Bataclan

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Bataclan, Paris 2015

The Bataclan (originally Ba-ta-Clan ) IPA : [ bataklɑ̃ ] is a Parisian entertainment establishment and concert hall in the XI. Arrondissement on Boulevard Voltaire 50 with formerly conspicuously orientalized architecture . It was built from 1864 to 1865 according to plans by the architect Charles Duval. Its name refers to the operetta of the same name by Jacques Offenbach ( Ba-ta-clan ) .

story

Beginnings

The Bataclan around 1900

The Bataclan began as a café concert in the style of chinoiserie . There was a café and theater on the ground floor and a dance hall on the upper floor. According to contemporary reports, the decor included winged dragons, lanterns, flags and a curtain designed as a huge fan. Two cascades (one blue, one yellow) should symbolize the two great rivers of China. The vaudeville comedies by Eugène Scribe , Jean-François Bayard , Mélesville and Théophile Marion Dumersan , as well as concerts, were performed in the Bataclan .

The establishment opened on February 3, 1865 under the direction of André-Martin Paris and was taken over by the successful singer Paulus after the bankruptcy in 1892 . Under Paulus' leadership, the Bataclan experienced highlights with the then quite popular artists Léon Garnier , Fragson , Paula Brébion , Aristide Bruant and the Wild West shows by Buffalo Bill . After changing fortunes around the turn of the century, it came back into fashion around 1910 - thanks to an extensive renovation and a revue program designed primarily by José de Bérys. Maurice Chevalier celebrated his first successes here. A tour of South America by the Ba-ta-clan troop turned into a financial disaster.

In 1926 the building was sold and converted into a cinema; from 1932 it was a sound film cinema. In 1933 the Bataclan was badly damaged by fire (this mainly affected part of the balconies). Partial destruction was also caused by the renovation in 1950 for reasons of adaptation to new safety regulations. The cinema was closed in 1969, and from 1983 the establishment under André Engel became the “Salle de spectacle” again.

today

Demonstration at Bataclan, 2013

Today the Bataclan is also used for rock and pop concerts as well as other musical and theatrical events. On January 29, 1972, Lou Reed , John Cale and Nico performed their first joint stage appearance here after The Velvet Underground was dissolved. For decades, the recording was only available in secret as a bootleg , until an official CD ( Le Bataclan '72 ) was finally released in 2004 . The British rock band Genesis also performed here in 1973.

The hall capacity for concerts is 1498 seats. The facade of the building was designed in the original colors during the last renovation in 2005; however, the characteristic pagoda roof was omitted.

Terrorist attack by the jihadist organization "Islamic State" in 2015

On November 13, 2015, during a series of jihadist terrorist attacks in Paris, hundreds of concertgoers were taken hostage by three heavily armed terrorists while the band Eagles of Death Metal performed in the Bataclan concert hall. The terrorists fired Kalashnikov assault rifles into the audience and threw hand grenades into the crowd. Some of the hostages reported executions and asked the police to storm the theater.

Even at the beginning of the attack, there were many fatalities and seriously injured, a total of 89 people were murdered in the Bataclan Theater, 39 others died in attacks by their accomplices on cafes and restaurants in the neighborhood, and one man was torn to his death by assassins on the Stade de France . Two police officers from the anti-criminalité brigade who arrived in Bataclan shortly after the hostage-taking managed to shoot one of the attackers. After several attempts to negotiate with the assassins failed and they continued the firefights, police forces ( RAID , BRI ) stormed the hall and freed hundreds of hidden guests. The remaining two terrorists killed themselves by triggering their suicide vests on the upper floor. A policeman was injured during the rescue operation.

Police vehicles at the Bataclan Theater after the terrorist attacks, November 2015
Mayor Anne Hidalgo , François Hollande and Barack Obama in front of the Bataclan, November 2015

Both the members of the Austrian support group White Miles and the Eagles of Death Metal escaped the scene of the terrorist act unharmed. A British crew member who looked after the merchandise stand was shot dead. Among the visitors to the concert were musicians from the American metal band Deftones , who were originally supposed to perform there a day later. They escaped the bloodbath because they left the hall shortly after the main concert began.

