Albert Schumann Theater

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The Schumanntheater around 1905

The Albert Schumann Theater , also commonly Schumann Theater or Circus Schumann , was named one in the Art Nouveau -built theater and vaudeville opposite the main train station in Frankfurt . It was built in 1905 and destroyed by aerial bombs during the air raids on Frankfurt am Main in 1944, with the exception of the front building. The restaurants were used by the American armed forces until 1958 . In 1960 the outwardly undamaged head building of the Schumann Theater was demolished and replaced by an inconspicuous office building.

history

Otto Reutter also appeared in the Schumanntheater
The Schumanntheater in July 1952

In 1893/94, the circus director from Vienna, Albert Schumann (1858–1939) made his first guest appearance with his circus in Frankfurt am Main. A provisional building was erected for this appearance in the then largely undeveloped station district between Taunusstrasse , Kaiserstrasse , Weserstrasse and Elbestrasse. Because of the great success, Schumann planned to build a permanent circus building in Frankfurt. To finance it, he founded the stock corporation for circus and theater construction based in Berlin and Frankfurt. She acquired an approximately 5300 square meter site on the station forecourt.

The Berlin architects Friedrich Kristeller and Hugo Sonnenthal designed a building that was to be suitable for theater , circus and variety performances. On September 20, 1904, construction began on the Albert Schumann Theater , which was only called Schumann Theater by visitors and in the media.

The construction costs amounted to four million marks, an enormous sum for the time. A theater with the latest technology was built for this purpose, big enough for 4500 spectators. After the Berlin Circus Renz , it was the second permanent circus building in Germany.

The Schumanntheater was opened on December 5, 1905. The first director was the predator tamer Julius Seeth . Schumann remained on the board of directors and often appeared in guest performances with his horse dressage himself, most recently in 1926.

The Schumanntheater's program included one month of circus, one month of operetta and ten months of variety each year . After the First World War , the focus shifted even further from the circus to the variety show. The Schumanntheater was extremely popular with the audience and could pay high fees . The theater experienced a heyday especially in the 1920s. Otto Reutter performed for a monthly fee of 15,000 marks and thrilled his audience with an eleven- verse couplet with the refrain There is only one Frankfurt am Main . The clowns Charlie Rivel and Grock , the cabaret artist Claire Waldoff , the juggler Rastelli , the humorist Adam Müller , known as Millerche, the artist group of the three Cordonas and the clowns Fratellinis also performed.

However, numerous classical artists also worked in the Schumann Theater, including Pavlova . In the winter of 1930 the theater had to close for a few months due to the global economic crisis . With a successful revue Hallo Paris in 1931 it continued its old successes.

On March 22, 1944, the worst bomb attack of the Second World War occurred on Frankfurt. The entire historic old town and a large part of the city ​​center were destroyed. The Schumanntheater was also hit by bombs, which destroyed the auditorium and the stage; the head structure remained intact.

In 1945 the American army confiscated the building. Until 1958 she used the preserved restaurants as leisure facilities for her soldiers. After the return, there were initially plans to rebuild the vaudeville theater, which failed because of the high costs and the uncertain economic prospects at the beginning of the television epoch. The remaining part of the Schumann Theater was demolished in 1960. An architecturally insignificant commercial building was built in its place in 1965.

Only since 1987 and 1988, respectively, have there been variety shows in Frankfurt again with the Neues Theater Höchst and the Tigerpalast .

architecture

The Schumanntheater was one of the few large buildings in Frankfurt in the beginning Art Nouveau era. Behind a monumental facade made of white sandstone , flanked by two towers and adorned with numerous statues and architectural sculptures, a large entrance hall opened up, and above it a spacious foyer. Numerous artists worked on the design of the building, including the sculptor Joseph Uphues (1851–1911), who created the bronze gable group of the horse tamer , and the Frankfurt landscape painter Alfred Helberger (1871–1946).

There were several restaurants in the theater. In the left wing of the ground floor there was a Louis Seize style wine restaurant , on the right a Dutch café and the Mampe liqueur room . An almost 150-meter-long beer tunnel stretched under the whole building, which was used as an air raid shelter during the war because it was bombproof .

The large theater hall had a 28 meter high dome, under which high wire artists often performed. In front of the stage was a kind of amphitheater that could be used as a moat or, if covered, as a riding arena. There was a stable for 150 horses under the stage .

See also

literature

Web links

Commons : Albert Schumann Theater  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 50 ° 6 ′ 30 ″  N , 8 ° 39 ′ 50 ″  E