Atelier (Lübeck)
The atelier was the last newly opened cinema in Lübeck .
In 1967 Kurt Wittenberg's lease for the Holstentor-Lichtspiele had expired, and the two other cinemas he ran - Camera and Burgtor-Lichtspiele - were only leased. Since Wittenberg wanted to have his own movie theater again, like the National until 1942 , together with his partner Albert Kieft, at the end of the 1960s he began planning to convert the house at Wahmstrasse 32 into a cinema. Since the building is a historic gabled house , the project could not be implemented without difficulties. On the other hand, Wittenberg was able to easily take over the cinematic facilities, including the two film projectors and the screen , from the camera that was demolished in February 1969 .
The studio was opened on July 23, 1971 . As a so-called service cinema, the new movie theater was intended to attract viewers with its special comfort at a time when the number of cinema-goers was rapidly declining: the hall was deliberately only given 285 seats, which meant that the distances between the rows of seats and thus the legroom were particularly large. At a bar in the foyer you could buy alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at any time during the performance, which was not possible in any other cinema in town. What turned out to be particularly unusual, however, was that smoking was expressly permitted during the performances and that the seats were provided with ashtrays especially for this purpose. It was hoped that a powerful ventilation device would allow the smoke to escape from the hall before it interfered with the film projection or the view of the screen . The cinema concept was the studio as a cinema with sophisticated entertainment films to operate.
In April 1973, Kurt Wittenberg had to file for bankruptcy, which ended his partnership with the studio . Albert Kieft continued to run the movie theater as sole owner, but ceased operations as a regular cinema at the beginning of 1975 in order to operate it from then on as a porn cinema under the name PAM-Kino Atelier . Today the building is a branch of the adult goods chain World of Sex .
See also
literature
- Petra Schaper: Cinemas in Lübeck . Verlag Graphische Werkstätten GmbH, Lübeck 1987. ISBN 3-925402-35-7