that position include the composers Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. Under the new artistic management, the Berliner Ensemble changed from a state-owned theatre into a Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung (limited liability company) subsidized by the city government. In 1993, the theatre company was privatized, but continued to receive $16 million in subsidy. Nevertheless, the idea of a joint administration proved a failure and the board of managers finally broke up in 1995, leaving only Heiner Müller. The quarrels, however, did not affect the artistic development of the ensemble: Young directors, including B.K. Tragelehn and Einar Schleef, and the stage designer Andreas Reinhardt, questioned the traditions of Brechtian theatre and introduced more contemporary theatre styles. Müller's production of Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, with Martin Wuttke playing the title role, became one of the most successful in the history of the Berliner Ensemble. His program Brecht - Müller - Shakespeare remains their guiding legacy. The American director Robert Wilson premiered Brecht's The Flight across the Ocean in 1998 to honour the hundredth anniversary of Brecht's birth. On 30 April 1999, the curtain came down on the final production of Heiner Müller's Die Bauern, an early end to the theatre's season that also marked the preliminary end of the ensemble. After Müller had died in December 1995, the difficult decision about who would manage this highly symbolic cultural institution was now exacerbated by another problem: the theatre building itself was in the process of being bought by a nonprofit foundation in the hands of dramatist Rolf Hochhuth, who seemed to have his own plans for the theatre. After the City of Berlin negotiated a settlement to everyone's satisfaction, the search for a new administration began. Claus Peymann, the provocative and successful manager of the Burgtheater in Vienna, was finally appointed to the position and reopened the theatre in January 2000, after extensive renovations were completed. Peymann's efforts have stabilized the theatre's operations. He assumed his role with a commitment - like Brecht's - to producing political theatre for the public, but more broadly interpreted. In 2019, it was announced that an annex to Das Theater am Schiffbauerdamm would be built in autumn of that year, giving the theatre a second, fully equipped auditorium for the first time. Notable members Curt Bois Ernst Busch Angelica Domröse Erwin Geschonneck Therese Giehse Jürgen Holtz Gisela May Ingrid Pitt Ekkehard Schall Heinz