27/04/2026
Thingstätten – open-air theaters from N**i Germany
An exhibition of documentary photography, art and science
Kunstraum Elsa, Bielefeld, Germany
April 17 - May 29 2026
Between 1933 and 1936, so-called ‘Thingstätte’ (literally: thing sites) were erected as propagandistic open-air theaters and meeting places in early N**i Germany. Four hundred
Thingstätten were planned, and around sixty constructed. Many of these barely known sites can still be found scattered across Germany, Poland, and Russia – some forgotten, some
still actively in use as open-air theaters.
In the deeply researched photobook Thingstätten (Geymüller, 2021 (German), Kerber 2020 (English)) and interactive website www.thingstaetten.info , an interdisciplinary mix of international artists, scholars, and writers facilitates a critical examination of the unusual history of the “Thingstätte,” and how this forgotten problematic past continues to manifest explicitly and implicitly in our present moment. Many people have never heard of what is perhaps the most visible cultural investment of the Third Reich. The project received a special mention by the Jury of the European Heritage Award, for its innovative way of researching the problematic history with a network of artists, photographers and scientists.
The project was initiated by artist and photographer Katharina Bosse from HSBI University in Germany, whose previous work has been featured in the New Yorker, GEO, National Geographic and the New York Times Magazine.
The exhibition includes works by the artists Katharina Bosse, Rebecca Budde de Cancino, Doug Fitch, Jan Merlin Friedrich, Jakob Ganslmeier, Andrea Grützner, Rebecca Hackemann, Konstantin Karchevskiy, Hendrik Lüders, Daniel Mirer, Felix Nürmberger, Ralph Pache, Abhijit Pal, Philipp Robien, Jewgeni Roppel, Simon Schubert, Kuno Seltmann, Erica Shires, Thomas Wrede.
