House of Hopes

On October 7, 1989, the 40th anniversary of the GDR was celebrated with a military parade on Karl-Marx-Allee. At the same time, representatives from all East Berlin theaters are gathering in the side foyer of the Volksbühne. A month later, it becomes one of the biggest demonstrations in German history with around one million people.

But it was not only in Berlin that hope for more participation and economic independence seemed palpable at the end of the 1980s: The last Soviet troops were withdrawing from Afghanistan. There are tens of thousands of students on the streets in China. Voting is free for the first time in Namibia. And South Korea is beginning to come to terms with 26 years of military dictatorship. There is a feeling around the world that majorities could bring their governments to their senses. More freedom of movement and speech, but also more participation, seems possible.

In House of Hopes, the audience follows in the footsteps of the departure and on a house tour that begins in the box office foyer and leads through the Volksbühne on Rosa Luxemburg-Platz into the present day via stairs and foyers. The architecture of the house becomes the setting for ten autobiographical stories from countries around the world. They hope to ask about Esperanza in the campaign against the Pinochet dictatorship, the Speranță for freedom following the execution of Ceaușescus, recall the nadzieja of the trade union movement in Poland or the Omid on a less cruel Iranian state after Khomeini's death.

House of Hopes continues the escape lines of the historic turning point in 1989 into a present in which the unifying power of hope is sought and is up for debate: Do we wait when we hope, or do we make possible?

We recommend a minimum age of 12 years to attend the performance.

A station of ten stations (symbol: ballot box) addresses racism and includes depictions of violence against Herero and Nama. The station does not necessarily have to be visited.

The production House of Hopes consists of a tour of the Volksbühne with seven stops. Three of these stations are not accessible to wheelchair users due to structural restrictions. In order to still be able to follow the game in full, we provide video recordings and a live broadcast for these two cases.