Pioniere in Ingolstadt

In the organizer's words:

Ingolstadt, 1926: The pioneer is in the country! Sent to build a bridge, the group of soldiers is welcomed as an exciting change from the well-ordered everyday life of a small town. The jobless Alma immediately makes friends with the foreign pioneers and sergeants. Maid Berta wants to do the same. Her chosen one Korl, who is regularly harassed by his military superiors, warns that anyone who loves him must suffer. Nevertheless, Berta seeks love from him, while the young Fabian fails with his advances towards her. The advice of those around him is that a man must be cold in love. The pressure system that holds the men firmly in its grip is painfully unleashed in each of their encounters, tearing unbridgeable gaps in their relationship.

"Pioneers in Ingolstadt" is one of author Marieluise Fleißer's best-known works. With pointed language, she draws incomparably concise pictures of how social orders affect the most intimate and private spaces. Lucia Bihler, most recently with "The Lobster" at Munich's Volkstheater, takes up Fleißer's sharp observations and - one hundred years later - exposes the persistent patterns of violence, masculinity and misogyny. The dreams of young people in an increasingly militarized world flash out of this cycle of humiliation.