Wandervogel

"My coffin should be borne by six of our best and most handsome youths. Leave me alone with them for an hour, or a night, before I must go. If still among them, then I know I am alive even if my body is dead."

Heinz Rutha. Have you ever heard the name before? No? Don´t worry, in 100 years time, nobody will remember you either… Fortunately, the Wandervögel squad is coming to town! Four charming lads with their elderly leader, trained hard to bring the forgotten past alive. To share a story about love, friendship and fascism.

It is 1918. The Habsburg Empire has broken into pieces and the Sudeten Germans find themselves in a lamentable situation. The land they had lived on for centuries is now called Czechoslovakia. Who is going to save the sacred homeland? Heinz Rutha, a charismatic man with a romantic streak has a plan: to train the most beautiful and athletic boys who will become the elite of the future Sudeten German state.

The well-intended mission, fuelled by suppressed same-sex desires, will bring forth the biggest homosexual scandal of the interwar Czechoslovakia.

The life and the era of the Sudeten German nationalist Heinz Rutha is the starting point for the witty scenic composition Wandervogel. Authentic police protocols, an intimate war diary, and historical political speeches mix with the present-day experience of the performers, building up an unexpected link between Rutha´s struggle and the current political turmoil.

Through powerful visual imagery, anchored in the uncompromising physical presence of the cast, the audience is invited to explore contemporary meanings behind the concepts devised by Rutha in his vision of

the ideal community. What do the terms sexuality, nation, fascism, nature, and beauty mean today?

The performance is inspired by Mark Cornwall´s book The Devil's Wall.

Performed in Czech and German with English subtitles.