The jihadist organization “ Islamic State ” (IS) claimed responsibility for the coordinated series of attacks . In a statement, the "Islamic State" described Paris as the "capital of prostitution and vice". The concert in the Bataclan was chosen because "hundreds of idolaters gathered there in a perverse celebration".

The Bataclan is seen as the “lighthouse” of the bourgeois-progressive and cosmopolitan Paris quarter, which is characterized by social and ethnic heterogeneity that has disappeared in many other districts. In the Bataclan, bands such as MC Solaar , Scred Connexion , Sefyu , Youssoupha and Oxmo Puccino , who had achieved popularity far beyond their origins in the banlieues, performed regularly .

Anti-Semitic threats

Even before the jihadist terrorist attack in 2015, the Bataclan had been massively threatened by Islamist groups in 2007, 2008 and 2009 . In December 2008, a group of around ten protesters masked with Palestinian scarves threatened the management of the concert hall. The reason for the threats was the annual gala held by the Jewish organization Migdal in support of the Israeli border police Magav . A member of the Salafist terror group Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) threatened: “If the Bataclan and Migdal organize a gala for Magav, the border police of the Israeli army, as they did in previous years, the people will no longer support it and you will face the consequences of your actions. We won't be able to talk next time. "

In 2009 a member of the Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) threatened the Bataclan because of its "Zionist owners".

In 2011, a member of the Salafist terror group Jaish al-Islam said during an interrogation by the French domestic intelligence service: “We are planning an attack on the Bataclan because the owners are Jews.” In 2011, one attack was thwarted. In September 2015 it became known that Jaish al-Islam had joined the jihadist organization “Islamic State”.

aftermath

While the mourners gathered at the site of the massacre the day after the attacks, Davide Martello played an instrumental version of John Lennon's Imagine on a piano painted with the " Peace " sign in front of the theater. Flowers, candles and memories were placed in front of the Bataclan.

On November 17, 2015, a banner reading La liberté est un monument indestructible (Freedom is an indestructible monument) was hung on the facade of the Bataclan .

The Guardian wrote: “Le Bataclan has always been a place of joy. The place at the center of Friday's tragedy is one of the greatest Parisian musical monuments, loved by artists and music lovers. "

The club's co-manager, Dominique Revert, evocatively recalled the emblem of the city of Paris: Fluctuat nec mergitur (“She vacillates, but does not go under”), and added that this would be “Le Bataclan's raison d'être” ( i.e. legitimation ) to continue.

Reopening in 2016

On November 12, 2016, the Bataclan reopened with a concert by Sting . The sold-out concert, which was attended by relatives of the victims of the attack, began with a minute's silence. At the beginning of the concert, Sting said: "Tonight we have two tasks to reconcile: First, to commemorate those who lost their lives in the attack, and then to celebrate the life and music in this historic location."

literature

  • Nadine Beautheac, Francois-Xavier Bouchart: L'Europe exotique. Chêne, Paris 1985, ISBN 2-85108-404-6 .

