Born on October 24th 1960 in Oberhausen/Germany, Christoph Schlingensief grew up in a middle-class family. After throwing in his studies of German philology, philosophy and art history and trying his (inexperienced) hand at the German TV staples „Lindenstrasse“ and „Tatort“, Schlingensief soon decided to create his own idiosyncratic underground films like „100 Jahre Adolf Hitler“ (100 Years of Adolf Hitler, 1989), „Das Deutsche Kettensägenmassaker“ (German Chainsaw Massacre,1990) and „Terror 2000“ (1991).

In the 1990s Christoph Schlingensief turned to the theatre and became the darling of audience and critics alike, in particular with his seminal productions at Berlin’s Volksbühne, including „100 Jahre CDU“ (100 Years of CDU, 1996) and „Rocky Dutschke, ´68“ (1996). Not entirely satisfied with the scope and reach of his cultural endeavours, in 1998 he decided to expand his creative realm by a political party for the losers of society, Chance 2000, and staged a national election campaign.

By the turn of the millennium, Schlingensief had rediscovered television with his very own take on reality TV formats. Besides the daring artistic breakthrough „Bitte liebt Österreich“ (Please Love Austria, 2000), every single one of his visual outings managed to cause a stir, including „Talk 2000“ (1999) „U3000“ (2001), „Quiz 3000 (2002) and „Freakstars 3000“ (2002), an astute and over-the-top persiflage of the all pervasive casting shows.

Nowadays, Schlingensief’s action theatre has become a fixed staple on the schedules of renowned theatres across the German-speaking realm, including Vienna, Berlin, Zurich, Bayreuth and Salzburg.

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Schlingensief homepage