The idea for the development of the opera "Nathan the Wise" arose in 2009. Since the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and the Pentagon in Washington in September 2001 carried out by Islamist-motivated "religious warriors" from the Arab region, a mounting interreligious cultural confrontation has gained in worldwide significance. The conflicts arising from this, continuing to the present day, surely go deeper than a purely religious confrontation, but are essentially dealt with in this complex of subjects. Not only do conflicts between the different religions - especially the three monotheistic religions - play a decisive role in them, but also vitriolic conflicts between the religious groups within the denominations. With the opera "Nathan the Wise", we wish to bring into the world Lessing's enlightening message of a peaceful coexistence of religions, poignantly expressing the content through music for the first time.

At present, the Arab region is particularly affected by massive upheavals. Social injustice in many Arab countries that has accumulated over decades at least - centuries, in fact - is now being discharged in religiously tinted social explosions that are unsettling the entire world. One branch of the pent-up frustration is being discharged in the direction of the Western community of values. The confrontation between the Occident and the Orient is a conflict extending back to the 7th century, in which Islam spread rapidly and also brought Christian regions into its domain. The essential initial spark for the "eternal" interreligious conflict was only substantiated by the Crusades begun under Pope Urban II.