Mülheim: The Ruhr Crash

Power, Billions, Basic Income Support

In April 2018, Karl-Erivan Haub, the multi-billionaire heir to the German Tengelmann Group, disappeared under mysterious circumstances whilst on a ski tour on the Little Matterhorn. His body has still not been found. Haub’s disappearance caused a huge media stir and sparked wild speculation about a possible double life and dubious business links to Russia. Just under 20 years earlier, Haub – a graduate of the University of St Gallen – had made more than 25,000 employees redundant as part of radical restructuring measures at the company. Among them was Dennis Schwabenland’s father. The allegation: as a central purchaser at the Mülheim an der Ruhr site, he was said to have bought a camping chair for 50 pfennigs too much. In an attempt to reduce the amount of his severance pay, he was also accused of accepting bribes – wrongly, as was later proven beyond doubt. For him and his family, however, this meant a plunge into welfare. Alongside real-life voices, the Piccolo II garden chair, TV judge Barbara Salesch and J.R. Ewing from *Dallas* appear as unexpected key witnesses in Schwabenland’s documentary counter-attack, *MÜLHEIM ABSTURZ RUHR*. They provide the backdrop to two downfalls that could scarcely be more different – and lay bare the mechanisms of power, blame and social exclusion.

A relentless examination of classism, job loss and the fragility of social belonging.

Guest performance
A production by thecodes – Dennis Schwabenland’s theatre company and Bernetta Theatre Productions, in co-production with Schlacht- haus Theatre Bern and Ringlokschuppen Ruhr.

WITH Dennis Schwabenland
TEXT Dennis Schwabenland
MUSIC & LIVE SOUND Christine Hasler
DIRECTOR Jan Stephan Schmieding ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
ASSISTANT DIRECTOR Milva Stark
SET DESIGN Romy Springsguth
EXTERIOR DESIGN Maria Ursprung

Supported by Kultur Stadt Bern, SWISSLOS/Kultur Kanton Bern, the Ernst Göhner Foundation, Migros Culture Percentage, the Ilse and Dr Horst Rusch Foundation, the Burgergemeinde Bern, the Gesellschaft zu Schuhmachern, the Gesellschaft zu Ober-Gerwern, and RaBe Radio Bern