F. Zawrel — Genetically and socially inferior

Venue: DT Stage - The portrait of one of the last witnesses of euthanasia crimes in the Third Reich: Friedrich Zawrel, born in the 1930s, ended up as a child in Vienna's “Spiegelgrund”, the second-largest “youth welfare institution” in the German Empire. Hundreds of sick, disabled and supposedly hereditary children and adolescents were treated or murdered there. The hospital doctor Dr. Gross also classified Friedrich Zawrel as “hereditary and socially inferior.” The 15-year-old managed to escape from the hospital, followed by years on the street and soon also entered a petty criminal milieu that repeatedly put him behind bars. Where one day he met the now highly decorated and honored Dr. Gross again... And finally became one of the most important eyewitnesses in dealing with the euthanasia crimes in Vienna.

Friedrich Zawrel died at the age of 85 in February 2015 and lives on in his story, which Nikolaus Habjan tells as a solo on stage with his puppets. After numerous, very personal conversations with Friedrich Zawrel, Nikolaus Habjan and Simon Meusburger created an extremely moving piece that invariably captivates and, as Longselle, has already touched young and old in more than 600 performances. In 2012, the production received the Nestroy Prize in the Best Off Production category. Friedrich Zawrel, he lives on in Nikolaus Habjan's clap-mouth puppet.