Sistig, Alfred Erich

Dramaturge, Artistic Director

Born: 19.10.1909 in Hagen

died: 08.09.1980 in Duisburg

Dedicated to theater with heart and soul since his youth, Sistig gained his first theater experience at the Staatstheater Berlin after completing his training. Until 1933, he worked as a radio play director at the radio station in Cologne. He then became assistant to Gustaf Gründgens (1899-1963) in Berlin. From 1946-49 and again from 1955-60, he was dramaturge and drama director at the Munich Kammerspiele, and from 1949-55 dramaturge and director at the Landestheater Hannover.

From 1968-78, Sistig was general director at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. His directorial work here included Wagner's "Rheingold" (1969) and Grabbe's "Napoleon or The Hundred Days" (1970). In 1970, he dared to stage Wagner's "Ring des Nibelungen" true to the work, i.e. without alienation effects. His productions of Weber's "Oberon", Brecht's "Mother Courage and Her Children" and Wagner's "Tannhäuser" deserve special mention. In close collaboration with the then director of the theater, Rainer Antoine, he created the "Musischer Mai" and "Jüngster Mai" series of events.

On the occasion of the International May Festival, he succeeded in organizing glamorous evenings, for example with the participation of the Theatro Comunale di Bologna with Donizetti's "Lucia di Lammermoor", the Slovak National Opera with Verdi's "Nabucco", the Bulgarian State Opera Sofia with Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" and Puccini's "Turandot" as well as the Bolshoi Ballet with "Anna Karenina" after Leo Tolstoy.

Sistig was awarded the Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969. He found his final resting place in the Südfriedhof cemetery.