Puppentheatersammlung: Apels

The Apels. A Dresden Puppeteer Family between Empire and GDR

Across a time span of nearly one hundred years, the Apels were considered to be puppeteer family in Dresden. They found their audience in different political systems, played with puppets from the 18th century stories from the 17th, devoted themselves to contemporary topics, such as the Dreyfuss affair and the Captain of Koepenick, and were cinematic pioneers. They performed in bourgeois theatre halls of Dresden’s city centre as well as in working class neighbourhoods. Starting in small villages of the Ore Mountains in South East Germany, their path led them across Europe to Finland, Romania, and Italy.

Exhibition Site Jägerhof

DATES 28/05/2012—20/05/2012

The first theater, which opened its doors in the destroyed Dresden after World War II, belonged to a member of the Apel family, of course. Until 1952, it had been a successful story until their play was prohibited in the GDR. Some of the puppets in the exhibition, of which some are up to 220 years old, performed in front of electors, others in front of East German government officials. Usually, ordinary people sat in front of their stages. The Apels wanted to bring joy to the people, wanted to make them laugh and cry. The exhibition presents figures from the different branches of the family. Entire scenes with stage designs were reconstructed to illustrate the aesthetic change over the past decades.