The stage design strives for the ultimate sensualization or interpretation and elevation of dramatic poetry. It competes with the work of the poet and composer to captivate the audience in the spell of an enchanted world. The range of stage illusionism extends from the stylized stage of antiquity or Shakespeare, which requires only a few props, to the stage of the Baroque and 19th century, with its ultimate enhancement of realistic approximation to reality. The modern stage design, which seeks new paths, is also a creation of the spirit of the times. To present it solely as an artistic creation would mean to overlook the technical prerequisites. Therefore, this book attempts for the first time not only to develop the history of stage design but also to clarify its intellectual and scenic requirements.