Chronicle

1955    
The ITI Centre of West Germany (FRG) is founded in Bonn as the German section of the International Theatre Institute

1956    
The head office of the FRG Centre is established

1957    
The FRG Centre is admitted to the world ITI network (ITI Worldwide) at the World Congress in Athens, Greece

1959    
The GDR centre is founded and simultaneously admitted to ITI Worldwide during the World Congress in Helsinki, Finland

1960    
Colloquium on theatre architecture in cooperation with the Union Internationale des Architectes and the International Music Council in West Berlin

1961    
First WORLD THEATRE DAY: 27 March is declared World Theatre Day, with a message written by a different, prominent figure in the world of theatre every year

1965    
_International congress on actors' training in Essen

_Leipzig colloquium on contemporary opera interpretation; followed by the founding of the International Music Theatre Committee (1969 ITI Congress in Budapest)

1970    
_International directing colloquium in Essen
_Colloquium on the role of music in theatre in East Berlin

1974    
Seminar on young people’s theatre activity in Leipzig (GDR)

1975    
16th ITI World Congress, hosted by ITI (FRG) in West Berlin

1976    
Theatre of the Third World colloquium  on theatre and societal reality in Schildow (GDR)

1979    
THEATRE OF NATIONS, the international theatre festival organized by ITI Worldwide, is held in Hamburg, following previous events in Caracas, Paris and Warsaw, directed by Ivan Nagel and Thomas Petz

1981    
The THEATER DER WELT festival takes place in Cologne for the first time, directed by Jürgen Flimm and Renate Klett

1982    
_First WORLD DANCE DAY: 29 April is declared WORLD DANCE DAY, with a message written by a different, prominent figure in the world of dance every year
_Seminar on Brecht and cultural identity in East Berlin

1983    
_20th ITI World Congress   is held under the title World Theatre – World Understanding – World Peace, and organised by the GDR Centre in East Berlin
_International Music Theatre Workshop in Munich, in cooperation with the Music Theatre Committee (further editions in 1985, 1989, 1992, 1996, 1998, and 2004)

1984      
International Artaud Week, in cooperation with the Studies Committee in Stuttgart

1985    
International symposium on theatre and visual arts, commissioned as part of documenta 8, in cooperation with the New Theatre Committee

1985-2015        
ITI (FRG, later Germany) annually awards its WORLD THEATRE DAY Prize on 27 March

seit 1985           
The Mülheim Translators' Meeting, as part of Mülheimer Theatertage

1988    
International congress Beyond Performance: Dance Studies Today in Essen, in cooperation with the Dance Committee

1991    
_The two German ITI centres are unified. 34 prominent figures in theatre from the GDR are elected at the general member’s meeting of the FRG centre, taking place on 17 January 1991

_International symposium on Training Methods in Hamburg, in cooperation with the Training Committee and the Hamburg University of Music and Drama  

_International symposium  The Languages of Theatre and Women in Berlin, in cooperation with the Dramaturgische Gesellschaft, and the working group Women in Theatre

1992    
_International seminar for young opera conductors in Altenburg, in cooperation with the Music Theatre Committee, the German Music Council and the Altenburg State Theatre
_International symposium What are today's playwrights writing for theatre today? in Bonn, in cooperation with the Actors’ Committee and the Bonner Biennale

1992-2017        
Work experience programme for young foreign theatre professionals, in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Munich

1992-2012       
Impulse: ITI Journal on work in international theatre

1993    
25th ITI World Congress, under the title New Frontiers – A New Theatre?, organised by the German centre in Munich             

1996    
Workshop for stage designers, accompanying programme of THEATER DER WELT in Dresden

1996    
Cono Sur theatre festival and symposium, Berlin

1998    
Symposium on National Languages, Fictional Languages and the Mobility of Spoken Theatre in Europe as part of the Bonn Biennale

2000    
Who Wants to be a Woman Tomorrow? Female Configurations in the Performing Arts of Today; International meeting of theatre artists at the Theaterformen Festival in Braunschweig

2001-2013       
Playservice; Annual publication on worldwide and local premieres  in German-speaking countries

