Die Tagesordnung

Reading against right-wing extremism

An initiative by Colette Schmidt & Ed. Hauswirth in collaboration with the Schauspielhaus Graz.

Reading with Otiti Engelhardt, Josef Hader, Mariam Hage, Pia Hierzegger, Annette Holzmann, Maria Hofstätter, Jaschka Lämmert, Simon Morzé, Dominik Puhl, Samy Stojanov, August Schmölzer, Christoph Schüchner, Robert Stadlober, Katharina Stemberger, Aglaia Szyszkowitz, Rudi Widerhofer and a surprise musical guest.

On a Monday in February 1933, 24 high-ranking representatives of industry accepted the invitation of Reichstag President Hermann Göring and met Adolf Hitler in a secret meeting at the Reichstag Presidential Palace in Berlin. Because “the instability of the regime must now finally come to an end; economic activity requires prudence and determination”, said Göring. “The twenty-four gentlemen nod their heads devoutly.” Most of them paid gigantic sums for Hitler immediately and on the spot.

Éric Vuillard has described this meeting and the weeks, months and years that followed until the National Socialist seizure of power in Austria on March 12, 1938, in his novel “DIE TAGESORDNUNG” in impressive pictures. How did it come about, for example, that Austrian Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg caved in to Hitler? Vuillard zooms in on the faces and stories of the men who supported the dictator Hitler, who ultimately made the war and the Holocaust possible, financed it and profited from it.

“This meeting on February 20, 1933, which could be seen as a unique moment in the history of employers, an unheard-of concession to the Nazis, is nothing more than an everyday episode of business life for the Krupps, Opels and Siemens, a banal fundraising exercise,” writes Vuillard.

“I am happy that such wonderful actors are willing to read it in public and that the Schauspielhaus Graz is opening its doors for it.” Colette Schmidt, Der Standard

In view of the current political situation in Styria and the world, it is high time to re-read this book, published in 2017 and awarded the “Prix Concourt”, about a coyly concealed but momentous detail of German-Austrian history.

With the support of Theater im Bahnhof.
Already read in cooperation with Schauspielhaus Graz at Volkstheater Wien.

(We translate our texts into English using deepL)