Shakespeare Stiftung

Weimar

Welcome

The German Shakespeare Foundation was established in 2000 in Weimar. Its founding body was the reunified German Shakespeare Society (Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft e.V.). This society was originally founded in 1864 at the initiative of the Dessau entrepreneur Wilhelm Ochelhäuser under the patronage of Grand Duchess Sophie of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, making it the oldest and one of the largest literary societies in Germany. For nearly 150 years, it has promoted engagement with the works of William Shakespeare throughout the German-speaking world, working closely with universities, schools, and theatres.

The German Shakespeare Foundation supports the work of the German Shakespeare Society by providing funding for its larger projects. For example, it annually awards the Martin Lehnert Prize for outstanding theses by students and doctoral candidates, made possible through a bequest from the Berlin-based Anglicist Martin Lehnert.

The foundation supports the Shakespeare Yearbook, which the Shakespeare Society has published almost continuously every year since its founding, making it an outstanding cultural-historical record of Shakespeare reception and scholarship over the past 150 years. Since 2022, it has also honoured individuals from the fields of art and culture with the Shakespeare Prize, recognising those who have made exceptional contributions to the work of William Shakespeare and its dissemination.

To provide the many visitors to the annual Shakespeare Days with special highlights in the form of theatrical, musical, literary, or cinematic events, the German Shakespeare Foundation also subsidises these gatherings of German-speaking Shakespeare enthusiasts.

Macbeth

About the work: Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” is the tragedy of an individual obsessed with power. The title character is one of the most brutal criminals in Shakespeare’s plays. For the English Macbeth actor Henry Irving, he was the diabolical arch-villain, the incarnation of evil par excellence; David Garrick, on the other hand, emphasised his courage…

Ein Sommernachtstraum / A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Ein Sommernachtstraum / A Midsummer Night’s Dream About the work: The strong breaks in the history of interpretation make A Midsummer Night’s Dream one of Shakespeare’s most consequentially reinterpreted comedies. The interpretations of the 20th century, which concentrated on the structure of meaning, its subject matter, its world of images and symbols and the contexts…

König Lear / King Lear

König Lear / King Lear Shakespeare’s tragedy about the ageing King Lear is based on the figure of the legendary British King Leir from pre-Roman times. The story of the king, who hands over his kingdom to two of his daughters and is rejected by them, is multi-layered: a drama that is not only about…

King Henry IV, Part 1

König Heinrich IV, Teil 1 / King Henry IV, Part 1 Henry IV, Part I (first printed in 1598) owes its fame and enduring traction as a play not to the king of the title, who came to power through injustice and rules his country with difficulty, but to the character of Sir John Falstaff,…

Die zwei Herren aus Verona – The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Die zwei Herren aus Verona – The Two Gentlemen of Verona Trying to steal your best friend’s girlfriend is considered ungentlemanly even among today’s young people; even wanting to rape your friend’s girlfriend can jeopardise any male friendship. You can only rely on the feelings of women to bring everything to a good end. As…

Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus Titus Andronicus, one of the most successful stage plays of Shakespeare’s time, is a horror play which, because of its grotesque and extremely bloody content, was long attributed to Shakespeare only reluctantly and with a sneer, but for the same reason has in more recent times repeatedly become the basis for modern adaptations…

ESRA 2025 Shakespeare and Time: the retrieved pasts, the envisaged futures, 14-18 July 2025, Utrecht

ESRA 2025 Shakespeare and Time: the retrieved pasts, the envisaged futures, 14-18 July 2025, Utrecht ESRA 2025 Conference ESRA hosts its main conference every two years to bring together applied survey researchers, methodologists, and statisticians from Europe and beyond. The conference showcases the latest survey research and offers a number of professional development opportunities, including…

World Shakespeare Congress 2026, Verona

World Shakespeare Congress 2026, Verona Find the congress’s website here. Pre-registrations are open NOW until September 15, 2025. Pre-register here. From the congress’s website: The 2026 World Shakespeare Congress will mark the International Shakespeare Association’s 50th anniversary. Let us celebrate together in fair Verona, Italy, where, from July 20th to 26th 2026, Shakespeareans will gather in this beautiful…

Spring Conference 2025, Weimar

Shakespeare and Popular Cultures The Spring Conference centres on the topic Shakespeare and Popular Cultures and will be taking place from 25-27 April 2025 in Weimar. On the evening before the official beginning of the conference, on Thursday, 24 April, the award ceremony of the German Shakespeare Prize will take place at 6 pm in the…

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