The Kroll Theatre had been started by politicians who supported the Weimar Republic. They wanted opera to be different from the traditional operas that were performed in the Theatre Unter den Linden supported by the monarchy. The operas that Klemperer conducted there included Leoš Janáček's "From the House of the Dead", Arnold Schönberg's "Erwartung", Igor Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex", and Paul Hindemith's "Cardillac".