J. F. Schreiber (manufacturer)
Paper theater with proscenium, Berlin
circa 1900
Theater with architecturally structured stage, wooden frame for changing backdrops, stage set “Forest” by Schreiber, Esslingen, and figures for Schiller’s Robbers.
Berlin City Museum Foundation
As a young girl, Käthe Kollwitz loved to play theater with paper figures together with her sister. These were bought as picture sheets, colored with ink, and then cut out. The sisters did not have a perfect theater, but made do with building blocks, chairs, and tables.
This stage for cardboard figures is nevertheless interesting because it shows how a scene was staged in large theaters at that time: painted backdrops were either pushed onto the stage from the side or lowered from above from a pull-down ceiling.