Hellmuth Matiasek

Hellmuth Matiasek was born in Vienna on 15 May 1931. He studied directing and acting at the Max Reinhardt Seminar at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna as well as theatre studies, musicology, German studies and philosophy at the University of Vienna. He initially worked as a director, but took over his first directorship at the Salzburg State Theatre in 1962. In 1983, he was appointed director of the Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz. He held this position until 1996. As state theatre director, he left his mark on the Gärtnerplatztheater with numerous successful productions such as »Der Goggolori« by Wilfried Hiller and Michael Ende.

In addition to his permanent engagements, he was a guest director at numerous theatres in Germany and abroad, including the Hamburg State Opera, the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, the Bayerisches Staatsschauspiel in Munich, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Stuttgart State Opera, the Burgtheater in Vienna and the Salzburg and Bregenz Festivals. He was also Director of the Otto Falckenberg School in Munich from 1972 to 1978 and President of the Bavarian Theatre Academy from 2000 to 2003. His awards include the Federal Cross of Merit 1^st Class (1992), the Austrian Decoration of Honour for Science and Art (1993), the Bavarian Order of Merit (1996), the Upper Bavarian Culture Prize (2003), the »Pro meritis scientiae et litterarum« award from the State of Bavaria (2008) and the Grand Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (2015).

Hellmuth Matiasek died on 7 April 2022 at the age of 90.