Freie Bühne, independent Berlin theatre founded in 1889 by 10 writers and critics and supervised by the writer-director Otto Brahm for the purpose of staging new, naturalistic plays. Like André Antoine’s Théâtre-Libre in Paris, Brahm’s company gave private performances to theatre subscribers only. The Freie Bühne’s first production was of Henrik Ibsen’s Gengangere (1881; Ghosts) in September 1889. A month later, Brahm staged Gerhart Hauptmann’s first play, Vor Sonnenaufgang (1889; Before Dawn, or Before Sunrise), a tragedy of working-class people. Hauptmann, who would go on to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912, was the most important playwright introduced by the Freie Bühne.

During the following seasons, Brahm’s presentations included the important naturalist drama dealing with a degenerate family, Die Familie selicke (1890; “The Happy Family”) by Arno Holz, as well as plays by Leo Tolstoy, Émile Zola, and August Strindberg. Although the Freie Bühne was a success, it lasted for only three seasons, largely because Berlin’s commercial theatre had by then embraced the new theatrical movement of naturalism. But it inspired the creation of other private theatres and amateur groups throughout Berlin, Munich, and Vienna.