German puppet theatre founded in 1977 in a 16th century house as Lübecker Marionetten Theater of Fritz Fey (Senior, 1912-1986) in the historic district of Lübeck. After Fey’s death, his wife Ingeborg continued the theatre. But in 2007, under new artistic leadership, the theatre reopened and began creating performances using all styles of puppetry, not only string puppets. The company is now called Kobalt Figurentheater Lübeck and produces both its own shows and presents touring performances.

The artistic direction of Figurentheater is currently led by Stephan Schlafke, with the collaboration of Silke Technau as puppeteer, co-creator and theatre researcher; both puppeteers come from Kobalt Figurentheater (Kobalt Puppet Theatre), founded in Berlin in 1975, which presented a varied repertoire with guest performances from all over Germany. The group works in close cooperation with the Lübeck Museum of Theatre Puppets, TheaterFigurenMuseum Lübeck. The group hosted Lübeck’s first international puppet festival in 2012.

(See Germany.)