The story about how Trude Hesterberg (1892-1967) managed to scrape together the funds necessary to set up her own cabaret. To earn her living she sang the title role of the Operetta "The Merry Widow" by Franz Lehar. She commuted every day between the Metropol Theatre in Friedrichstrasse and her cellar theatre at Theater des Westens. Her partners were, amongst other people, Kurt Tucholsky, Walter Mehring, Klabund and Joachim Ringelnatz. She gave Bert Brecht his first break on a Berlin stage. She discovered the performer Kate Kühl. In 1921 Trude Hesterberg opened The Wild Stage Cabaret in the basement of the Theater des Westens in Berlin.
—ZDF/ARTE