Capitol (Offenbach am Main)

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Capitol main entrance Goethestrasse

The Capitol in Offenbach am Main is the former synagogue on Kaiserstraße and is now a cultural and event center.

building

Dome from the east wing

The Capitol is a domed building in the style of neoclassicism . It was built as a synagogue from 1913 to 1916 , a building that was initiated by Siegfried Guggenheim , among others , after the previous synagogue had become too small. In 1912 an architecture competition was announced among Hessian architects. Among the 94 submissions, the first prize was awarded to the Offenbach architect Fritz Schwarz on April 24, 1912, the second prize of 1,800 gold marks went to architect Heinz Stumpf, Darmstadt, and the third prize, 1,200 gold marks, to Paul Meissner . Fritz Schwarz carried out the construction together with Karl Wagner (who was involved in modifying the plan) and Richard Throll (responsible for the interior design). The construction costs were set at 500,000 gold marks . Then caused a sensation the 30-meter-high dome of reinforced concrete . The main room offered seats for approx. 775 people. In addition to the main room, the synagogue had the full spatial plan of a Jewish community center. Cultural events such as concerts and theater performances were also held there.

The building is a cultural monument according to the Hessian Monument Protection Act .

As a synagogue, the building was a European model of the temple in Jerusalem . It had a forecourt surrounded by columns, in which a fountain was supposed to be integrated, but which was never built. The vestibule had a coffered ceiling and antique lighting fixtures. Two passages under the gallery led into the prayer room, a rotunda that had a surrounding cornice with acanthus leaves at a height of 18 meters. Above rose the yellow and gold dome decorated with stars and a glass lantern.

At the inauguration of the synagogue on April 16, 1916, Rabbi Israel Goldschmidt held the festive service. In his speech, Max Goldschmidt, the first community chairman at the time, said that they had now won a place in the sun and wanted to maintain it. He particularly emphasized the artistic design of the synagogue in a commemorative publication for the inauguration: the arts would have to take on the task of paving the way for devotion to the hearts of the believers, because the nervous modern sex is no longer able to get by without such aids to sink directly from one feeling into the other. The atmosphere of the building was still appreciated decades after its construction; Dieter Bartetzko , for example, described the Offenbach synagogue as a striking example of the last heyday of synagogue construction in Germany.

Like most of the larger synagogues of its time, the Offenbach synagogue on Goethestrasse was also equipped with an organ. The synagogue on Grosse Marktstrasse had already had an instrument; however, it was only a harmonium. The new organ, on the other hand, was Offenbach's largest organ in 1916. At its inauguration it was played by Heinrich Fritz, at the first concert in the synagogue on October 25, 1916, in which the mezzo-soprano Else Dröll-Pfaff also took part, Karl Breidenstein sat at the gaming table. Breidenstein designed the organ together with the builder Walcker . In addition to Heinrich Fritz, who apparently played the Offenbach organ regularly, there was also a Frankfurt conductor named Meier who worked in the synagogue. Markus Gottlieb was the cantor. Expressionist evening celebrations with works by Schönberg and other progressive composers were also organized under Max Dienemann in 1920 .

The organ in the Offenbach synagogue was Opus 1849 by the Walcker company. It was designed after the Alsatian reform and also optically very progressive. On a round floor plan there were pipes of equal length, over which there was a very flat, conical hood. The pipes were made of 75% tin . The organ had 35 sounding stops on three manuals and a pedal. It still had purely pneumatic technology, but a modern gaming table on which, among other things, a clock indicated the status of the general crescendo, which could be operated with the feet.

history

In the so-called Reichskristallnacht of 9./10. In November 1938 the synagogue was desecrated and the interior was destroyed by arson . Since the building was given stability and beneficial uses, it was not demolished. The city of Offenbach bought the former synagogue for 31,000 marks and sold it to Lina and Georg Ruttmann in 1940 for 34,000 marks.

