Capitol (Mannheim)
The Capitol in Mannheim is a cultural center in a historic building that was originally built as a cinema.
history
The Capitol is located in the Neckarstadt-Ost district , near the Alte Feuerwache, and was built in 1927 by the construction company Joseph Hoffmann & Sons as the largest movie theater in Germany at the time, based on plans by Paul Darius. The film Sunrise - A Song of Two People by Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau was shown at the opening ceremony .
The house survived the Second World War, in which the industrially dominated Neckarstadt at the confluence of the Rhine and Neckar rivers, was unscathed. In the years that followed, the Capitol grew with the demands of the television entertainment revolution. A curved Cinemascope screen was installed in the 1960s .
In the seventies, the new owner Dieter Spickert then changed the concept. In addition to the film, music established itself in the round hall, which led to the Capitol becoming one of the hottest music clubs in the 1980s.
In 1980 the Capitol was to be sold to a supermarket chain, but this was prevented by a few committed private individuals who restored the building and kept the cultural operations going.
In 1997 Thorsten Riehle and colleagues turned the old Capitol cinema into a live and event house that offers entertainment to around 100,000 people at 300 events every year. From concerts and parties to their own small ensemble that mainly produces musicals.
Capitol Betriebs GmbH
The Capitol is the only event venue in Mannheim that is not funded by the city. On March 1, 2009, it separated its own artistic work - that is, the musical and music theater productions as well as the children's theater - from Capitol Betriebs GmbH and hived it off as the non-profit children's and adult theater Capitol Mannheim UG . Both the children's theater and the productions for adults have been brought together here.
In order to secure the Capitol in the long term, the non-profit cultural foundation Capitol Mannheim was founded in April 2012 . With two concerts, performed jointly by Bülent Ceylan and Xavier Naidoo , 100,000 euros could be invested in the foundation's capital as a base. The Capitol is also financed by donations from the Klaus Tschira Foundation and the Heinrich Vetter Foundation , which raise EUR 60,000 annually to finance two musical or music theater productions and at least one new children's theater production. In the statutes of his foundation, the Mannheim businessman Heinrich Vetter obliged his successors to promote charitable activities and institutions that serve the well-being of Mannheim and its residents. With his foundation, SAP co-founder Klaus Tschira supports natural sciences, mathematics and computer science as well as some regional projects. There are also contributions from the Capitol Freundeskreis e. V. Prominent members of the association, which had over 1000 members in 2014, are Xavier Naidoo and Bülent Ceylan.
While Capitol Betriebs GmbH continues to take care of the rental business, events, concerts and company events, in-house productions, i.e. children's theater, musicals and music theater, are combined in the non-profit company. Only charitable purposes in the field of promoting art and culture are pursued. The company's purpose is achieved in particular through the production and performance of theater performances and events as part of a children's theater company.
The new Capitol structure became necessary because further cross-financing of the deficit in the non-profit theater sector from the profits of Capitol Betriebs GmbH was no longer possible. Despite profitable work in the profit area, it has not been possible to absorb all the losses from the non-profit area in recent years. The new corporate structure succeeded two years later: with the rock music show “I want it all”, the flower power show “Here comes the sun” and the musical theater piece “Marilyn - the last sitting”, the Capitol Ensemble 2011 three successful in-house productions. In recent years the repertoire has been expanded, including the classic rock show "The Wolf with the red Roses", the 80s show "Sweet Dreams of the 80s", and "Heldenzeit", a musical with an insight into German-language music history. Added to this was the own production of the musical Hair and a revision of "Here comes the Sun" with the title "Here comes the Sun again".
In addition to the large in-house productions of concerts and musicals, there is the Capitol's children's theater. The children's theater is currently showing several productions, including "Pettson & Findus - A birthday cake for the cat", "A week full of SAM days" or less well-known pieces such as "A sheep for life".
With the play “No means No!”, Which addresses the abuse of children, the Capitol Children's Theater approached socially relevant topics. The events are financed by sponsors and are played free of charge in kindergartens. In spring 2016 the play “Auf den Weg” premiered on the children's theater stage in Casablanca. The piece is part of the commitment to refugees of the Capitol. This theater project works almost without language. The content of the piece are the themes of freedom, identity and differences and it is designed in such a way that refugee children can experience it without language barriers.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 29 ′ 51 ″ N , 8 ° 28 ′ 22 ″ E