Volkstheater Frankfurt, Folk theatre in Frankfurt, Germany

The Volkstheater Frankfurt – Liesel Christ is a dialect theatre founded in 1971, now based in the Cantatesaal next to the Goethe House on Großer Hirschgraben. The restored hall, part of the Deutsches Romantik-Museum complex, has a fixed stage and a traditional auditorium. It stages Frankfurterisch plays, classical entertainment, and contemporary works.

Liesel Christ founded the Volkstheater Frankfurt in 1971; its first permanent venue was the Haus der Jugend from 1972, before it moved to the Cantatesaal in 1975. Twenty productions were recorded for television, including Carl Malß's Der alte Bürgerkapitän. The theatre closed with La Cage aux Folles on 25 May 2013, after more than 10,000 performances and over 3.5 million visitors.

The Volkstheater Frankfurt stages plays in Frankfurter dialect, a local variety of German that has grown rarer in everyday city life. Attending a performance gives visitors direct contact with a way of speaking that survives mainly in this kind of theatrical setting.

The theatre is a short walk from Goethe House, making it easy to combine with a visit to that part of central Frankfurt. Since the programme changes regularly, it is worth checking what is on before you go.

The theatre once staged summer performances in the courtyard of the Dominican Monastery and in front of Frankfurt Cathedral, bringing productions to spaces not normally used for theatre. One of the works performed in these settings was Urfaust, Goethe's early draft of his famous play.