Bern City Theater

With the photo project launched in 2020, the SAPA Foundation was able to process historically significant photographic holdings relating to the Stadttheater Bern and make them accessible to the general public. The first is a collection by the well-known theater photographer Fred Erismann (1891-1979), with negatives dating from 1934-1967. The second donation dates from the 1956/57 season with photographs (paper prints and negatives) by Erismann and the younger generation of photographers, including Michael von Graffenried, Edouard Rieben, Jürg Müller and many others.

The photographs in the Stadttheater's collection thus bear witness to more than half a century of theater photography. With these two collections, the SAPA Foundation has a unique documentation of the history of the Stadttheater, which gives a vivid impression of the theater repertoire and performance practice of the 20th century.

Both collections were previously unprocessed and therefore largely unknown. More than 60,000 negatives, almost 20,000 photographic prints and around one hundred slides were catalogued, professionally conserved and repackaged. A selection of these have been digitized and are accessible online via the Swiss Performing Arts Platform.

Video: Zoë Pitschmann, SAPA Foundation