ABSTRACT
German theatre has always been, and still is, grounded in and guided by theory and cultural political objectives. For over two hundred years the guiding idea has been one of a national theatre. In Germany a national theatre means not only an institution, but also an intellectual concept, originally in Opposition to the political and cultural fragmentation of the small feudal principalities. Out of these efforts on behalf of a national theatre there evolved many of the factors that continue to influence German theatre and its concepts even today.
