Abstract
Robert Wilson and Heiner Müller collaborated for the first time in 1983 on the Cologne section of the CIVIL warS: a tree is best measured when it is down. Much of the material for Müller's text came from the earlier play Gundling's Life Frederick of Prussia Lessing' s Sleep Dream Scream. Wilson conceived of the CIVIL warS as a twelve-hour multilingual epic, exploring the theme of civil war from many different cultural perspectives. Wilson worked on the CIVIL warS for over six years on three continents. Sections premiered in Japan, Minneapolis, Rotterdam, Rome, Marseille, and Cologne. Wilson intended to present the entire work at the Olympic Arts Festival in Los Angeles in 1984, but the project was cancelled for lack of funds.