The Ruttmann couple had been active in Offenbach's cinema market for 22 years, had already bought the former synagogue in Grosse Marktstrasse and converted it into a cinema in 1918, and during the Nazi era they also bought the villa of the former Rowenta manager Sali Lorch am Adolf- Hitler-Ring (formerly and later again August-Bebel-Ring) 18 at a low price. The Ruttmanns hid their grandmother Lorch in this house until she was able to follow their family into emigration. After the war, Lina Ruttmann referred to the allegedly always good relationship with the Jewish community in Offenbach; Georg Ruttmann, who was in the house when the villa was destroyed by bombs on October 4, 1943, was, however, a member of the NSDAP and the couple obviously benefited from the connections to the rulers at the time.

The Ruttmann couple had the former synagogue transformed into a premiere cinema with 940 seats by the Offenbach architect Carl Müller , a student of Dominikus Böhm . A 21 meter wide, round false ceiling was drawn into the structure; the dome above was damaged, but not destroyed.

Müller included the presence of an organ in his cinema plans from the start. It was designed as a color organ, which means that the individual rows of pipes could be illuminated in color depending on the mood of the piece being played. The gaming table was retractable and was raised with a Marathon lift at the beginning of the performance. The cinema organ in the Offenbach National Theater was probably the last concert organ to be built into a cinema in Germany before the end of the Second World War and was actually an anachronism, as this piece of equipment has mostly been dispensed with since the end of the silent film era . The Offenbach color organ corresponded to the middle model of the Russian color music developed by Alexander László . It was installed in September 1941 after a grand piano had already been delivered by UFA in June of the same year . The visible pipes were made of zinc , the prospectus was designed by Tom Sigl. The instrument with four visible, but probably only three sounding rows of pipes was again supplied by the Walcker company. In a press release, the Ruttmanns claimed that an Oskalyd organ would be purchased and that the old Walcker instrument would be exchanged. In fact, however, Oskalyd organs had not been available since 1931 and Walcker built a classic concert organ with 25 registers and a basic baroque sound, Opus 2717 from the company for the National Theater. The previous instrument was used for this; there could be no question of a completely new organ. Ralph Philipp Ziegler described the organ as probably the most interesting organ in Offenbach's instrument history in terms of cultural history. Nonetheless, she was "probably never deployed to the full extent of her artistic potential".

The Ruttmann couple transferred the name National Theater , including the illuminated letters, which were probably no longer available in wartime, from a cinema in Großer Biergrund to what is now the largest cinema in the former synagogue. In keeping with this name, the city of Offenbach secured a right of use when the building was sold. Twice a week she used the house for theater and opera guest performances. National Socialist rallies also took place there .

The National Theater opened on October 25, 1941 with the film Homecoming. The fate of the Wolhynien Germans opened; Willy Keller sat at the organ console.

After the war, the theater was administered by the JRSO , whereas the furnishings of the theater were awarded to Lina Ruttmann by the State Office for Asset Control. On December 3, 1949, it concluded a contract with the United Protestant-Evangelical Church Community Offenbach for the sale of the organ, the conversion of which had cost a total of 10,700 marks in 1941. In 1949 Lina Ruttmann received DM 13,000 for the instrument that was to be built into the Evangelical City Church . However, it soon became apparent that the organ in the condition in which it had been taken over was unsuitable for this church. In the 1950s, the Förster & Nicolaus company carried out a renovation, in which, however, numerous rows of pipes were taken from the old organ, for the most part those that had already been part of the first synagogue organ from 1916.

Lina Ruttmann kept the console, the lifting platform and the lighting system when she sold the organ and moved it to the Palast Theater . At the place where the organ had been in the former synagogue, wall cladding with a diamond pattern was installed.

For the community that had become very small as a result of the Shoah , the building could no longer be used meaningfully. It was used as a theater in the trusteeship of the city of Offenbach and was acquired by the city in 1954. The theater on Goethestrasse , as it was now called, retained many of the design features of the Ruttmann cinema, in particular the distinctive diamond pattern on the walls and ceilings. The house did not have a permanent ensemble, but was always a model theater. It was considered one of the most active theaters of its time in Germany.

