In 2010, Regina Lux-Hahn, former regional manager at the Berlin Caritas Association, initiated a children’s opera project in a children’s and youth leisure centre in the district of Lichtenberg and brought it to the stage with the participation of the Junge Staatsoper (Unter den Linden). Primary school children, regardless of their background or level of education, were given the opportunity to explore the diversity of musical theatre, to understand artistic processes and to create their own perspectives in the performed pieces. In 2014, she set up children’s opera groups at three primary schools in Lichtenberg as a precursor to the first children’s opera house. Due to great demand and continued success, Regina Lux-Hahn has further consolidated the children’s opera as a cultural education project: She expanded the Children’s Opera House Berlin, established in 2018 at the State Opera, into a cooperative project with partners in six Berlin districts. Today, there are 13 children’s opera groups at primary schools and four children’s opera houses, with the fifth opening in Neukölln in 2023. Various federal prizes, including the renowned Opus Klassik, have been awarded to the Kinderopernhaus Berlin.
