following its establishment in summer 1945, bruno henschel & sohn publishers (later henschelverlag kunst und gesellschaft) commissioned journalist fritz erpenbeck to establish a magazine on theatre. in july 1946, the first issue of "theater der zeit" appeared. max reinhardt was on the cover, erpenbeck's lead article was entitled "zeittheater oder theater der zeit?" ("historical theatre or theatre of history?"). until march 1992, the magazine appeared on a monthly basis, with short periods at the beginning of the 1950s and 1960s when it appeared fortnightly. to start with, "theater der zeit" provided information about theatre in the fledgling german democratic republic (gdr, aka east germany) and abroad. from the early 1950s, however, the magazine increasingly came under the ideological influence of the state commission for affairs of the arts, the precursor of the gdr ministry for culture. only after de-stalinisation in the mid-1950s was the magazine open to critical discussions—but still dependent on political climate and control.