has presented ground-breaking achievements and developments in theatre from every continent every three years.
THEATER DER WELT has been held in Cologne (1981), Frankfurt a.M. (1985), Stuttgart (1987), Hamburg (1989), Essen (1991), Munich (1993), Dresden (1996), Berlin (1999), Cologne-Bonn-Düsseldorf-Duisburg (2002), Stuttgart (2005), Halle (2008), Mülheim and Essen (2010), Mannheim (2014), Hamburg (2017), Düsseldorf (2021), Frankfurt a.M. / Offenbach (2023) and Chemnitz (2026).
The German ITI is the festival’s main organiser and, through a selection process, awards the right to host the festival to a different city every three years.
The selection process for 2029 has been completed. The call for entries for the 2032 edition of THEATER DER WELT will be published in 2028.
Find the Festival Statutes here .
THEATER DER WELT receives its core funding in three equal parts from the host city, the respective state, and the federal government (Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media). ITI manages the archives of Theater der Welt festival and is the point of contact for questions and contacts regarding the various festival editions.
