Stadttheater Bern

Launched in 2020, the photography project enabled the SAPA Foundation to process historically significant photographic holdings relating to the Stadttheater Bern and make them accessible to a wider public. The material comprises, first, a collection by the renowned theatre photographer Fred Erismann (1891-1979), with negatives dating from 1934-1967. The second donation begins with the 1956/57 season and includes prints and negatives by Erismann and by a younger generation of photographers, among them Michael von Graffenried, Edouard Rieben, Jürg Müller  and many others.

Taken together, the photographs held by the Stadttheater document more than half a century of theatre photography. With these two collections, the SAPA Foundation holds a unique record of the theatre’s history, offering a vivid impression of its repertoire and performance practice in the twentieth century.

Both collections were previously unprocessed and largely unknown. More than 60 000 negatives, just under 20 000 photographic prints and around one hundred slides have now been catalogued, professionally conserved and rehoused. A selection has been digitised and is available online via the Swiss Performing Arts Platform.

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This extensive undertaking was made possible thanks to the generous support of Memoriav, the Burgergemeinde Bern, the City of Bern, the Canton of Bern, the Ursula Wirz Foundation and the Charlotte Kerr Dürrenmatt Foundation.

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Video: Zoë Pitschmann, SAPA Foundation