Life
Born in Cologne, Schirmer was the third son of the later commercial director of Bremer Vulkan Werner Schirmer, his mother had learned to be a ladies' tailor. His older brothers are the physicist Jochen Schirmer and the publisher Lothar Schirmer. After graduating from high school in Bremen, "Fritz" Schirmer began his theatre work in 1970, first as an intern and after a few months as a dramaturge at the Westfälisches Landestheater in Castrop-Rauxel. In 1973, Kurt Hübner hired him as a dramaturge at the Freie Volksbühne Berlin. At the time, directors such as Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Wilfried Minks and Roberto Ciulli were working there. Hans Dieter Schwarze, his former artistic director from Castrop-Rauxel, brought him to the Schauspiel of the Städtische Bühnen Nuremberg as artistic director in 1975. His discovery of the play Schweig, Bub! by Fitzgerald Kusz was on the repertoire without interruption in his production from 1976 until 10 May 2010 and was performed there 730 times. In 1976/77, at the age of 25, Schirmer was the sole member of the acting management team for one season. After a detour as dramaturge at the Nationaltheater Mannheim (1978), he returned to Nuremberg a year later as the opera's chief scheduler under Hans Gierster.
Between 1982 and 1985, Schirmer was head dramaturge at the Theater Dortmund. In 1985 he took over the directorship of the Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen and developed a programme with local references. Among other productions, he revived Friedrich Wolf's Der Arme Konrad and Heinrich Laube's Die Karlsschüler. From 1989 to 1993 he was artistic director at the Stadttheater Freiburg. There he worked with the GMD Donald Runnicles, the young director Jürgen Kruse became the head of the drama department, and the permanent guest director Günther Gerstner. Stephan Kimmig and Christof Loy worked on their first productions in Germany there. Anne Tismer, Robert Hunger-Bühler, Manfred Meihöfer, Jürgen Rohe were permanent members of the acting ensemble. Pavel Mikulastik founded his choreographic theatre there.
From 1993, Schirmer was first theatre director, then from 1996 to 2005 artistic director of the theatre of the Staatstheater Stuttgart. Here he gave young directors the chance to make their mark, among them Christof Loy, Martin Kušej, Hans-Ulrich Becker, Stephan Kimmig and Elmar Goerden, later Marc von Henning, Jacqueline Kornmüller, Sebastian Nübling, Krzysztof Warlikowski and Hasko Weber (who later succeeded him). He realised the idea of ensemble theatre and opened up numerous new venues for the city. The highlight and conclusion of his directorship was the festival Theatre of the World, which took place in Stuttgart in 2005, where the artistic director Marie Zimmermann covered the entire city with theatre for four weeks.
In 2005, Schirmer went to the Deutsches Schauspielhaus in Hamburg as artistic director. In addition to a new ensemble, he engaged directors such as Martin Kušej, Jürgen Gosch, Karin Henkel, Ivo van Hove, Sebastian Nübling, Volker Lösch, Markus Heinzelmann and Roger Vontobel. Commissioned works for authors such as Roland Schimmelpfennig, Simon Stephens, Ad de Bont and Erik Gedeon with his genre song drama characterised Schirmer's work at the Deutsches Schauspielhaus. The world premiere production of Simon Stephens' Pornography was invited to the Berliner Theatertreffen 2008.
Volker Lösch's production of Marat, what has become of our revolution after Peter Weiss (invited to the Berlin Theatertreffen in 2009) caused heated discussions in the city. A central project of his directorship was the establishment of the Junges Schauspielhaus with its own ensemble, which under its direct or Klaus Schumacher presents much-acclaimed children's and youth theatre.
With the start of the 2010/11 season, the serious underfunding of the Schauspielhaus worsened: the moderate budget increase promised when the contract was extended in 2008 was not met for the second time. Instead, the city of Hamburg decreed a reduction in funding. Schirmer again demanded that the current Senator for Culture Reinhard Stuth keep the financial promises or at least withdraw the cut. When Stuth did not comply with this demand, Schirmer resigned on 30 September 2010 [1] [2] and asked for a compromise agreement
Since September 2014, Schirmer has once again been artistic director of the Württembergische Landesbühne Esslingen, starting with the 2019/20 season together with Marcus Grube.
Schirmer had been artistic director since 1999 with Marie Zimmermann (died 2007). Since 2014, he has been married again to the doctor Andrea Güstrau.
