ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns a theatre project in which economic issues were discussed and which was considered suitable for performance by local cultural ofcials and the Ministry of Culture of the German Democratic Republic. However, when the play Der Georgsberg reached the stage of the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin in 1984, it was banned and the author dismissed. This was an extraordinary occurrence in itself but the situation also offers an illuminating example of dual censorship, being exercised simultaneously on an ofcial level within formal procedures and in secret by the political leadership. The following introduction sets the scene and highlights those problems of the economy which attracted the interest of the author of the play, Rainer Kerndl.
