Farewell Christoph Schlingensief

Christoph Schlingensief, the German stage director who scandalised conservative Wagnerians with a rotting hare at the Bayreuth Festival, died on Saturday, 21 August of lung cancer, aged 49. The media-savvy provocateur had been diagnosed with the illness in early 2008.

He once almost won funding from Deutsche Bank AG for a performance piece titled “Save capitalism, throw the money away!” in which he intended to fling 100,000 deutsche marks from the roof of the Berlin Reichstag.

Schlingensief’s plays, mostly staged in Germany, Switzerland and Austria often proved controversial as they came with strong political messages.

For the full story, go to CI’s Farewells page.