[3] It was rehearsed at Theresienstadt in March 1944, but the Nazi authorities interpreted the work's depiction of the character of the Kaiser as a satire on Adolf Hitler and did not allow it to be performed.

[6] This sentiment is confirmed by Ullmann himself:[7] It should be emphasized that we by no means just sat lamenting by Babylon's rivers and that our will to culture was adequate to our will to live.Ullmann entrusted his manuscripts to a fellow-prisoner, Dr. Emil Utitz, a former Professor of Philosophy at the German University in Prague, who served as the camp's librarian.

Dr. Adler deposited the original manuscripts and two copies of the libretto in his possession at the Goetheanum in Dornach,[8] the center for the anthroposophical movement with which Ullmann was associated.

The first performing edition of the work was prepared between 1973 and 1975 by Kerry Woodward, a London-based musician and arranger who had a personal connection with the Adler family.

Woodward worked through the nearly complete orchestra score, loose pages of additional music, and two copies of the libretto, one version in Ullmann’s handwriting and the other one typed.

Woodward conducted the world premiere of the piece with the Dutch National Opera (DNO) on 16 December 1975 at the Theater Bellevue [nl] in Amsterdam, a production the company later took to Brussels for two performances in May 1976 and to Spoleto for four more the following month.

[9] Using an English translation prepared by the poet Aaron Kramer, the San Francisco Spring Opera Theater led by Woodward presented the American premiere of the piece on 21 April 1977.

[14] Towards the end of 1976 and into 1977, Woodward consulted Rosemary Brown, a prominent spiritualist known for mediumship with dead composers and for transcribing musical works they dictated.

These changes included altering the instrumentation of the second part of Death's aria near the end of the opera, substituting strings for harpsichord and adding trumpet and flute.

That provided the basis for the British premiere at the Studio Theatre of London's Morley College on 15 May 1981 and for additional performances in May 1985 at the Imperial War Museum.

The 1993 BBC TV film 'The Music of Terezín' by Simon Broughton incorporated scenes from Mecklenburh Opera's production of 'Der Kaiser von Atlantis' in German.

On behalf of Herbert Gantschacher, the artistic director of ARBOS - Company for Music and Theatre, Ingo Schultz worked on the reconstruction of the opera's original score between 1992 and 1993 in cooperation with Karel Berman, who rehearsed the role of Death at Terezín and had a copy of the score he had made by hand, Paul Kling, who was the concertmaster of the chamber-orchestra of the rehearsals at Terezín 1944, and Herbert Thomas Mandl.

[18] It was performed in Melbourne at Monash University's Caulfield campus in July 2012 by IOpera,[19] and by Perth Hebrew Congregation, Perth, Western Australia, in June 2014, by Lostandfound Opera[20] Juilliard Opera Center performed the work (in a double bill with Poulenc's Les mamelles de Tirésias) in November 2015.

"[30] In an interview, conductor James Conlon, a prominent reviver of works lost in the Holocaust, described the opera as both a political satire and a parable of hope in which the isolated Emperor represents Hitler and the Drummer his confidante Eva Braun.

Confusion results: a Soldier and a Girl-Soldier from opposite sides sing a love duet instead of fighting; the sick and suffering find no release.

The Loudspeaker reports that thousands of soldiers are "wrestling with life at this very moment, doing their best to die" (Tausende ringen mit dem Leben um sterben zu können.)

The Emperor announces this eternal life is a gift to his subjects for their bravery, but privately worries his reign will not endure without people's fear of death.

The Emperor oversees his failing realm, as terribly injured patients complain of the agony of life without death and the state's hospitals and garrisons are overrun by insurgents under "black flags and a bloody coat of arms".

Death now describes himself as a gardener rather than a soldier, wishing to take lives only to spread peace and cure suffering, as one who "roots up wilting weeds, life's worn-out fellows."

(Lehr uns das heiligste Gebot: Du sollst den großen Namen Tod nicht eitel beschwören!)

Ullmann used the famous Lutheran chorale "Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott" as a melodic motif as well as a theme from the Asrael symphony of Josef Suk.

[25] Audio Films The opera was adapted into a graphic novel by Dave Maass and Patrick Lay, set to be published by Dark Horse Comics in January 2024.

[38] "Written in a concentration camp, Peter Kien and Viktor Ullmann’s opera is the truest form of artistic resistance, a middle finger to the Nazis and all authoritarians across history,” said writer Dave Maass.