Web links

Commons : Bataclan  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lou Reed / John Cale / Nico - Le Bataclan '72
  2. ↑ Genesis on Bataclan in 1973
  3. ^ Adam Nossiter, Rick Gladstone: Paris Attacks Kill More Than 100, Police Say; Border Controls Tightened . nytimes.com, November 13, 2015, accessed November 14, 2015.
  4. ↑ Apparently hostages tweeted from #lebataclan that executions were taking place there and asked the police to storm them. . In: Twitter . November 14, 2015. Retrieved November 14, 2015.
  5. ↑ Terror in Paris: The Two Heroes of Bataclan , Spiegel Online, November 17, 2015.
  6. ↑ Police doctor describes the horrors of Bataclan , Spiegel online, November 18, 2015
  7. ↑ How the special unit ended the haunted Bataclan , Die Welt online, November 19, 2015.
  8. ↑ Kilka Chatterjee: Hostages taken at Eagles Of Death Metal show after terrorist attacks , Alternative Press
  9. ↑ Paris attacks: Eagles of Death Metal safe after fans killed at gig , BBC , November 14, 2015.
  10. ↑ Eagles of Death Metal: Crew Member Among the Terror Victims? In: Focus Online . November 14, 2015, accessed November 16, 2015 .
  11. ↑ Joe Lynch: Deftones Left Eagles of Death Metal Paris Concert Just Before Shootings , Billboard
  12. ↑ IS is committed to attacks in Paris. In: Spiegel Online . November 14, 2015, accessed November 14, 2015 .
  13. ↑ The presumed letter of confession from IS in full . Article from November 14, 2015 in the focus.de portal , accessed on November 15, 2015
  14. ^ Génération Bataclan: la jeunesse trinque. In: Liberation. November 15, 2015 (French)
  15. ↑ Terror in Paris: brother against brother. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Retrieved November 17, 2015 .
  16. ↑ Pourquoi le Bataclan est-il régulièrement visé? In: Le Point . November 14, 2015, accessed November 14, 2015 (French).
  17. ^ Attacks in Paris. The anti-Semitic trail , NZZ November 16, 2015
  18. ↑ VIDEOS. Attentats à Paris: les salles de concerts étaient menacées , le Parisien, November 14, 2015; accessed November 18, 2015 (French)
  19. ↑ Threats and Attack Plans: The Bataclan was probably not a random target. In: watson.ch. Retrieved November 22, 2015 .
  20. ^ Fabien Clain, la «voix» du massacre de Paris, avait déjà menacé le Bataclan en 2009 , Le Monde , November 18, 2015.
  21. ↑ French jihadist Fabien Clain took up a message of confession
  22. ↑ Pourquoi le Bataclan est-il régulièrement visé? In: Le Point. Retrieved November 22, 2015 (fr-fr).
  23. ↑ " Bernard Squarcini [,] head of the French intelligence service from 2008 to 2012, had identified the Bataclan concert hall, which the assassins finally selected [2015], as a possible terrorist target as early as 2011. At that time the men were caught in good time - they were planning an assassination attempt on the Bataclan. ” Georg Blume , Matthias Krupa and Gero von Randow : Art. Under the heading: How can you thwart attacks ?: Much was not missing. The police almost caught the attackers. But it is impossible to monitor violent Islamists - there are too many . In: Die Zeit , Volume 70 (2015), No. 47 from November 19, 2015, ISSN 0044-2070 , p. 8.  
  24. ^ Al-Qaida à Gaza voulait frapper la France , Le Figaro, February 20, 2011.
  25. ↑ Pianist 'drove 400 miles through the night' to pay tribute In: The Guardian November 15, 2015.
  26. ↑ Watch pianist perform John Lennon's' Imagine 'Outside Paris' Bataclan. In: Rolling Stone November 14, 2015.
  27. ↑ Now all the more ”- the mood in Paris , euronews, November 17, 2015.
  28. ↑ Paris terror attack: Bataclan police reveal attackers threatened to throw decapitated bodies out of windows as details of siege emerge , Independent, November 17, 2015.
  29. ↑ Jeremy Allen: Le Bataclan - a venue whose history had always been one of joy. In: The Guardian. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Cf. on the use of the saying: Kai Nonnenmacher, "Das schwankende Schiff", Romanische Studien 3, 2016, pp. 7-13, http://romanischestudien.de/index.php/rst/article/view/153/353 .
  31. ↑ Le Bataclan Manager on Paris Tragedy: 'We Will Not Surrender'. In: Billboard. Retrieved November 21, 2015 .
  32. ↑ Strict security check at Sting concert from: Spiegel Online from November 12, 2016 (accessed on November 13, 2016)
  33. ↑ Sting plays when the Bataclan reopens : The time of November 13, 2016 (accessed November 13, 2016)
  34. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDhg7ml3zBg Sting @ Bataclan - Live 2016 in Paris (accessed May 1, 2017)

Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 47 "  N , 2 ° 22 ′ 15"  E