Abaton (cinema)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Abaton's logo
Abaton cinema in Hamburg

The Abaton ( Greek ἄβατον , "the inaccessible", "inaccessible"; compare Abaton ) is a cinema that has existed since 1970 on Allende-Platz in the Hamburg district of Rotherbaum , in the immediate vicinity of the University of Hamburg . After the cinema in the Ostertor in Bremen, it is one of the first art house cinemas in Germany.

Alignment

With its focus on filmmaker , underground and avant-garde films, the Abaton clearly set itself apart from the programs in other Hamburg cinemas. In addition to the films that were shown on schedule, there were always subsequent short films. In order to secure economic livelihood, over the years not only political films and cinematographic art but also works that are more suitable for the masses have been included in the program, but always with a certain claim, often embedded in accompanying films. Currently, the Abaton is well established in Hamburg, showing mainly recent films off the Popcorn cinema, often in the original version with subtitles ( subtitles ), but in addition also classic movies, documentaries, children's films and thematic series. Directors, authors, actors and other filmmakers are also guests at the Abaton disproportionately often.

Technical Equipment

The Abaton has three screening rooms with a total of around 520 seats. The large cinema offers 288 seats with a screen of 25 m². The upper cinema has 136 seats, a 12 m² screen and the small cinema has 96 seats and a screen of 11 m². All halls are equipped with digital video projectors and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound systems. The large cinema also has an analog 35 mm film projector for conventional celluloid films.

history

Abaton cinema with wall painting by Werner Nöfer from 1970 (Photo: 1990)

Werner Grassmann and Winfried Fedder's aim was to help establish a venue for films that were not shown in the “usual” cinemas in Germany. To do this, they set up the Abaton Kino in a building used as a parking garage at Allende-Platz 3, at the corner of Grindelhof. Together with the cinema, a bar was set up with furniture from an abandoned restaurant at the main train station. The opening took place on October 29, 1970. The guests of honor included the Hamburg Senator for Finance and the Senator for Culture Reinhard Philipp , as well as Hans Wolffheim , Carlos Diegues , Kenneth Anger , Jonas Mekas , Stephen Dwoskin , Brigid Polk and Constantin Costa-Gavras , whose film The Confession premiered here and was one of the opening films . Further contributions were Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's San Domingo and DA Pennebaker's Doumenation Monterey Pop from 1968.

At first there was a record shop in the foyer of the cinema, but it was closed again after a short time due to frequent break-ins, among other things. A small screening room was set up in its place. An official requirement required that the large cinema hall be rented as a lecture hall to the University of Hamburg and the University of Economics and Politics during the day . In addition, the cinema hall could be divided into two separate lecture halls with a mobile partition.

The Abaton did not advertise, but it did benefit from first place in the alphabetically sorted cinema program lists in the daily newspapers. Abaton has been publishing a printed program booklet since 1970 , which in the first few years only consisted of a one-page program sheet.

The initial pub later became a pizzeria, the premises of which are now operated as a bistro by third parties. The entrance area of ​​the cinema is adorned with wall paintings by the German artist Werner Nöfer from 1970. The cinema is operated by ABATON Kino Betriebs GmbH and the managing directors Felix, Philip and Werner Grassmann. From 1990 to the end of 2018, Matthias Elwardt (today managing director at Zeise Kino) was the program manager for the Abaton; Philip Grassmann has been filling this role since 2019.

AG cinema

On February 17, 1972, the Kino Arbeitsgemeinschaft (AG Kino) was founded in Hamburg. It consisted, among other things, of the Abaton, Ziegelhof-Kino Oldenburg, Cinema Ostertor Bremen and the studio in the Rathaus-Lichtspiele Lindau. The members wanted to exchange suggestions for programs and rare film copies in the community as well as to represent their interests more strongly to film distributors. One of the greatest successes was the judicial prohibition of the usual practice of film distributors to date of completely refusing to distribute a film to a cinema. In 2003 the AG Kino merged with the Gilde deutscher Filmtheater to form the working group Kino - Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater .

Trivia

At the opening performance of Syberberg's film San Domingo there was a lengthy sound failure, which is why cinema manager Grassmann stayed the Hamburg senators so long with beer and an improvised press conference in the cinema bar. Amazed by the sparsely furnished and decorated office, Brigid Polk also left an imprint of her bared breasts on the white office wall when the cinema opened. This imprint was accidentally painted over during a renovation in 1977.

literature

  • Michael Töteberg: The Abaton Story: How it all began . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 26 , 2019, p. 6–13 ( PDF [accessed February 26, 2020]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e Michael Töteberg: The Abaton Story: How it all began . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 26 , 2019, p. 6–13 ( PDF [accessed February 26, 2020]).
  2. Hamburg Abaton. In: Kinowiki.de. Retrieved April 24, 2020 .
  3. Talk time | Nordwestradio, Lore Kleinert in an interview with Werner Grassmann on May 16, 2010  ( page no longer available , search in web archivesInfo: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.radiobremen.de  
  4. Werner Grassmann: Gap in the head: Abaton program . In: Film- und Fernsehmuseum Hamburg eV (Ed.): Hamburger Flimmern . No. 26 , 2019, p. 14 ( PDF [accessed February 26, 2020]).
  5. Matthias Elwardt becomes managing director of Zeise Kinos. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .
  6. WELT: Artistic cinema Hamburg: Elwardt leaves Abaton after 28 years . In: THE WORLD . February 15, 2018 ( welt.de [accessed August 11, 2020]).
  7. ^ Abaton cinema. Retrieved August 11, 2020 .

Coordinates: 53 ° 34 ′ 4 "  N , 9 ° 58 ′ 55"  E