SUMMARY
Theatre played a pivotal role in Nazi propaganda and cultural politics. The German language minority theatres, which continued to exist east and south of the new borders of post 1919 Germany, attracted a particular interest from the Nazi regime as they were seen as outposts of German culture in areas which were no longer officially German. After 1933 these theatre companies were supported and sometimes directly subsidized by the Nazi regime and were regarded as islands of German influence which could prove useful in a renewed military conflict aimed at extending German frontiers into these “lost” territories once again. Given this attitude and commitment, it is surprising, then, that after the outbreak of war in 1939 the German government lost interest in these amateur companies which had been seen as providing a valuable service to the German cause previously. Instead, the German authorities recruited professional companies from elsewhere with all amateur activity being sidelined. These new imported companies offered shows of improved quality but had no roots in local communities and remained alien to them. The present article charts some of the main threads in this development – a topic which has not met with any significant interest in the literature so far.