The complex became dilapidated over time. After all, the heating in the Great Hall was irreparably defective, which is why the audience could only be accommodated on the side stage. From 1995 the city of Offenbach leased the house as a musical theater, after which it was extensively renovated. The musical theater, which opened in 1995 with a production of Tommy from The Who , could not hold up and had to close again after 13 months. In 1998 the Entertainment Center Rhein Main GmbH took over the house. She had it converted into a multifunctional house and furnished by Jean-Pierre Heim in the style of the early 20th century. Initially, it was planned to open the view into the dome of the former synagogue again; but this was not done for acoustic reasons.

Banquet event in the hall

In October 1998 the redesigned building was reopened as an event hall under the name “Capitol”. It has been operated by the non-profit construction company Offenbach (GBO) and the Event Center Offenbach (ECO) since 2002. In 2005 GBO and ECO signed a contract with the Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt , which has since been located in the Capitol.

Today it is mainly used for theater, concerts, other cultural events and conferences. It can accommodate up to 1800 guests in total. It is divided into three halls and there is still a theater stage.

In 2012 an organ with the Hauptwerk system was used as a soloist in the Capitol Classic Lounge on a trial basis, which was then financed by the Dr. Marschner Foundation. Hauptwerk is software that makes it possible to play a virtual organ that consists of recordings of individual pipes from existing organs. A sister instrument of the former synagogue organ was used for the Offenbach specimen, the Organ Opus 1855 by Walcker in the Martinikerk in Doesburg . In Offenbach, registers can now also be played that did not exist on the original synagogue instrument in 1916. The software is combined with an electric organ console from Johannes Klais Orgelbau from 1956, which has a MIDI interface. The console was originally made for the church of St. Johannes in front of the Latin gate in Troisdorf - Sieglar and had been in the organ center at Vally Castle since 2001.

literature

  • Thea Altaras : Synagogues and Jewish ritual immersion baths in Hesse - What happened since 1945? 2nd edition, Langewiesche Nachf. Köster, Königstein im Taunus 2007, p. 367, ISBN 978-3-7845-7794-4 , p. 367 [not evaluated].
  • Sonja Bonin: Cultural monuments in Hessen - City of Offenbach . Theiss, Stuttgart / State Office for Monument Preservation Hesse, Wiesbaden 2007, ISBN 978-3-8062-2097-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the history of the Jews in Offenbach am Main: From the beginnings to the end of the Weimar Republic , Volume 2 of On the history of the Jews in Offenbach am Main , Magistrat der Stadt Offenbach am Main, ISBN 978-3-98018461-8
  2. ↑ Sonja Bonin, p. 243 ff.
  3. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 1 .
  4. ^ A b Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 8 .
  5. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 2 .
  6. ^ A b Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 3 .
  7. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 9 ff .
  8. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 24, refers in this communication to an undated newspaper clipping in the Offenbach city archive, which also mentions a theater planned for this building .
  9. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 23.
  10. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 26 f.
  11. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 18 f.
  12. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main , Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 20 f.
  13. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 22 f.
  14. ^ A b Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 24 .
  15. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 13 f.
  16. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: tone and atmosphere. The history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main. Offenbach am Main o. J. (2013), ISBN 978-3-863142643 , p. 28.
  17. ^ A b Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 29 .
  18. ↑ Former synagogue with an eventful past. From: offenbach.de , accessed on January 21, 2016.
  19. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 35 .
  20. ^ A b Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 36 .
  21. ↑ 1954: A house for leisure and muses. From: offenbach.de , accessed on May 4, 2016.
  22. ^ Ralph Philipp Ziegler: Sound and atmosphere: the history of the organs in the Capitol Theater Offenbach am Main . CoCon, Hanau 2013, ISBN 978-3-86314-264-3 , p. 38 .

Web links

Commons : Capitol (Offenbach)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 34 ″  N , 8 ° 45 ′ 24 ″  E