Siegmar Club Cinema
The Club cinema Siegmar is the only daily gambling house cinema in Chemnitz . It is located in the Chemnitz-Reichenbrand district in a listed Art Nouveau building with a hall extension. The multi-storey "media house" not only houses two cinemas (130 and 30 seats), but also the Chemnitz film workshop (media education and film production), a café and a photo laboratory.
The Clubkino Siegmar is one of the few GDR club cinemas that survived the political changes in 1989/90. Typical of this type of cinema are the small number of seats, swivel armchairs that are mostly grouped around tables, and the counter directly on the back wall of the hall. The cinema halls usually do not have a steady slope, but are laid out in terraces. Employees of the GDR cinematography system invented these special cinemas in the 1970s in order to counteract the sharp decline in visitors, to offer more service and cinema experience and to generate higher income.
The Clubkino Siegmar mainly shows current European and American art house films. The new productions of the Chemnitzer Filmwerkstatt are presented on the big screen at regular intervals. The cinema makers also fulfill their guests' film requests. Every year around 250 films are shown in 2150 screenings. In 1996, 1997 and 1998 the cinema received a certificate from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media Affairs for its “good annual film program”. In 2001, the club cinema was awarded the main prize at the “Kinopreis des Kinematheksverbund” (category cities with more than 250,000 inhabitants), combined with a 10,000 mark prize. With over 40,000 spectators, 2011 was the most popular since the fall of the Wall.
history
The Art Nouveau front building, which today houses the cash register, office, projection rooms, film workshop and photo laboratory, was built by the Koppe family, a family of puppeteers, in 1914 or 1915. While they lived on the upper floor, they used the ground floor for a (confectionery? ) Shops and puppet shows. The Koppes have been showing silent films since the 1920s and called their restaurant “Koppes Lichtspielhaus”. Mr. Koppe also acted as a cinema narrator.
In 1937, with financial support from the city of Siegmar-Schönau , the Koppes added the hall, which is still in use today, to the rear of the house. The movie theater now called "Lichtspielhaus Capitol" opened on November 26, 1937. The cinema had around 600 seats in stalls and boxes, a stage and a lighting system. This made it suitable for a variety of events. Seven employees worked in the cinema in 1941.
The “Capitol” probably played continuously during the Second World War , apart from war-related restrictions such as early closing times. The cinema was badly damaged by the bombing raids on September 11, 1944 and March 2, 1945, but it was repaired again.
In December 1945 the owner Koppe was initially revoked because of "political unreliability". On January 1, 1949, according to the Theater Act of December 10, 1948, the cinema fell to the state of Saxony. Koppe received financial compensation for the expropriation.
At the end of the 1940s, eight employees organized two shows on weekdays and two to three shows on Sundays. At that time the cinema offered 577 seats (37 × box, 90 × blocked seat, 180 × 1st place, 270 × 2nd place). The boxes were removed in the early 1960s, and the seats were rearranged at the same time. An outer wall that had been unplastered for decades after the war damage was also renovated during this time.
During the winter of 1981/1982, the district film directorate in Karl-Marx-Stadt converted the ailing film theater “Capitol” into a club cinema. Of the former 580 seats, 100 remained, arranged around tables on five terraces. A counter was drawn in on the rear wall of the hall, a stage was set up in front of the screen, and the room textiles were renewed. On April 20, 1982, the former “Capitol” was reopened as the third club cinema in the Karl-Marx-Stadt district. The celebration was part of the 2nd National Feature Film Festival of the GDR .
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the cinema was initially operated by the city of Chemnitz, after fierce debates about plans to close the cinema, the Chemnitz film workshop finally took over the cinema in 2006.
Theater director
- Richard Koppe (until 1945)
- Albert / Bruno König (1946-?)
- Rudi Marschhauser
- Lisbeth Rosner (-1970)
- Harald Reibetanz (1970–1990)
- Rüdiger Oertel (1990–1993)
- Mr. Jahn (summer 1993)
- Thilo Götz (since September 1993)
swell
- Tröger, Tanja : "The world is flickering here and the light does not go out ..." - The Siegmar Club Cinema in Chemnitz. Unpublished seminar paper, University of Leipzig, Institute for Communication and Media Studies. Leipzig 1998.
- Tröger, Tanja: The leading role of ... gastronomy? Club cinemas, cinema cafés and vision bars in the GDR. In: Böning, Holger / Kutsch, Arnulf / Stöber, Rudolf (Ed.): Yearbook for Communication History . Stuttgart, 7th year 2005. pp. 147-175.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed August 29, 2012)
- ↑ Schedule of the Clubkino Siegmar June 2006 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed August 29, 2012)
- ↑ http://www.371stadtmagazin.de/371magazin/items/konstant-gut.html (accessed August 29, 2012)
Web links
- Internet presence of the Clubkino Siegmar
- History of the club cinemas in the GDR
- Presentation of the Clubkino Siegmar at Moviepilot
Coordinates: 50 ° 48 '54.88 " N , 12 ° 50' 19.63" O