Josefstadt Directorate

The new one: Marie Rötzer succeeds Herbert Föttinger

Marie Rötzer will be the director of Josefstadt from 2026.(Bild: Landestheater NÖ / Alexi Pelekanos)

Theater in der Josefstadt: As "Krone" and "News" have learned, Marie Rötzer, currently highly successful at the Landestheater in St. Pölten, will succeed Herbert Föttinger as director of the Vienna theater in September 2026.

Next Monday (June 24), the wait will be over. Marie Rötzer will then be announced as the new director of the Theater in der Josefstadt from fall 2026.

According to reports, she has prevailed against big names and opportunities. Sven-Eric Bechtolf, for example, actor, director and former artistic director of the Salzburg Festival, was apparently too old for the decision-makers at 66. Rötzer was also able to hold her own against two interesting candidates from the Viennese off-theatre scene.

Josef Ernst Köpplinger, artistic director of Munich's Gärtnerplatztheater and celebrated as Nestroy director at Josefstadt, preferred to extend his contract in Munich until 2030. Maria Happel, whose Reichenau directorship was very close to Josefstadt, was probably no longer an option after the problems as director of the Reinhardt Seminar and Thomas Gratzer prefers to remain loyal to his wonderful Rabenhof Theater.

Marie Rötzer(Bild: Landestheater NÖ/David Payr)

Marie Rötzer, born on July 16, 1967 in Mistelbach, Lower Austria, has had a remarkable career. She has worked as a dramaturge in Bremen, Berlin, Zurich and Graz, before becoming Joachim Lux's personal assistant at the Thalia Theater Hamburg. In 2016, she took over her first own directorship in St. Pölten and recently had a sensational annual occupancy rate of almost 90 percent.

During her time in Hamburg in particular, she was able to establish relationships with many big names, which she then brought to St. Pölten, such as Frank Castorf and Luk Perceval. Elfriede Jelinek's Trump grotesque "Am Königsweg", conjured up on the Landestheater stage by puppet magician Nikolaus Habjan, was even voted one of the ten best European performances of the year by the New York Times.