Made in Germany — Intercultural Theatre Festival Stuttgart

Made in Germany — Stuttgart's intercultural theatre festival

Made in Germany is one of Germany's most important intercultural theatre festivals. Its organiser is the Forum der Kulturen Stuttgart e.V., one of the country's largest intercultural umbrella organisations. The festival was founded to make visible those theatre productions that emerge from German immigration society — the stories, conflicts, hopes and identity quests of people with a migration biography, told through acting, dance, music and theatre forms of every kind. The 2026 edition runs from 19 to 22 November 2026 at several Stuttgart venues.

Citizens' jury and Stuttgart venues

The programming follows a participatory model: a citizens' jury made up of Stuttgart residents selects the festival programme from the applications. This brings the programming closer to the expectations of the local audience than purely curated festivals would — and is politically transparent at the same time. The partner theatres are among Stuttgart's leading venues: Junges Ensemble Stuttgart (theatre for young audiences), Schauspiel Stuttgart (city theatre), Theaterhaus Stuttgart (independent theatre) as well as further smaller venues. The festival is thus spread across the Stuttgart theatre landscape.

Theatre forms and themes

The festival programmes a variety of theatre forms: spoken theatre (drama, devised pieces), dance (contemporary and folkloric), music theatre (concerts with staged elements), puppet and figure theatre, youth theatre. Thematically, the pieces span the whole spectrum of immigration society: second and third generation, new migration from the Middle East and Africa, identity quests, German-Turkish, German-Arab, German-Eastern-European stories, postcolonial narratives.

Encounter, not just a theatre evening

What characterises Made in Germany is the festival architecture of exchange: audience talks after the performances, workshops, artist meetings, panel discussions with the urban community. The festival sees itself not just as a theatre programme but as a forum — a notion already echoed in the organiser's name.

Stuttgart — theatre city and immigration city

Stuttgart (around 626,000 inhabitants, urban district 08111) is the capital of Baden-Württemberg and one of Germany's most theatre-rich cities. Its urban society is shaped by decades of immigration history — from the southern Italian Gastarbeiter generation of the 1950s to today's highly diverse population, of which roughly 45% have a migration background. The Forum der Kulturen Stuttgart, as the parent association, has been a central organisation of intercultural urban society since the 1990s, and Made in Germany is its most important theatre platform.