Matthias Hartmann

© Arno Declair

Born in Osnabrück in 1963. 1977-1981 Boarding school in Gloucester, England. After failing to complete a clerical apprenticeship, in 1983 he attended drama school in Stuttgart and sat his “Abitur” (university entrance examinations) in Osnabrück in 1985. 1985-1988 assistant director at Berlin’s Schiller Theater under the management of Heribert Sasse. 1988/89 assistant director and director at Kiel Theatre.

From 1990 to 1993 he was a director at the Niedersächsisches Staatstheater Hannover under Eberhard Witt. His breakthrough came in 1992 with his production of “Emilia Galotti". In 1993 he moved with Witt to the Bayrisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich, were he remained in-house director until 1999. He also produced at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg and at Vienna’s Burgtheater. In 1998 he was voted Director of the Year for his premiere production of Botho Strauß’s “The Kiss of Forgetting” in Zurich.

Since 2000 he has been the manager of the Bochum Schauspielhaus, which he has been leading with great success. First opera production in Zurich in 2003. In 2005 he will move to be manager of the Zurich Schauspielhaus, where he took over from Christoph Marthaler.