The Nibelung Festival in Worms
Successful film producer Nico Hofmann presents his first Nibelung Festival.
There is a change in perspective taking place at the Nibelung Festival: the Nibelung Saga is to be told by a child for the first time. In Worms, the story of Siegfried’s death and Kriemhild’s bloody revenge is re-told and re-interpreted every year at an open air festival performance against the backdrop of the imposing cathedral. This year the writer Albert Ostermaier is exploring the saga from the perspective of Ortlieb, the child of Kriemhild and Etzel. His festival play is called “Gemetzel” (“Carnage”) and is advertised in white letters against a blood-red background – which is slightly misleading because this time the aim is not to present a lurid spectacle of carnage on the stage, but a psychogramme. The child hopes to prevent the violence using the means of play. However, everyone knows it will inevitably end up in violence and carnage. “It’s a piece about how things lead to this carnage,” says Ostermaier.
“I’ve never lost my love of the theatre”
This year the well-known film producer Nico Hofmann is responsible for the Nibelung Festival for the first time as overall festival director; Thomas Schadt is the artistic director. Hofmann replaces Dieter Wedel who had staged the Nibelung Festival in Worms for the previous 13 years. Nico Hofmann is well known for historical television productions like “Our Mothers, Our Fathers” or film biographies like “Grzimek”. However, Hofmann says he started out in the theatre: “I’ve never lost my love of the theatre,” he says, adding that it was also partly the tenacity of Worms’ City Mayor Michael Kissel that persuaded him to take on the job.
The Festival, which was successfully revived with a new production in 2002, is also economically important for Worms, where many of the scenes of the Nibelung Saga are set. A study conducted by Worms University in 2014 revealed that the Festival generates a lot more money than the 1.5-million-euro grant made by the city every year. “The Nibelung Festival gives tourists a chance to experience the Nibelung theme here in Worms; we can raise the city’s profile and shape its image in a positive way,” says Mayor Michael Kissel.
Nibelung Festival from 31 July to 16 August 2015 in Worms
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