Berlin Philharmonic's Wartime Bunker Concert Plan Questioned in New Play

The World Theater Festival in Zagreb will open with "The Making of Berlin," a production by the Belgian collective Berlin and NTGent, directed by Yves Degryse. The play delves into a curious historical footnote: a planned concert by the Berlin Philharmonic during the final days of World War II.

According to Friedrich Mohr, a former Philharmonic inspector, the orchestra intended to broadcast Richard Wagner's "Siegfried's Funeral March" from "Götterdämmerung" live from six different bunkers. This symbolic performance was meant to mark the fall of the Nazi empire amidst the chaos of wartime bombing. However, technical difficulties prevented the concert from ever taking place.

Sixty years later, the collective Berlin decided to investigate this event. During their research for a reconstruction of the concert, they discovered inconsistencies in Mohr's testimony. Sentences from his account were found to be lifted from a much older text, casting doubt on whether Mohr was who he claimed to be. The production juxtaposes Mohr's wartime diary with the theater group's critical reconstruction.

"The Making of Berlin" is the final part of the "Holoceen" cycle, which has previously created portraits of places through the lives of their inhabitants. Previous installments focused on Jerusalem, Bonanza, Zvizdal in Ukraine, and a couple living in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The cycle now turns to the city that inspired the collective's name.

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The Making of Berlin is the final part of the "Holoceen" cycle, which has previously created portraits of places through the lives of their inhabitants.