Germany is in ruins, but theater was played again in May 1945. People are looking for entertainment and moral edification. Under the impression of the Cold War, the theater tumbles between the worlds: between renewal and restoration, between taking a breath and protesting outcry. Gustaf Gründgen's “Faust” together with his film version becomes a legend. Brecht's work on the Berlin ensemble has shaped the GDR theater for decades. The returning emigrant Fritz Kortner is particularly fascinating and provocative in West German theater. From the mid-1960s, his productions shaped a new generation of directors. In Italy, a former young partisan, Giorgio Strehler, founded the Piccolo Teatro in the former quarter of the fascist secret police. The new human theater in the former torture house aims to combine political awareness with the most artistic and aesthetic ambitions.