Oskar Eberle (1902-1956)

Oskar Eberle, theater scholar, playwright, director and promoter of the professionalization of domestic theater, had a decisive influence on theater discourse in Switzerland in the 20th century. He founded the Gesellschaft für Innerschweizer Theaterkultur (now the Schweizerische Gesellschaft für Theaterkultur) and served as its managing director, editor and publicist.

As the extensive Eberle estate, which is held in the Swiss Archive of the Performing Arts, has not yet been processed, there has been a lack of basic research into the specific life and working conditions of the most important Swiss exponent of theater in the interwar and wartime period.

Thanks to the project Oskar Eberle (1902-1956): Identity Discourse, Theater Politics and Amateur Theater Reform, this glaring research gap in the history of theater in Switzerland has been closed. The publication Theaterpionier aus Leidenschaft - Oskar Eberle (1902-1956) by Heidy Greco-Kaufmann and Tobias Hoffmann was published by Chronos Verlag at the beginning of 2024.