Günther Rühle
The theater critic has died
Günther Rühle was 97 years old.
© imago / DRAMA-Berlin.de
He was considered one of the most influential theater critics in Germany. Günther Rühle has now died at the age of 97.
Mourning for Günther Rühle (1924-2021): The theater critic and former director of the Frankfurter Schauspiel is dead. His family announced this. Accordingly, he should have died on Friday (December 10th) in his home in Bad Soden. He was 97 years old. Rühle was best known in the 1960s as one of the most influential theater critics in Germany. From 1985 to 1990 he was director of the Frankfurt theater.
Günther Rühle was born in Gießen in 1924 and grew up in Weilburg an der Lahn until 1935, before the family moved to Bremen. There he graduated from high school and then studied German, history and folklore in Frankfurt. Rühle earned his doctorate with a thesis on the poet and playwright Andreas Gryphius.
An impressive career
After working for various newspapers in Frankfurt, he became the features editor of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” in 1960. There he earned the reputation of being one of the most influential German theater critics. In 1974 he became head of the features section there. From 1990, Rühle became head of the features section of the Berlin “Tagesspiegel”.
Rühle was also active in the theater business. From 1985 to 1990 he was director of the Frankfurt theater. At that time, the performance of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s scandalous piece “The Garbage, the City and Death” caused a sensation and protests due to anti-Jewish statements.
Numerous documentaries about the theater world came from Rühle’s pen. During his long career he has received several prizes, including the Theodor Wolff Prize (1962) and the Binding Culture Prize (2010).