Nibelungen-Festspiele Worms

The Nibelungen Festival was opened in 2002 with the vision of bringing one of the most important works of medieval epic poetry back to the attention of a wider audience and thus making the original setting of the Nibelungen saga better known: the city of Worms - once an important centre for intellectual, cultural and political activity in Europe.

Right from the start the festival has been a great success and within a few years it has become one of the most famous open-air festivals. On the steps in front of Worms' imposing imperial cathedral, where Kriemhild and Brünhild are said to have once fought out their legendary queen's quarrel, the most famous actors from theatre, film and television appear every year and show the diversity that the Nibelungen fabric has to offer. The entire German-speaking media come to Worms in the summer and report on the impressive productions. The festival reaches a large audience every year, either live on location or during the television broadcasts of ZDF or SWR on the home screen, and brings the city on the Rhine a great deal of attention.

Roland Schimmelpfennig writes the play “Lake of Ashes - The Song of the Nibelungs” Production by Mina Salehpour The play for the 2025 Nibelungen Festival is being written by Roland Schimmelpfennig, currently the most frequently performed German-language playwright, whose plays have won numerous awards and have been translated and adapted into over 40 languages.
He is writing a major epic for Worms. “See aus Asche - Das Lied der Nibelungen” tells the whole story: of Siegfried, who sets out to conquer the world, kills the dragon, captures the treasure and the cloak of invisibility and finally ends up at the court of Burgundy. Of Hagen von Tronje, who immediately identifies the dragon slayer as a dangerous rival, only to then cleverly instrumentalize him as a pawn in his power games. And of Kriemhild and Brunhild, the two unequal women whose fates are so closely linked to each other and to that of the supposed hero Siegfried. The result is a dense, almost intoxicating journey through the Song of the Nibelungs - a combination of the ancient myth with the power of a great fantasy and the contemporary nature of our modern world. The world premiere in front of the cathedral will be staged by Mina Salehpour, who not only works as a director at the Burgtheater in Vienna, Schauspiel Köln and Dramaten in Stockholm, but also regularly directs in Norway at the theaters in Trondheim and Oslo.
The Nibelungen Festival will take place from July 11 to 27, 2025.