Siegfried’s Heirs

Feridun Zaimoglu?and?Günter Senkel have dared the impossible: to write a sequel to the famous Nibelung saga. Their play picks up the story at the end of the existing versions of the saga, on the day after the bloodbath at the court of Etzel, King of the Huns. Kriemhild, Hagen and the Burgundians are dead and Etzel, whose son also died, travels to Worms to claim the throne and the Nibelung treasure. He encounters resistance, however, as the parents of the murdered Siegfried also claim the treasure for themselves. A power struggle ensures centred not only on gold and power over a formerly large empire. Disputes also rage about culture and religion as well as the legacies that remain after influential lives end. While this play depicts a war between men, the fate of kings is determined by the women, namely Brunhild, who remained in Worms, the old queen mother Ute and Swanhild, Siegfried’s young widow who embodies the legacy of the dragon slayer.

«This play shows how a flourishing culture lays the foundations for its own downfall ... The toxic remembrance of humiliation and treachery sparks a spiral of revenge in the bereaved survivors.» (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) »Siegfried’s Heirs is as exciting as 24.» (Frankfurter Rundschau)