2001-2012        
EU project International Platform for Contemporary Theatre, a series of projects with partners throughout Europe

2002    
Image.Construction.Site II; Theatre meeting in Bonn at the Brotfabrik Beuel, with participants from Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Germany; accompanying programme of THEATER DER WELT in Bonn, Cologne, Duisburg, and Düsseldorf

2003    
Symposium Austausch und Aneignung: Theatrical Transformation Processes and Mobility in Europe symposium in Berlin

2003-2005        
Workshop series My Unknown Enemy; in Cairo (2003), Bangladesh (2004), Cyprus (2004/2005)

2005    
Bild.Bau.Stelle III: My Unknown Enemy, accompaying programme of THEATER DER WELT in Stuttgart

2005-2006        
Cooperation on Theatre in Conflict Zones between the German and Sudanese ITI centres

2006-2008        
Workshop series Movement Radar: Escalators – accompanying programme of THEATER DER WELT 2008

Seit 2007           
ITI organises the German contribution to the Prague Quadrennial

2008-2019        
Music Theatre NOW; the German ITI is cooperation partner of the international competition

2009    
International symposium on the Performing Arts Report at the Academy of Arts in Berlin, in cooperation with Fond Darstellende Künste

2010    
Academy for Intergenerational Perception and Play Young Symposium, accompanying programme of THEATER DER WELT in Mühlheim an der Ruhr and Essen

2010    
East-West Passages. Dance and theatre from Europe symposium in cooperation with euroscene

2010-2020        
The Role of Independent Theatre in Contemporary European Theatre (research project); publications: Independent Theatre in Contemporary Europe, Structures – Aesthetics – Cultural Policy (2016) and Independent Music Theatre in Europe (2020)

2011    
Mime Centre is incorporated into ITI, at first as one of its permanent projets (subsequently Archive and Practice); STUDIO2 is developed as a space for research and rehearsals

2011-heute      
ITI’s international committee for the protection of artists’ rights

2012-2023       
Theatre in the New Europe; cooperation project to with JAMU Brno to document the Plzen Theatre Festival

Seit 2013           
touring artists; Advice and information platform for cultural professionals on administrative issues of international work

Seit 2013           
Cooperation with the Platform for French-German Art Lyon for the French-German Workshop Physical Theatre

2013-2018        
Transforming Acts –  Artistic video project

2013 – 2018     
Scene Change – a funding programme administered together with the Robert Bosch Foundation to support German-speaking theatre groups with projects, carried out with partners from Eastern Europe and North Africa

2014    
Africa Archive – Africa Future; Accompanying programme as part of THEATER DER WELT in Mannheim

2015 – 2022     
THEATERPREIS DES BUNDES –Award ceremony and symposium on artistic and cultural policy issues, awarded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media

2014-2022        
The ITI Yearbook is published, covering international work under a specific theme each year

Seit 2016           
The ITI Prize is awarded to honour, support, and raise awareness of the work of transnational theatre artists

2015-2017        
Performing the Archive – a joint project to develop a  self-contained archive structure for the independent performing arts 

2016-2017        
Research project Passage 23°E on theatre and theatricality in Eastern, Central Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

2017-2019        
Digitisation projects on Meyerhold's Biomechanics and Non-verbal theatre in the GDR, with Tanzfabrik Berlin

Seit 2021           
ITI ACADEMY – A platform for international exchange and artistic research

2021-2024       
DFG project: Digitally connecting performing arts media libraries

2022 bis 2026 
EU-Project: DECONFINING – Arts, Culture & Policies in Europe and Africa

2022                    
Launch of the Theateruebersetzen.de platform and the 1st Branchentreff translating theatre (further editions in 2022 and 2023)

Seit 2022           
STUDIO2 residency programme

2022-2023        
tanz:Digital Workshops on professionalising digital work in the performing arts

2023/ 2024       
Symposiums for the GERMAN FEDERAL THEATRE PRIZE

2025-2026        
Shaping Crossroads – Exchange format on intercontinental mobility of art and artists between Europe and Africa

*This chronicle presents a selection of significant events from the past 70 years. For clarity and readability, project and event names have been translated in the English description. The original titles can be found in the German version.