German puppet theatre company, founded in 1976 by Gisela Templin, Gabriele Hähnel, Werner Hennrich, Thomas Mierau and Peter Waschinsky. Established in a city with no puppet theatre tradition, the Puppentheater Neubrandenburg was the thirteenth State funded puppet theatre company in East Germany (GDR, Deutsche Demokratische Republik).

The opening of the theatre took place in October 1977 with two performances, one for children and one for adults. That made the Puppentheater Neubrandenburg the first East German company to offer regular adult programming. It influenced the evolution of East German puppet theatre, notably through performances such as Furcht und Elend des Dritten Reiches (Fear and Misery of the Third Reich) by Bertolt Brecht, directed by Peter Waschinsky, Die Umsiedlerin oder Das Leben auf dem Lande (The Resettler Resettled Woman, or Life in the Countryside) by Heiner Müller, directed by Monika Seerig and Bert Koß, and Fräulein Julie (Miss Julie, 1987) based on the play by August Strindberg, directed collaboratively by Marlis Hirche, Gerlinde Tschersich, Monika Seerig, Knut Hirche, and Bert Koß.

Renamed Kammertheater Neubrandenburg (Chamber Theatre Neubrandenburg), the company moved, in 1994, into the oldest theatre building in Mecklenburg that had just been newly reconstructed and extensively renovated.

This marked the beginning of a particularly creative phase for this innovative, experimental theatre company. During this period the ensemble tested new expressive possibilities, working with materials and challenging the rigid boundaries that separated the arts, as can be seen in the productions Die Wassermannlüge (The Aquarian Lie) or Zitrin tanzt (Citrine Dances, 1994). The company repeatedly raised the question about the vitality of theatrical structures.

Despite its artistic and cultural importance, the Kammertheater Neubrandenburg was merged at the recommendation of the Ministry of Education and Cultural Affairs (Kultusministerium des Landes) in 2001 with the Landestheater Neustrelitz (State Theatre Neustrelitz) and the Philharmonie Neubrandenburg (Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra) and thus disappeared from the theatre scene.

(See Germany.)